Hymns to our Venerable Fathers Barsanuphios and John (Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis)

On the sixth day of the same month [February], the commemoration of Venerable Barsanuphios the Great Elder and of Venerable John, called the Prophet, his disciple.

Verses

From the earth was formed the body of Barsanuphius.
And he returned to the earth, to his own mother.
It is just, O John, at the same time
To place you here, the beloved teacher.
On the sixth, the divine spirit of Barsanuphius was lifted from the earth.

Apolytikion. 
Tone Plagal First. "Ton synanarchon Logon."

Having lived a life equal to the angels, O Father Barsanuphios, together with John, you appeared as radiant stars of asceticism and guides of monastics toward the better path. Being full of divine light, you unceasingly intercede that our souls may be shown mercy.

Saint Photios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The great Father and Teacher of the Church, Photios (9th c.), the Confessor of the Faith and Equal to the Apostles, lived during the reigns of the emperors Michael, son of Theophilos, Basil the Macedonian, and Leo his son. His earthly homeland was the imperial city of Constantinople, being of origin from a pious and distinguished family, while his heavenly homeland was the Jerusalem above. Before entering the priesthood he distinguished himself in high offices, serving as a professor at the University of the Magnaura; and always living a virtuous and God-loving life, he was later entrusted, as Patriarch, with the guidance of the Church of Constantinople.

This took place as follows: when Saint Ignatios was violently deposed from the archiepiscopal throne by the emperor, the vacant throne had to be filled, and so the emperor turned to Photios and compelled him to succeed Saint Ignatios canonically. Thus he was first tonsured a monk and then passed “in rapid succession” through all the ranks of the priesthood.

As Patriarch he struggled greatly on behalf of the Orthodox faith against the Manichaeans, the Iconoclasts, and other heretics, but above all against the papal heresy which appeared for the first time in his era, whose leader was Pope Nicholas, the father of the Latin schism. After reproving Nicholas for his heretical views with proofs from Holy Scripture and the Fathers, and after judging him synodically, he considered him outside the Church and consigned him to anathema. For these actions, he naturally suffered many persecutions and dangers from the supporters of papism, many attacks and acts of violence against him, all of which he endured in a Christ-like manner, he who was distinguished for his long-suffering, patience, and adamantine character — facts well known to anyone who studies Church history.

What must especially be recalled, however, is that the blessed Photios, who ministered the gospel like another Apostle Paul, converted to the faith of Christ the entire nation of the Bulgarians together with their king, after catechizing and baptizing them. Likewise, by his words full of grace, wisdom, and truth, he regenerated and returned to the Catholic Church of Christ many different heretics — Armenians, Iconoclasts, and other heterodox believers. Indeed, when by the firmness of his conviction he astonished the murderous and ungrateful Emperor Basil and uprooted the weeds of every false teaching with his fervent zeal, he appeared more than anyone else as a genuine successor of the Apostles, filled with their Spirit-bearing teaching.

Thus, after shepherding the Church of Christ in a holy and evangelical manner, after ascending twice to the archiepiscopal throne against his will and being twice exiled from it by tyrannical force, and after leaving to the Church and the people of God many and varied writings — excellent and most wise, such as every age can truly admire — and after suffering greatly, as we have said, for his struggles on behalf of truth and justice, the much-contending one finally departed to the Lord, dying in exile at the Monastery of the Armenians, like the divine Chrysostom at Comana. His sacred and most honorable body was laid to rest in the monastery called Eremia or Hiremia. In former times his most holy synaxis was celebrated in the Church of the Honorable Forerunner located in that monastery, but now it is celebrated at the sacred and Patriarchal Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Halki, where the Theological School of the Great Church of Christ is also located.

Saint Boukolos of Smyrna in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Boukolos from a young age sanctified himself and became a vessel of the Holy Spirit. He was found worthy and fit by the all-praised and Christ-beloved divine John the Theologian, who ordained him bishop and good shepherd of the Church of Smyrna. Boukolos, illumined by the Holy Spirit, led those who were in the darkness of error into the light of the faith of Christ, and through holy baptism made them sons of the day, saving them from countless savage beasts. Thus, before departing this life, he ordained and appointed as shepherd and Teacher of the rational sheep in the same city, Smyrna, the blessed Polycarp, and then he fell asleep in the Lord. And when his honorable body was laid beneath the earth, God caused a plant to spring up that provides healings to this day.

