May: Day 22: Holy Martyr Basiliskos at Comana

May: Day 22:
Holy Martyr Basiliskos at Comana
 
(Proof of the Truth That Bodily Death Serves For Us Only as a Transition to Immortality)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Basiliskos, whose memory is now celebrated, was the nephew of Saint Theodore the Tiro; he suffered together with Eutropios and Kleonikos (commemorated on March 3), but was put to death by the sword after them in the reign of Maximilian, in 308. The tortures to which he was subjected were accompanied by the most astounding miracles, as attested by their eyewitness, the Holy Martyr Eusignios (commemorated on August 5). This Martyr Basiliskos, as many historians attest, appeared to Saint John Chrysostom after his death. This was in the city of Comana, where Saint Basiliskos suffered, where a church was built in his name and his relics lay, and where Saint John Chrysostom died on the way to the place of his exile. Here, before his death, the Holy Martyr Basiliskos appeared to the great Saint and said: “Do not be discouraged, brother John, tomorrow we will be together.”

May: Day 21: Teaching 2: Saints Constantine and Helen, Equal to the Apostles

May: Day 21: Teaching 2:
Saints Constantine and Helen, Equal to the Apostles
 
(Lessons From Their Lives: Christians Must Turn To the Power of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord and Contribute To the Spread of the Christian Faith)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Under Saint Constantine the Great, whose memory is celebrated today with his Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles mother Helen, the Christian faith, persecuted before his time, became dominant in the Roman Empire. The father of Constantine the Great, Constantius Chlorus, respected Christians and gave them honorary positions at his court. His son Constantine, born of Helen, learned the Christian faith in his father's house and from his youth was accustomed to respect it. When his father died in Britain (present-day England) in 306, Constantine was proclaimed Western Emperor. He was then 32 years old. He ruled his subjects with love and meekness. But in other regions of the West, the evil and self-interested Maxentius ruled. In 312, the subjects of Maxentius, unable to endure his oppression, began to ask Constantine to deliver them from the tyrant. Constantine marched against Maxentius, and as he approached Rome, suddenly, in the middle of the day, he and his army saw in the heavens a cross shining with stars, with the inscription: "By this conquer." That same night, Christ Himself appeared to Constantine in a vision and commanded him to make a banner in the likeness of a cross and to depict the cross on the weapons, shields and helmets of the soldiers. Under the banner of the cross, he defeated Maxentius, who, fleeing, drowned in the Tiber River.

May: Day 21: Teaching 1: Feast in Honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God

May: Day 21: Teaching 1:
Feast in Honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
 
(Whoever Wants To Be Under the Protection of the Mother of God Must Distance Himself From All Sin)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The present feast was established on the occasion of the deliverance of Moscow from the attack of Mehmed Giray, the Khan of Kazan. In 1521, the Crimean and Nogai Tatars led by him, in conjunction with the Kazan Tatars, moved towards the Moscow borders with such haste that the Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich barely had time to send his troops to the banks of the Oka to restrain their efforts. Having defeated the Russian commanders, they set fire to the villages from Nizhny Novgorod to the Moscow River, captured countless residents, sold slaves in droves, starved the weak and the elderly, and desecrated the sanctity of the temples of God. On July 29, Mehmed, amid clouds of smoke, under the glow of burning villages, was already standing several miles from Moscow, where the defenseless inhabitants of the surrounding areas flocked with their families and property. The streets were blocked with carts; strangers and citizens, wives, children, old men, sought refuge in the Kremlin, crowded at the gates and pressed each other. Metropolitan Barlaam prayed fervently with the people, and God heeded the prayers of the distressed. The Moscow boyars, forced by the extremeness of their situation, in the name of the Grand Prince pledged to pay tribute to the Kazan Khan according to the charter of ancient times, and thus persuaded him to retreat from the capital.

May: Day 20: The Finding of the Honorable Relics of our Holy Father Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, the Wonderworker

May: Day 20:
The Finding of the Honorable Relics of our Holy Father Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, the Wonderworker
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. One Must Be Attentive To The Voice of Conscience, and
b. One Must Walk Worthy of One’s Calling)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The life of Saint Alexis, celebrated today, was rich in various exploits. But history depicts it to us only in general features, with some details dwelling only on particularly remarkable cases, of which one relates to the youth of Saint Alexis, others to mature age, and one, finally, to the hours before his death.

The twelve-year-old youth Eleutherius, the future Saint Alexis, the son of rich and noble parents, who had learned to read and write and was always pious, by the special providence of God, once set a net to catch birds. There was no catch, and the youth Eleutherius, from the deep silence, long waiting and boredom, fell asleep. Suddenly in a dream he heard a voice: “Alexis! Why do you labor in vain? Behold! from now on you will catch men.” In surprise and horror, the youth Eleutherius wakes up and sees no one around him. His first thought was what this new name, Alexis, meant, what this whole vision meant. Good seed fell on good soil: hearing the heavenly voice calling to feats of piety, Eleutherius followed his calling with all his soul. From that hour he began to be “in much sorrow and contemplation.” The parents' lamentable remarks were in vain: "Why do you indulge in such sadness, you are always silent, always have books in your hands, but for us you have not a word? Who taught you to live a monastic life? Why did you dry yourself out so much with fasting and thirst? Enough, do not crush yourself, otherwise you will fall into illness and plunge us into sorrow and grief." Eleutherius, as much as he could, consoled them, asked them not to worry, but, despite this, continued to adhere to his abstinence: he did not go to spectacles, did not play with the youths, ran away from all blasphemies and mockery, but in silence he was diligent in reading the Divine Scriptures and always walked in his sorrow. And having reached the age of nineteen and having loved God with all his soul, he left his father and mother and brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends, and having hated every worldly attachment, he went to a monastery, saying to himself, from a heart full of divine love: “I chose rather to dwell in the house of God than to live in the villages of sinners.”

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman: The Pitcher (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman:
The Pitcher
 
By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

She came to Jacob's well with her pitcher to draw water. The water from which, whoever drinks, will thirst again. However, the Samaritan woman, in the depths of her existence, seeks some other water to quench her thirst. But she does not know it. She thirsts. "The well is deep." She begs the unknown, the great Unknown: "Lord, give me this water." What water?