Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in Faith (St. John of Damascus)

PROLOGUE

Here I wish to add a very important note of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite concerning Memorial Services:

“Since the present discussion concerns memorials, we note that the third-day memorials performed for the departed brethren signify, according to the sacred Symeon of Thessaloniki, that the departed brother was from the beginning composed by the Holy Trinity.

The ninth-day memorials signify that, having been dissolved into the elements from which he was composed, he is to be numbered among the nine immaterial orders of the Angels, being himself immaterial.

The fortieth-day memorials signify that, in the future resurrection, having again been re-constituted in a higher manner, he too is to be taken up as the Lord was, and, caught up in the clouds, to meet the Judge.

These three states of man are also signified by the three-month, six-month, and nine-month memorials; in general they are performed for the purification of the departed — especially the fortieth day, as is indicated by the example of our Lord, who in His three births kept three complete forties, thus imprinting our own life in Himself. For the day of birth and the death of each person are called a ‘birthday,’ according to the temple in Laodicea.

The Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42) say that the third day is observed because Christ rose on the third day; the ninth day in remembrance of the living and the dead; and the fortieth day according to the ancient type — for thus also the people mourned Moses.

Some say the third day is for the purification of the threefold aspect of the soul; the ninth for the purification of the five bodily senses together with the generative, natural, and transitional faculty; and the fortieth for the purification of the four elements in the body — each of which served in the transgression of the ten commandments; and four times ten make forty.” (Pedalion, Athens 1886, p. 221)

Memorial Services for the Reposed

Memorial Services

By Fr. Theodosios Martzouchos

"The dead man has not lost his place 
in the conscience and the mind of people, 
because he is absent from their eyes." 
— John Henry Newman

More or less, all of us have attended a Memorial Service for a relative or acquaintance. All of us have taken part in “remembrances of the dead.” We have all experienced the awkwardness of the mournful atmosphere, in which we do not know how to react or what to think. We have all felt uncomfortable, offering cold and indifferent condolences that we did not truly feel. Memorial Services, whether for acquaintances or relatives, have taken their place in the lives of Christians without the “why” of them being self-evidently understood and accepted.

In our own day especially, Memorial Services tend to become a psychologically comforting habit and at the same time a rational denial and objection. I do “something” for my loved one who has departed and remain with a sense of communication through the offering. At the same time my mind “protests” as to whether all this has any substantial usefulness, since when you die… everything seems futile and useless, just as indeed all material human things are useless for the dead.

What truly happens? What is a Memorial Service and why are Memorials needed?

Something Deeper (A Poem for the Saturday of Souls)

 

By Fr. Ioannis Papadimitriou

Many times, out of good intention,
some people leave an electric candle
on the grave of their loved ones.
It is not bad in the sense of sin,
but our Church has taught something deeper.

We do not light the vigil lamp or the natural candle
because our departed are afraid of the darkness.
They do not need it in order to “see.”
The oil symbolizes the mercy of God
which drips like balm
upon our suffering souls,
and the candle symbolizes the person who melts
little by little from sacrificial love;
and because love is not activism or an idea,
but becomes incarnate in the Person of Christ,
who is both Light and Life,
as it burns it spreads light all around!

Venerable Auxentios in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Auxentios lived during the reign of Theodosius the Younger (5th century A.D.). He came from the East and was a man of learning. He embraced the monastic life and went up to the mountain opposite the region of Oxeia, where he showed the greatest endurance in asceticism and complete Orthodoxy in faith. After long exposing the corruption and delusion of the false teaching of Eutyches and Nestorius and accepting the Fourth Ecumenical Synod at Chalcedon (451 A.D.), he became revered by emperors and radiant in countenance with divine grace for all who approached him, while he continually poured forth springs of miracles and healings for those who came near him. He reposed in peace, and his honorable body was placed in the church he himself rebuilt.

We cannot avoid the temptation to compare what the worldly mentality promotes today (February 14): a “Saint” of doubtful existence and character, Valentine — the so-called “Saint” of romantic love (for Saint Valentine may exist as a martyr, but he has nothing to do with what is usually attributed to him) — with what the Orthodox Church presents: the Venerable Father Auxentios of the Mountain. For both become occasions to speak about love, but in the first case in its human, worldly dimension — that is, as “a child of poverty” according to Plato: the one in love begs and seeks the other’s response, therefore he seeks to satisfy his own needs, and thus it is understood as an expression of selfishness; whereas in the second case love appears in the majestic dimension of divine love, which makes man partake of God and then radiate the rays of God’s love to the whole world, regardless of who receives them and in what condition he is. In this case we have the true nobility of love, offered “in the absence” of the other — that is, without expecting any response.

Prologue in Sermons: February 14

One of the Best Means of Making Unbelievers Believers

February 14

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Abraham)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Why is it, brethren, that so few pagans are converted to our faith, and why do so few from the schism enter Orthodoxy? It is because we often forget that evil cannot be stopped or overcome by evil, and that evil can be halted — and cut off — only by good.