Saint Boukolos is not very well known to most of our Christians, although he belongs to the Apostolic Fathers, who shone by their life and preaching. Perhaps this is because he stood between two most eminent men, great stars of our Church, who overshadowed him with their brilliance: Saint John the Theologian and Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. And on the other hand, he is also commemorated together with another star, a universal father and teacher, equal to the apostles and confessor, great in his very title — Saint Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople. Yet despite all the radiance of these great and eminent figures, Saint Boukolos, according to our Church, never ceases “to flash forth with the light of his God-working virtues, being set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church and making it radiant with his sacred teachings” (“Shining with the light of God-working virtues, most holy one, you were mystically set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church, making it radiant, Father, by your sacred teachings” - Vespers sticheron). He is the man who, as Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes elsewhere in his Canon, “shone as light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning in the Church of Christ, and illumined the minds of the faithful” (“As light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning you shone forth in the Church of Christ and illumined the minds of the faithful” - Ode 9).

Prologue in Sermons: February 6

On What is Necessary in Order to Meet Death Not With Terror, But With Joy

February 6*

(Commemoration of the Holy Martyr Martha and her niece Mary, and of the Koly Martyr Karion the Black Robe Wearer)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When we draw near to death, for the most part we meet it with terror rather than with joy. Why is this so? Because then we feel hemmed in on all sides. If we look back, we are met by unpaid sin and unforgiven evil; if we direct our gaze forward, we meet God, the impartial Judge, eternal blessedness — which we have lost for the fleeting sweetness of sin — and the torments of hell, ready to swallow us up forever. In short, we fear death because we are sinners. Were we righteous, it would be otherwise. We would meet death not with terror, but with joy.

The Reasons for the Anger of Westerners Against Photios (An Article by St. Nektarios of Aegina)

Introduction

By John Sanidopoulos

The following article titled The Reasons for the Anger of Westerners Against Photios was written in 1897 and published in the Thracian Yearbook by Metropolitan Nektarios Kephalas of Pentapolis (later Saint Nektarios of Aegina), at a time when he was Director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens and actively engaged in the formation of Orthodox clergy. The work belongs to the genre of Orthodox theological–historical apologetics and was composed as a systematic exposition of Orthodox ecclesiology through the lens of the Photian controversy.

Nektarios wrote in a period marked by intensified Roman Catholic missionary and apologetic activity in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, as well as renewed debates over papal primacy, synodal authority, and the legitimacy of the filioque. In response, Greek Orthodox theology of the late nineteenth century sought to articulate its identity with clarity and historical grounding. Saint Photios the Great emerged in this context as a paradigmatic figure: defender of synodal governance, guardian of the unchanged Creed, and representative of the Eastern understanding of primacy as one of honor rather than universal jurisdiction.

The Reception of the Lord (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

The Reception of the Lord 

(Luke 2:22-38)

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

After the birth of Christ, the Theotokos, as a Jewess, was obliged for two reasons to go to the Temple: first, for her own sake, and second, for the sake of her firstborn Son.

Her obligation toward herself was her lawful purification, her “forty-day purification,” as we would say today. According to the Law, that is, every Jewish woman who had given birth, on the fortieth day after the birth of her male child, had to appear in the Temple in order to be purified. During this purification she was required — if she was poor — “to offer a sacrifice according to what was prescribed: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” This purification was not a bodily cleansing for reasons of hygiene, but a legal one. By it there was recalled, in general, the sinfulness of humanity, and more specifically the transmission of ancestral sin through birth. This is evident from the fact that if a Jewish woman gave birth to a daughter, she was considered unclean not for forty days but for eighty, in remembrance that Eve was the first cause of the fall of the first-created humans. The sacrifice of the offered turtledoves and pigeons, which did not cleanse but merely reminded one of impurity, indicated the need for the coming of a Redeemer, Christ.

Holy Martyr Agatha in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Agatha was from the city of Panormos (modern-day Palermo) in Sicily, shining from her youth with purity of body and beauty of soul, and she was also wealthy. In the time of Emperor Decius, she was brought before the governor Quintianus. At first she was handed over to an unbelieving, immoral woman, so that she might turn her away from faith in Christ. But because she held firmly to this faith and preferred death by martyrdom, they beat her harshly and cut off her breast, which the all-glorious Apostle Peter restored to health. Then they dragged her over shards and burned her with fire. Finally they threw her into prison, where she surrendered her spirit to God. It is said that at her tomb an angel brought a tablet on which were written the following words: "A venerable mind, self-willed, honor from God, and the redemption of the fatherland."

Saint Theophanes, the hymnographer of Saint Agatha, finds the opportunity in the Canon he composed for her to emphasize once again that our Church is clothed in red by the blood of her holy martyrs. The martyric blood of each Saint is, moreover, an ornament for her, a sign that martyrdom constitutes the glory of the Church. "Let the Church today be adorned with a glorious purple garment, dyed by the pure blood of the Martyr Agatha." And he takes the occasion to remind us of what is self-evident: the Saint gave her life for the sake of her faith in Christ, precisely because she loved Him completely and therefore sought to order her existence according to His holy commandments. "Of all the pleasant and delightful things of life, you chose Christ, Agatha, having been captivated by divine longing."

