Sermon 3 on the Fast of Advent (St. Leo the Great)

By St. Leo the Great

(Sermon 14: On the Fast of The Tenth Month, III)

CHAPTER I - How the field of the heart is to be cultivated and made fruitful.

In the Lord’s field, beloved, of which we are the laborers, we must prudently and vigilantly carry out the spiritual cultivation, so that, by persevering diligence, we may accomplish the tasks that must be done at their appointed times and rejoice in the harvest of holy works. For if these tasks are neglected through slothful idleness and sluggish laziness, our soil will produce no noble growth, and being covered with thorns and thistles, will yield not what is to be stored in barns, but what must be burned with fire.

Prologue in Sermons: December 10

There is Nothing Worse Than When a Monk Becomes Infected With Spiritual Pride and Decides to Live According to his Own Will.

December 10
 
(Kosmas the Presbyter on Monks Who Do Not Wish To Be With the Brethren and Subject Themselves to Monastic Labor.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Our word shall be to you, brother monks, and here is what we shall tell you. It seems to us that for a monk there is nothing more detrimental than when he is infected with spiritual pride, departs from obedience to his abbot, and resolves to live according to his own will. What usually follows from this? Most often, it is that such a monk neglects his direct monastic duties, subjects his mind to his evil will, becomes vain and slothful, frequently engages in acts either dishonorable or foolish, and ultimately falls entirely under the dominion of the devil. Is this truly the case? Indeed, brethren, it is, and there ought to be no doubt about it. Listen now to a teaching of a Teacher of the Church, and you will recognize the truth of our words.

Holy Prophetess Hannah Resource Page

Holy Prophetess Hannah, Mother of the Prophet Samuel (Feast Day - December 9)

Verses

 

For what shall you be praised more Hannah?

Your steadfast mind? or you blessed child? 

 

Holy Prophetess Hannah, Mother of the Prophet Samuel

  

Holy Prophetess Hannah as a Model for our Lives

 

December: Day 9: Teaching 2: Righteous Hannah, Mother of the Prophet Samuel

 

Prologue in Sermons: December 9 

 

The Prophetess Hannah and Noetic Prayer of the Heart

  

The Song of Righteous Hannah

  

Prophet Samuel Resource Page

 

The Conception of Saint Anna in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Our Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to prepare for Himself a living and holy dwelling place, sent His angel to the Righteous Joachim and Anna (from whom He willed that His mother according to the flesh would come forth), and foretold the conception of the barren and childless Anna, in order to make certain the birth of the Virgin. For this reason the holy Virgin Mary was conceived and born — not, as some say, at seven months or without a man, but was born after nine full months, and though her conception came from a promise of God, it also came through the marital union and seed of a man. For only our Lord Jesus Christ was born from the holy Virgin Mary in a manner ineffable and beyond explanation, as He alone knows, without the will of the flesh; and though He is perfect God, He took on fully the perfection of His incarnate dispensation, just as He created and fashioned human nature from the beginning.

Thus today we celebrate this feast, because it recalls the divine messages delivered by an angel, who brought the good tidings of the holy conception of the pure Mother of God. Fulfilling these divine messages, God — who created all things out of nothing — stirred the barren womb so that it might bear fruit. And He made a mother, who had reached deep old age without children, able to give birth in a wondrous manner, granting her this grace as the worthy conclusion of the righteous petition of the Righteous Ones. From this gift of God to them — namely the All-Holy Virgin — He Himself would be born as the incarnate God, since He willed that these prudent ones give birth to her who was destined and chosen from all generations. 

The Feast of the Conception of Saint Anna (Its Significance, Development and Celebration in Constantinople)

By Eirini Panou

By the tenth century, the Protevangeliοn of James had inspired the inclusion of three feasts into the Church calendar of Constantinople: Mary’s Conception (by Anna), the Nativity of Mary and the Entry of Mary into the Temple. These three events, recorded only in the Protevangeliοn, not only constitute official commemorations of Mary’s childhood, also acknowledge her parents’ contribution to the work of the Divine Oikonomia.

In her work on Marian homilies, Cunningham argued that ‘it is difficult to reconstruct the history of the introduction of special feast days in honour of Mary into the liturgical calendar, owing to the lack of liturgical and historical sources about the period approximately before the ninth century’. Nevertheless, scholars have argued in favour of the inclusion of Marian feasts as early as the seventh century, which has led to conflicting views on the date when these feasts actually began to be celebrated in the Byzantine capital. For this book, church calendars provide the most authoritative evidence for the establishment of these feast days, whereas homilies and hymns only reveal a movement toward this end: as we do not know where they were delivered, some of the homilies might simply reflect provincial liturgical traditions. For this reason calendars, rather than the giving of homilies, will be considered conclusive enough to verify the disseminated celebration of Mary’s early life in the Byzantine capital.