Venerable Abraham lived among pagans. Some mocked him and forced him to leave them; others constantly troubled him with requests for help. Abraham shared with them what he received from the Orthodox, and by this, it is said, he was delivered from abusive torment. And how did it end? The pagans, struck by the Venerable one’s love for mankind, built a Christian church and themselves all became Christians, and they entreated Abraham to be their priest.

Thus meekness and freedom from malice conquered evil and hatred and increased the flock of Christ!

Venerable Papa-Tychon and the Grandeur of the Divine Liturgy

By the late Metropolitan Kosmas of Aetolia and Acarnania

Forgive me, I do not wish to speak about my personal moments. But since I was asked to mention some of my personal experiences from my contact with Saint Paisios, I will simply recount a few events, solely for the benefit of us all....

As a young priest I approached the Sacred Cell of the Honorable Cross of Kapsala on Mount Athos, where Fr. Paisios was practicing asceticism before settling at Panagouda. With much fear I went to meet him, but also to lay before him my problems. Within myself I had formed an image of an imposing monk who would impress us and instruct us.

When we entered the cell and Saint Paisios received us, we encountered not an imposing monk, but a simple, humble, modest, though neatly kept, yet poorly dressed monk, who shone with the grace of God, radiated love, and whose words were seasoned and Spirit-bearing. He received us with his spiritual embrace wide open and gave us rest.

Homily on Saint Martinian (St. Michael Choniates)

Editorial Introduction

This homily survives in only one manuscript, the Laurentian codex (Λ), folio 104a, but it was found without its beginning, the opening having been lost together with the leaves of the codex that went missing between the end of the address “To Stryphon” and the leaf now bearing the number 104. The missing leaves were probably three in number. The title, being absent in the manuscript, was supplied conjecturally.

Homily on Saint Martinian 

By St. Michael Choniates, Metropolitan of Athens

… though differing in rank of glory, yet all are glorified and shining with purity: virginity is gold, widowhood and marriage silver — second indeed in order and glory to virginity, yet not deprived of splendor, provided they are kept free from the defiling stain that corrupts.

Venerable Martinian in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

This Venerable one was from Caesarea of Palestine. He began his ascetic life at the age of eighteen, living in deserts and mountains. After he had spent twenty-five years in withdrawal together with many others, he received the following temptation from the evil one.

A certain harlot, appearing as a poor woman, arrived at the mountain where the Saint lived. When night fell, she wept with sobs, claiming that she had supposedly lost her way and would become food for wild beasts. Therefore she begged the Venerable one to receive her into his cell so that she might not be devoured by their teeth.

Since it was impossible to leave her outside, he told her to enter, while he himself withdrew into the inner part of the cell. In the morning, seeing the change in her appearance (for she had dressed herself during the night in garments with which she adorned herself), the Venerable one asked who she was and why she had come there.

She answered him shamelessly, “Because of you.” And after maliciously criticizing his ascetic conduct and adding that all the Righteous of the Old Testament had been with women, she invited him to lie with her.

He, slightly disturbed but already having himself under control and obedience, and considering how, if he committed this sin, he could possibly hide from divine grace, rose up before falling into sin.

What then did he do?

He set fire to a large quantity of dry branches and entered into the midst of the flames, admonishing himself and saying: “If you can endure the fire of Gehenna, since you long for shameful pleasure, obey the woman and go with her.”

Thus he burned himself and humbled the uprising of his flesh. The woman, chastened by what she had seen, he sent to a monastery. And he himself, healed by the grace of God from the wounds of the fire, went with the guidance of a ship captain to a small barren island one day’s journey from the mainland. There he remained for ten years, receiving food from the captain.

But again he arose and departed from there, when a young girl who had survived a shipwreck upon a plank arrived near him. The Venerable one pulled the girl ashore, but he himself left from there also, saying that grass and fire cannot exist in harmony.

He was even brought to land upon dolphins.

Afterward he passed through countries and cities, having as his watchword: “Flee, Martinian, lest temptation overtake you” — for thus he resolved to spend the remainder of his life — and he arrived in Athens. As soon as he reached there, he departed to the Lord and was deemed worthy of a glorious burial by the bishop and all the people.

It is also said of the women that the first, who went from the mountain to a monastery and lived there, was deemed worthy to work miracles; while the other remained patiently on the barren island until the end of her life, clothed in men’s garments brought to her by the ship captain.
 

Prologue in Sermons: February 13

What it Means to Crucify One’s Flesh with Its Passions and Desires

February 13

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Martinian)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Apostle Paul says: “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).

What does this mean?

The Venerable Martinian became an ascetic and withdrew into the desert at the age of eighteen. Having lived there twenty-five years, he once endured the following temptation from the devil. A certain harlot, putting on beggar’s clothing, went up the mountain where Venerable Martinian lived. Approaching the Venerable one’s cell in the evening, she began to weep and wail and asked the venerable one to save her from wild beasts. Martinian, suspecting nothing, let her into his cell and asked, “Who are you and why have you come here?”

The harlot replied, “Hating you and all monks, and likewise the ascetic life, I have come to tempt you into sin.”