Prologue in Sermons: February 5

To Novice Monks

February 5

(An admonitory discourse of Saint Ephraim on the ascetic struggle of monks.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Today we intend to offer spiritual assistance to monks, because, as those who wage an unceasing battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil, they especially stand in need of it. But since the more experienced among the monks are less in need of such help, and novices more so, we direct our assistance to the latter and express it in the following discourse to them by our venerable father Ephraim the Syrian.

“While you still have time, brother,” says the Venerable one to the novice monk, “strive as a good soldier of Christ, knowing that you strive not for a perishable crown, but for the cleansing of sins and for eternal life. Therefore, in all your deeds acquire humility of mind, which is the mother of obedience. Cast off double-mindedness from yourself and in all things clothe yourself with faith, so that the Lord, seeing the zeal of your soul, may strengthen you in your work. Nurture within yourself a strong hatred for laziness, for rivalry, for every evil disposition and envy, since for the Lord you have left behind your fleshly parents, friends, and possessions. For if at the beginning your thoughts make you slack, you will endure both weariness and loss. Therefore, if it should happen that for the Lord we grow weary somewhat, or even beyond our strength, let us not complain. For whoever complains clearly shows about himself that he does not labor of his own free will. You, as a wise man, do not compete with the more negligent brethren, and do not envy those who live without fear of God, knowing firmly that he who falls is dashed to pieces, while he who overcomes is crowned.

Saint Isidore of Pelusium in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Isidore, who was Egyptian by birth, was known as the son of noble and God-loving parents, and he was a relative of Theophilos and Cyril, the Bishops of the Church of Alexandria. This venerable man, greatly educated both in divine wisdom and in secular learning, left behind very many writings, worthy of study and remembrance by lovers of learning. Having abandoned every form of wealth, the splendor of his lineage, and the comfort of worldly life, he went to Mount Pelusium and embraced the monastic life. There, living in complete dedication to God, he illumined the whole inhabited world with the teaching of his divine words, with the result that he led sinners to repentance, strengthened those who were struggling in the faith, and stirred to virtue those who were disobedient, through the severity of his divine reproofs. Moreover, he reminded and admonished even kings, for the benefit of the world, and in general interpreted the words of Holy Scripture in a most wise manner for all who questioned him. It is said, indeed, that his letters number as many as ten thousand. Having therefore lived an excellent life and conducted himself according to the will of God, he departed this life in deep old age.

Prologue in Sermons: February 4

 

A Monk Must Not Leave the Monastery in Which He Lives

February 4

(A Discourse on Silence and Humility, and On Not Falling Into Despair)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some of the monks, unfortunately, have become accustomed to leaving the monasteries in which they live and moving from place to place. There, they say, the abbot is strict; here, the brethren are quarrelsome; there, the labors are beyond one’s strength; and here, they do not struggle as we would like. And such men run off—partly out of laziness, partly out of pride, partly out of their innate inability to get along—from their own monastery to another, and from that one to a third, and so on. Is this good? 

 

No, it is bad. Bad, first of all, because wandering is forbidden by the Savior Himself, who says: “Do not go from house to house” (Luke 10:7), and “Into whatever town you enter, remain there” (Matt. 10:11). And bad, secondly, because examples sometimes point to the most disastrous consequences for monks who leave the monasteries in which the Lord has ordained them to dwell. For the instruction of such wanderers, we present one such example.

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Nicholas of Japan (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Nicholas of Japan 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles! This day is special for us, as we want to build a chapel in our large church in honor of Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles. His life should be an example for us of how a person can fulfill God's will in completely unimaginable circumstances. Saint Nicholas was from the Tver region. He graduated from seminary, then from the St. Petersburg Academy. The Synod sent a letter to the Academy inviting those interested in becoming priests in Japan, and Nicholas agreed to go. Then, after three centuries of banning Europeans from visiting the country, Japan opened its doors to foreigners. Three hundred years earlier, a very successful Catholic mission had been established in Japan, and the government, fearing the mass Christianization of a pagan people, killed all the missionaries and closed the country completely. Ultimately, this policy led Japan to complete economic collapse.

Homily for the Reception of the Lord (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Reception of the Lord 

 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all on the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord! This is the day when we celebrate the meeting of two Covenants: the Old Covenant, made with the people of Israel, and the New Covenant, made with the Universal Church, now including all nations. We must ponder the words of prophecy proclaimed by the ancient elder Symeon, taking the Creator of the Universe in his arms: "Now let Your servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel." (By word — according to promise. By revelation — for enlightenment. By Gentiles — the nations.)

