The Second Sunday of Great Lent Commemorated in Piraeus as a New Sunday of Orthodoxy

At the Sacred Church of Saint Basil in Piraeus, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Sunday, March 8, 2026 — the Second Sunday of the Fast — by His Eminence Seraphim Mentzelopoulos, Metropolitan of Piraeus, honoring the feast of our Father among the Saints Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, and the God-bearing Fathers of the Holy Ninth Ecumenical Synod.

During his sermon, His Eminence, referring to the period of Great Lent, when the Church commemorates Saint Gregory Palamas and the Fathers of the Synod of 1351, who struggled to defend the Orthodox faith against heresies, emphasized that this day is a continuation of the joy of the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

“We have a new ‘Sunday of Orthodoxy’ today, honoring the Holy Ninth Ecumenical Synod and the God-bearing Ecumenical Teacher Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who took the lead and was the mentor and guide of this sacred synod of our Holy Church,” said His Eminence.

John Calvin and the Person of the Theotokos

Protopresbyter Basil A. Georgopoulos
Associate Professor of Theology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The person and position of the Virgin Mary constituted one of the most sensitive points of friction and controversy during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

In this connection the Roman Catholic dogmatic theologian Cardinal Gerhard Müller notes that:

“Mariology emerged as a popular field of theological controversy, mainly because within it the different conceptions regarding justification, grace, and anthropology are condensed and made manifest” (Katholische Dogmatik, 2016, p. 476).

The stance of John Calvin toward the person of the Theotokos is organically integrated into his broader theological vision, which is characterized by an absolute adherence to Holy Scripture and a strong concern about every practice or teaching that, in his judgment, might overshadow the unique salvific mediation of Jesus Christ.

Although Calvin rejects every form of honor and invocation, he does not adopt a simplistic view of the Theotokos.

On the contrary, he formulates an interpretation of her person and role which combines recognition of her election and faith with her undeniable inclusion in the common human condition — that is, in the need for redemption.

Saint Gregory Palamas Leads Us To A Theological Anthropology

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Second Sunday of the Fast of Great Lent is dedicated to the great Father of our Church, Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Sacred hymnography calls him: “a pillar of the faith,” “a champion of the Church,” “a brilliant herald of the Light,” and “a luminary of Orthodoxy.”

Indeed, Saint Gregory Palamas was an outstanding theological personality. He was born in Constantinople toward the end of the 13th century and was educated to an excellent degree. It is even preserved that at the end of one of his lectures on the logical method of Aristotle, the learned Theodore Metochites remarked that Aristotle himself, if he had been present, would have praised him. He lived as a monk for 23 years on Mount Athos, shepherded Thessaloniki as its Archbishop, and reposed in 1360.

However, in those years the fullness of the Church was disturbed by the heretic Barlaam of Calabria and other like-minded heretics, and the so-called “Hesychast controversies,” as they remained in history, arose.

Homily on the Ark and the Flood (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

On the Ark and the Flood

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

(Delivered on the 14th Day of Great Lent - Thursday)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today during the service, we heard about the Great Flood. We heard God's command to bring two of every creature into the Ark, except for the unclean animals, of which seven were to be brought. Seven of each unclean creature were to be brought so that after the Flood, man would be able to eat meat and could then thank God by offering a sacrifice. By the Lord's will, this is what happened. Imagine: the Ark stands on a high mountain, and entire crowds of living creatures are approaching it, pairs of two. A pair of elephants, a pair of dinosaurs, a pair of snakes crawling, a pair of wolves walking, seven cows and their bulls together, seven sheep. All of them walked without human intervention; Noah merely carried food for these animals. Thus, the Lord called people to repentance for the last time; there could be no better sermon than the movement of these enormous animals. Imagine: crowds of living creatures are led together by invisible Guardian Angels into Noah's Ark.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

On the Commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

The word "martyr" is translated from Greek as "witness" (Greek: μάρτυς, Latin: martyr – witness). Today is the feast day of the forty martyrs to the defeat of death by the death of Christ. The day when a Christian is killed for Christ is not a day of mourning or tragedy for us; it is a day of joy and happiness. Because this man went out to do battle with the prince of darkness, Lucifer, and he fought and defeated him. Isn't that joy? For us, the feast day of the forty martyrs of Sebaste is a day of great triumph and victory over the enemy. The enemy always intimidates and blackmails people with death. The slogan of terrorists is always: "If you don't heed our demands, we will kill you!"