This meeting was necessary so that we could understand that the ancient law given to the people of Israel contains something great and important for our day and for the New Testament Church. The entire liturgy of the New Testament Church is woven from the Psalms spoken by the Old Testament patriarch and prophet David. Christianity has a direct relationship to ancient Judaism; indeed, one could put it another way: modern Judaism has absolutely no connection to ancient Judaism, and the direct and sole heir of Old Testament Judaism is the Universal Orthodox Church! Because with it, by the grace of God, the Creator of the Universe, the same covenant was made with ancient Israel. Modern Israel in the flesh has lost this covenant, broken it, rejecting its Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Universal Orthodox Church is the New Israel, having received the blessings that the Lord bestowed upon Old Testament Israel.

Saints Symeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Symeon, whose life was prolonged in this present world because of the oracle he had received from the Holy Spirit — that he would not die before he had seen Christ — received Him in his arms. And after everything that would happen concerning Him was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit and he prophesied these things, according to the oracle that had been given to him he accepted the end of his life. And the prophetess Anna was the daughter of Phanuel, who was from the tribe of Asher. She lived with her husband for seven years, and after she lost him through death, she lived continually in the Temple with fasting and prayer, spending her entire life there. Therefore, because this was her constant way of life, she too was deemed worthy to see the Lord being offered as a man in the Temple, forty days old, by His All-Holy Mother and the righteous Joseph. She glorified God and proclaimed Him with power to all who were in the Temple, saying: "This infant is the Lord who established heaven and earth. This is the Christ, whom all the prophets foretold." Therefore, today we celebrate the memory of these saints, Symeon and Anna, and we proclaim the awesome and ineffable condescension of God toward us.

Saint Perpetua as a Model for our Lives

St. Perpetua of Carthage (Feast Day - February 1)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Perpetua was born in Carthage of Africa toward the end of the 2nd century AD. She came from a noble family and had two brothers. She received an excellent education and made a good marriage. At the age of twenty-two, when she was martyred for Christ, she had a small child whom she was nursing. She was imprisoned because she was a Christian, and while she was in the dungeon-like prison her father visited her and tried, at first with gentle words, to persuade her to deny Christ in order to save her life, so that she might remain with her husband and child. But later, when he saw that she would not deny Christ and remained firm in her faith, he attacked her with savage fury.

While in prison she was baptized together with her fellow prisoners: Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus, and Eutychia (Felicitas). After her baptism she experienced temptations, but also many blessings. One of these blessings was that two deacons “interceded” with the prison authorities, and when the latter received the money offered to them, they transferred her to a cell with better conditions and allowed her to nurse her child.

Prologue in Sermons: February 3

To the Jurors

February 3

(From the Pandok:* “On Not Showing Partiality Toward People”)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

To some of you, brethren, the fate of the accused is entrusted, and it depends on you whether to acquit or to condemn this or that person. This duty, in our opinion, is very burdensome. For how is one to condemn the guilty when that guilty person has circumstances that speak in his favor? And how is one to acquit another when nothing good can be expected of him in the future? What is to be done in such cases?

Homily Two for the Reception of the Lord (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

Homily Two for the Reception of the Lord 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Now let Your servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:29–30).

With these words the holy elder Symeon cried out at the departure of his life, when he took into his arms the forty-day-old Infant, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom, according to the custom of the Law — still preserved among us — the Most Holy Virgin Mary brought into the Temple. With joy he held in his arms Him who holds all creation; with joy the elder Symeon looked upon his approaching end, because in his own arms he saw Him who assured him of safety and of a blessed life even after death.

But we do not envy you, righteous elder! We ourselves possess your happiness — to receive the divine Jesus not only into our arms, but with our lips and hearts, just as you always bore Him in your heart even before seeing Him, while awaiting Him — and not once in a lifetime, nor ten times, but as often as we wish. Who among you, beloved brethren, does not understand that I am speaking of communion in the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ? Yes, we possess a greater happiness than Saint Symeon; and the righteous elder, one may say, enclosed the Life-giving Jesus in his embrace as a foreshadowing of how believers in Christ in the times to come, on all days until the end of the age, would take Him up and bear Him — not only in their arms, but in their very hearts. Not only in their arms, I say, because the clergy who celebrate the Divine Liturgy also lift Him up in their hands at every liturgy, and afterward — O immeasurable mercy — enclose Him in the embrace of their hearts! O Jesus, Son of God, abyss of goodness and generosity! How do You not consume us, impure in heart and lips, always unworthy of Your most pure and life-giving Mysteries? And yet — what am I saying? You do indeed consume our unworthiness when we do not bring to You, who sit upon the throne, firm and unshakable faith and contrition of heart; but at the same time You immediately give life, grant rest, and gladden us when we are healed of the sickness of doubt and little faith, for You are the Truth and will not allow even the slightest shadow of doubt to remain in us unpunished.

The Reception of the Lord in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

After forty days had passed since the saving Incarnation of the Lord — His birth without a man from the Holy Ever-Virgin Mary — on this most venerable day, His all-pure Mother and the righteous Joseph brought our Lord Jesus Christ into the Temple, according to the custom of the shadowy and lawful letter of the Mosaic Law. At that time the aged and elderly Symeon also came, he who had received a revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen Christ the Lord. He received Him into his arms, and after giving thanks and confessing God, he cried out: ‘Now You let Your servant depart, O Master, according to Your word;’ that is, now You may take Your servant, O Lord, in peace. And then, filled with joy, he departed from this life, exchanging earthly things for the heavenly and eternal. 

All the hymnography of this great feast of the Lord and of the Theotokos moves within an atmosphere of awe and mystery: “what appears is earthly, but what is understood is heavenly.” The hymns indeed emphasize the historical reality — the coming of the holy family to the Temple when the forty days from the Lord’s Nativity were completed, and His meeting with the elder Symeon — but they also open the eyes of our soul in the Spirit, so that we may see the “depth” of this reality: the astonished stance of the holy angels, who are unable to comprehend what is taking place on earth, as they behold the Creator of man being carried as an infant, the uncontainable and infinite God being confined within the arms of an old man, the indescribable Son and Word of God, consubstantial with the Father, willingly becoming circumscribed as a human being. And the only explanation they can give for these incomprehensible things is the love of God for mankind.

February: Day 2: Teaching 4: The Reception of the Lord

February: Day 2: Teaching 4:
The Reception of the Lord
 
(On the Motivations for our Precise Fulfillment of God’s Law)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Evangelist Luke, describing the Reception of Jesus Christ in the Jerusalem Temple, which is now celebrated (Luke 2:22-39), says that at this event the earthly parents of the Savior did everything as was prescribed in the Old Testament law of God. They went to Jerusalem with the newborn Jesus Christ when, after His birth, the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, that is, forty days (Lev. 12:1-4); they brought this firstborn of theirs to the Jerusalem Temple to present or dedicate Him to the Lord, because in the law of the Lord it was prescribed that every male child who opens the womb, or the firstborn, should be dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 13:2). Then, again according to the law of God, they sacrificed two young pigeons (Lev. 12:8). In short, it was only when they returned from Jerusalem to their city of Nazareth that they had done everything according to the law of the Lord. So respected did they respect the law of God and so strove to fulfill it in everything!

Prologue in Sermons: February 2

The Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Benefactions to the Human Race

February 2

(Homily of our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, on the Reception of our Lord Jesus Christ.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian says of the Lord Jesus Christ in one place in his Gospel: “We have seen His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father” (John 1:14); and in another place of the same Gospel the Lord Himself says of Himself that the world was saved through Him (John 3:17). How are we to understand this? What, then, is the glory of Jesus Christ? In what does it consist? And what, finally, do the words mean: the world was saved through Him? Let us speak of this for our edification.

Concerning the glory of the Lord and the salvation of the world by Him, Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, says the following:

Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee -- On Pride and Humility (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
On Pride and Humility

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts;
for what is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” (Luke 16:15)

Beloved faithful,

In many places of Holy Scripture it is shown how great, how soul-destroying, and how hateful to God the passion of pride is. But no small measure of the wickedness of this sin can also be understood from the teaching of today’s Holy Gospel. Since I am too small and unskilled to show in writing or speech how many forms this evil of pride has and how varied it is, I shall bring before you a most wonderful teaching of Saint John of the Ladder on this subject. From this it will be known how many heads this dreadful beast of pride has, and by this the wise and discerning will understand how multicolored and dangerous this sin is.

Here is what this holy father says about pride:

“Pride is the denial of God, the teaching of demons, the contempt of men, the mother of condemnation, the great-granddaughter of praise, the sign of barrenness, the expulsion of God’s help, madness, the forerunner of falls, the cause of epilepsy, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the strength of demons, the guardian of sins, the cause of mercilessness, ignorance of compassion, the bitter examiner of the faults of others, an inhuman judge, a hostile fighter against God” (Philokalia, vol. IX, Homily 25, On Pride, Bucharest, 1980).

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on January 11, 1915)*

The publican and the Pharisee came to the temple to pray. During his prayer the Pharisee boasted of his deeds and condemned others, while the publican, in deep awareness of his own unworthiness, prayed thus: “God make atonement for me the sinner.” The former the Lord condemned, and the latter He justified, saying: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13–14).

Dear ones, if we look at outward actions rather than at the inner disposition of the heart, the Pharisee cannot at all be called a bad man. In any case, he was blameless in a civic sense and outwardly pious. And yet his prayer was rejected. On the contrary, the publican was not without sins and vices. He himself acknowledged his sinfulness, and yet his prayer was heard. Why is this so? Here is why: the Pharisee prayed arrogantly, with a disposition of spirit in which he fully revealed himself. For in prayer people show themselves as they truly are and as they live. The Apostle's words can be applied to the life of the Pharisee in the Gospels and his prayer: “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive… having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5).