This is precisely how the enemy of the human race exercises power over people. Scripture says that the devil has the power of death. He intimidates and blackmails people with the help of death, but the martyrs manifest in themselves the power of the Resurrection. Death is conquered by the death of Christ, and there will be a resurrection of the body. Therefore, we have nothing to fear, since not only the soul will be freed, but also the body — from the slavery of corruption and decay. Therefore, for us, the holy martyrs are an example of amazing courage and victory. The Martyrs of Sebaste, whom we remember today, are truly martyrs, for whom the words of King David were fulfilled: "We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into freedom" (Ps. 65:11).

Venerable Theophanes the Confessor in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Theophanes is the hymnographer of his namesake, the Venerable Theophanes. “Theophanes chants to Theophanes” is in fact the acrostic of the Canon composed for the Venerable one. And he considers it his duty — standing astonished and in wonder before the holiness of the Venerable one who bears the same name — to ask for that Venerable one’s grace, in order that he himself may also put into practice what he accomplishes only in words.

The Oikos of the Kontakion is especially indicative, on the one hand, of the holiness of the Venerable Theophanes, and on the other hand of the humility of the hymnographer Saint Theophanes, who recognizes his smallness and sinfulness before the greatness of the praised Venerable one:

“Without preferring anything earthly, you followed with joy Christ who called you. And you willingly took His yoke upon your shoulders, and thus you found rest for your soul. Send that same rest also to me, the poor and slothful one, who speak but do not at all perform, but still remain occupied with the affairs of life, and who marvel at you, how you fled from everything, being deprived both of your wife and of your wealth.”

Prologue in Sermons: March 12

An Example of Meekness

March 12

(A word of John Climacus on the patience of Cyrus the monk.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Among the steps of the ladder that leads to heaven, the virtue of meekness also occupies a necessary place. That it is necessary for us is shown by the Lord Himself, who calls us to it, saying: “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). And that it leads us to crowns is evident from the fact that the Lord promises a reward to the meek: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

What is meekness, and what does it truly mean to be meek? This you will see from the following example:

John Climacus related concerning the Venerable Cyrus that he was so meek that, although he was insulted every day both by those above him and by those below him, and although he was always humiliated by everyone and driven away from the refectory every day, he endured everything — not only without complaint, but even with gratitude. In such a condition he lived in the monastery for fifteen years; receiving insults from all and suffering persecutions even from servants, he never answered a word to anyone. On the contrary, when John asked him how he was able to endure every day both hunger and humiliation, Cyrus replied:

The Tomb of Saint John Moschos

In the biographies of John Moschos it is reported that after the plundering of Jerusalem in 614, because of the growing Persian threat to Alexandria, he and Saint Sophronios, together with Saint John the Merciful, crossed from Egypt to Cyprus. From there John Moschos, stopping at various Mediterranean islands, set out for Rome. There he worked on arranging the recollections of his travels (The Leimonarion, or The Spiritual Meadow), and there he also died (+ 619/634).

John Moschos bequeathed that he be buried at Sinai or, if barbarian raids did not permit this, at the Coenobium of Venerable Theodosios the Great in the Judean desert. In order to fulfill the final wish of his departed friend, Saint Sophronios set out with his body from Rome to Jerusalem and arrived there “at the beginning of the eighth indiction.” John Moschos was buried in the cemetery of the Monastery of Venerable Theodosios the Great.

Saint Sophronios of Jerusalem in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Holy Hymnographer Theophanes, wishing to present the mark of the great Saint Sophronios of today — that is, that he struggled to keep exactly the will of God in his life, what we say “down to the smallest stroke” — and therefore is now naturally glorified in the heavens, notes in the verse of his Synaxarion:

“Sophronios hastened to keep even a small stroke of the law, whose glory is in the heavens.”*

Indeed, repeatedly his Hymnographer emphasizes that his turning toward God was not occasional nor partial, as unfortunately often happens with us the lukewarm in faith Christians of today, the double-souled and therefore unstable according to Saint James the Brother of the Lord, who want to be on good terms with God but without abandoning our passionate attachment to the things of this world; his turning toward God was total, because God was his only love, and therefore within His light he lived the theoria (divine vision) of Him.

“You wholly desired the only Good One, having been kindled by the noetic light, and you loved the fountain of incorruption, O all-wise one, being lifted up in divine visions toward it” (Ode 5).