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee  

By St. John of Kronstadt

The present week in the Church order of weeks is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. It is so named because on this day the Lord’s parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read from the Gospel. In this parable, by the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Lord teaches us with what disposition of soul we ought to pray in church or wherever we may be. Let us listen to how the Pharisee prayed and how the publican prayed; which of them pleased God by his prayer and which did not; by what one was pleasing and by what the other was not, so that we too may learn always to pray in a way pleasing to God and not unto condemnation. Prayer is a great thing: through prayer a person communes with God, receives from Him various gifts of grace, thanks Him as Benefactor for His unceasing mercies, or glorifies Him as the all-perfect Creator.

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

To certain people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, Jesus Christ told the following parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not as other men are — extortioners, unjust, adulterers — or even as this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ Now the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote himself on the breast, saying, ‘God make atonement for me the sinner.’ I tell you,” Jesus Christ adds, “that this publican went down to his house justified, but not that Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, this is what it means to boast about oneself and demean others! Look at this Pharisee praying in the temple of God. He took nothing from anyone, did no wrong to anyone, and led a chaste life; he fasted twice a week; he gave a tenth of his estate to the Church and the poor. Who would not say that this Pharisee was a righteous man? Yet it was not he who went home justified, but the tax collector. Yes, this virtuous Pharisee ruined all his virtues by praising himself and demeaning his neighbor.

Holy Martyr Tryphon in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Tryphon was from the village of Lampsacus in the province of Phrygia, during the reign of Gordian, in the two hundred and ninety-fifth year since the reign of Augustus. While he was still very young and engaged in work suitable to his age (for he tended geese, as they say), he was filled with the Holy Spirit and healed every disease and also cast out demons. He even healed the daughter of the emperor, who was possessed by a demon. In this case it is said that the Saint pointed out the demon to those present in the form of a black dog, proclaiming its evil deeds, and that by this miracle he led many to faith in Christ. 

In the time of the emperor Decius, who succeeded Philip, the ruler after Gordian, he was accused before Aquilinus, the prefect of the East, of telling people not to worship demons. He was brought before him to Nicaea, and because he confessed the name of Christ, he was first beaten with swords. Then they bound him to horses and dragged him, in the winter season, through rough and inaccessible places. After this, they dragged him naked over iron spikes. Moreover, they flogged him and burned his sides with flaming torches; and finally they decided to kill him with the sword, which they did not manage to do, for he had already surrendered his spirit to God. 

Prologue in Sermons: February 1

Simplicity of Faith, Combined with Almsgiving, Works Miracles

February 1

(A Homily on Saint Benedict, How He Redeemed a Poor Man by Asking God for Gold.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Simplicity of faith, both in itself and especially when joined with almsgiving, works miracles. Of this we are convinced both by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Fathers. The Lord teaches about simplicity of faith: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, and say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matt. 17:20). And Saint John Chrysostom says of almsgiving that it possesses “a greater grace than raising the dead.” Is this true, my brothers? Yes, it is truly so, and there should be no doubt about it.

There was, says the Church tradition, in the land of Rome a monk and glorious wonderworker named Benedict, who even raised the dead. He was exceedingly merciful and generous to everyone who asked of him. By his kindness, he was a father to many monasteries and a perfect non-possessor. Because of the alms he distributed so generously, the brethren of his monastery often endured extreme need, and there were days when neither in his own monastery nor in all the other monasteries to which he gave charity could even a single gold coin be found.

The Triodion as a Guide to Psychosomatic Purification

 

The Triodion as a Guide to Psychosomatic Purification

By Heracles Rerakis, 
Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The Triodion constitutes a spiritual period that grounds us in our truth. It reminds us of the purpose of our life and of its limits. It shows us the vanity of our aims, pursuits, and priorities. It brings us back to our existential reality. It leads us onto the path that we may have lost.

It is a period that we experience every year in order to remind us of the role of time in our lives, as well as of a crucial issue that we usually forget: the way of returning to the starting point from which we set out.

The Triodion of the Church teaches and forms us once again, through Worship, Prayer, Fasting, Self-control, Purification, Love, and all the Virtues, in the manner of our life and of our saving communion with God and with our fellow human being.

The Fourth Century as the “Golden” Age of the Church (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Fourth Century as the “Golden” Age of the Church 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Lecture to the Educators of the city of Nafpaktos on January 30, 2013,
and to the Assembly of Clergy of the Sacred Metropolis of Kifisia on February 14, 2013)

I thank you for responding to my invitation to attend this event today, which I established here many years ago, from the very first year of my arrival in Nafpaktos. Each year I develop various topics related to the life, teaching, and work of the Three Hierarchs, and I attempt to touch upon aspects that go somewhat beyond what is commonplace and customary. The subject of today’s lecture is: “The fourth century (in which the Three Hierarchs lived) as the ‘golden’ age of the Church.”

The fourth century has been characterized by many theologians and students of Church history as the “golden age of the Church.” This is due to many factors.

First, the organization of ecclesiastical life after the end of the persecutions and the issuance of the Edict of Milan.

Second, the encounter between major theological and religious currents — namely Jewish thought, Christian revelation, Gnostic teaching, and Greek philosophy.

Third, the formulation of dogmas and ecclesiastical life because of the many heresies and schismatic situations observed during that period.

Fourth, the appearance of great Fathers in the Church, among whom were the Three Hierarchs.

All of these will be examined in greater detail below, so that we may better understand the great treasure that has been handed down to us and our duty to preserve it for future generations.

Miracles 13-17 of Saint Arsenios of Paros

By Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos

Miracle 13

A certain Greek compatriot had come to Paros and visited the Monastery of the Transfiguration, not out of piety, but out of curiosity. Upon arriving in the monastery courtyard, he saw above the entrance door, at a window, a young nun, comely in appearance, watering basil. Being irreverent and driven by passion, he was immediately wounded by desire. At first he sought out the abbess of the monastery, who referred him to Father Arsenios. Presenting himself in a most arrogant manner, he demanded that they give him that nun; otherwise, he threatened to cause great harm to the monastery.

The Saint admonished him with gentleness and meekness, in the sweetest and most courteous manner. But the young man became enraged and angrily threatened both the Saint and, as he departed like one beside himself, declared that he would return to take the nun by force. Then the Saint said calmly: “Cease, my child, your threats and repent, otherwise you will remain immobile and deranged.”

Indeed, after three days he became paralyzed and insane, and, being carried by four men, he was taken to the asylum for the incurable, where the wretched man died miserably. The Saint then advised the nuns henceforth not to place flowers at the windows and not to lean out of them whenever strangers were present.

Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Holy Martyrs Cyrus and John lived in the time of Diocletian the emperor. Cyrus was from Alexandria, while John was from Edessa. Because of the persecution that prevailed at that time and was destroying the Christians, Cyrus went to Arabia, to a coastal place, became a monk, and lived there. John, who arrived in Jerusalem, heard about the miracles of Saint Cyrus (for he healed every disease and illness). He went to Alexandria and, from there, according to what was rumored about the Saint concerning his place of residence, he reached the place where he was living and dwelt with him.

When a certain woman named Athanasia, together with her three daughters — Theodote, Theoktiste, and Eudoxia — was arrested for their faith in Christ and was about to be brought before the tribunal, Saints Cyrus and John feared that something might happen which is natural to occur, especially to women, namely that they might be frightened by the magnitude of the tortures of martyrdom. For this reason they went to the place where they were being held, encouraged them, and prepared them for the martyrdoms. Since they themselves were also arrested and confessed our Lord Jesus Christ as the true God, they were subjected to many punishments, and in the end their heads were cut off, together with the women we have mentioned.

Prologue in Sermons: January 31

On Compassion for the Unfortunate

January 31

(A Discourse of Saint Antiochus on Suffering for a Friend)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

We all know that we ought to have compassion for the unfortunate and help them; but, unfortunately, not all of us know what true compassion consists in, or how we should act toward those in distress, so that from our compassion toward them there may arise both real benefit for them, glory to God, and the salvation of our own souls. In what, then, should true compassion for the unfortunate consist, and in what manner should our help to them be manifested? Let us learn this from one of the Holy Fathers, who gives all of us in this matter a good and saving lesson.

The World War 2 Miracle That Made Saint Gregory the Theologian the Patron Saint of Delvinaki in Ioannina

It was dawning on January 25, 1944, during the period of the German occupation. The village was asleep, though not without anxiety. The occupiers, enraged by the Resistance which they saw constantly growing stronger, were roaming towns and villages, carrying out searches and arrests of suspects, and spreading death without mercy. Delvinaki too was awaiting its turn… And it was that morning, at daybreak on January 25, when the news arrived that set the village on alert:

“Germans! The Germans are coming!”

Within a few minutes all the villagers gathered in the central square. There, near the large plane tree of the village opposite the community office, was a café where the resistance groups had brought munitions — arms, hand grenades, and whatever else they had in order to strike the enemy. They had intended to hide them in a safer place, but they did not have time. And now? Now that the Germans would soon arrive there? What were they to do?

The Holy Three Hierarchs in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint John of Euchaita is not only the one who received, by the grace of God, the appearance of the Holy Three Hierarchs in order to resolve the disagreement among the scholars of Constantinople about which of the three was the greatest, but also the one who was inspired to write “canons and troparia and encomia,” according to the Synaxarion. Indeed, today’s hymnography is, first of all, an encomium by the Saint of Euchaita praising the spiritual stature of all three Hierarchs, who were, among other things, “other angels in the flesh,” “gods by participation, because within them lived and spoke the only true God by nature,” “correctors of morals and stewards of souls, the common saviors of all, those who showed us models both of deeds and of words, the educators of life,” as well as “the great luminaries, the unshakable towers of the Church,” “those who received wisdom from God, like three other apostles of Christ.” There is no form of praise that the Holy Hymnographer does not employ in order to express, first, what he experienced visionarily and theoptically — namely, the presence of the Saints in his life — and second, their immense theological contribution to the life of the Church.

January: Day 30: Teaching 2: Commemoration of the Holy Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom

January: Day 30: Teaching 2:
Commemoration of the Holy Three Hierarchs: 
Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom
 
(On Mutual Love and Unanimity in Faith)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. “In the eleventh century, during the reign of the Christ-loving Emperor Alexios Komnenos, there arose a great dispute in Constantinople among the most learned lovers of wisdom,” writes Saint Dimitri of Rostov in his Lives of the Saints, in the account of the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs, whose memory is celebrated today. Some exalted Saint Basil the Great as a teacher lofty in speech, firm in character, and strict toward those who sinned. Others, however, placed above him Saint John Chrysostom, who, with his extraordinary eloquence, was distinguished by gentleness of heart toward sinners. And finally, others considered Gregory the Theologian higher than both, as the most eloquent in word and one who deeply understood the dogmas of the faith.

Indeed, it was difficult to decide which of these three great hierarchs should be considered greater than the others: each of them was great in his own way. The disputes among those arguing about the greatness of the three hierarchs were heated and eventually led many of them to division: some were called Basilites, others Gregorians, and still others Johannites, and they regarded one another as bitter enemies. This quarrel among the faithful over these very hierarchs was offensive to the memory of the Saints and grievous to their holy souls.

Prologue in Sermons: January 30

Against Lies and Slander

January 30

(The Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom on Lies and Slander)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

 

We all know that lying and slander are evil; but, unfortunately, we know little of the fact that the worst thing about this evil is that we pay little or no attention to lying and slander. “What is so serious about it,” we say, “if I lied? Nowadays almost everyone lies; what harm is there in it?” Thus we speak, but we should not speak so; for to lie and to slander truly is a calamity, and a great calamity.

“I beseech you, brethren,” says the universal teacher, “cease lying and slandering. Lying is the first sin and the craft of the devil, for he was the first to lie to Adam and led the whole human race into destruction. Let others make nothing of lying, neither repent of it nor abandon it. They will not escape punishment, for the Prophet says: 'You shall destroy all them that speak lies' (Ps. 5:7). And it will be even worse for those who join lying with slander. Slander destroys great households; one person slandered, and because of him others also weep and wail — his children, his neighbors, his friends. But slanderers themselves also come to a bad end for this. The Lord neither accepts their prayers, nor receives their offerings; their lamps are extinguished, and the wrath of God rests upon them, as David also says: 'The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks proud things.' Slanderers,” concludes Saint John Chrysostom, “are worse than thieves and robbers.”

Synaxarion of our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Demetrios Gagastathis

Synaxarion

By Haralambos Bousias

On the 29th of the same month [January], the commemoration of our Venerable and God-bearing Father Demetrios, surnamed Gagastathis, the newly-manifested radiant good Levite of Platanos in Trikala.

Verses

The simple and gentle presbyter Demetrios,
Christ has deemed worthy to rejoice with the angels.

The sanctified liturgist of the Most High, our father Demetrios, surnamed Gagastathis, a zealous emulator of the angels, has newly shone forth as a many-radiant star of holiness in Platanos of Trikala (1902–1975).

Coming from a married state and, beyond wife and children — having been deemed worthy to become the guardian of nine daughters — loving the Lord, he served Him in venerably in the priesthood, a poor former shepherd of irrational sheep. Becoming an inexhaustible vessel of myrrh of divine graces, as he liturgized he filled the church with an ineffable fragrance.

Translation of the Sacred Relic of Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Ignatius was a successor of the Holy Apostles and served as Bishop of Antioch. Together with Saint Polycarp, the president of the Church of the Smyrnaeans, he was a disciple of the Evangelist John the Theologian. He was therefore brought before Emperor Trajan, and after enduring every kind of torture without yielding, he was sent to Rome to be thrown to the beasts. When this took place, certain Christian men gathered his holy relics and brought them from Rome to Antioch, offering them to the Antiochene brethren who desired them with great longing. They then placed them beneath the earth with all honor and reverence. For this reason the Church celebrates a joyful feast.

We encountered Saint Ignatius the God-bearer — indeed, in considerable detail — on the day of his commemoration, the 20th of December. At that time, we had the opportunity to emphasize, on the one hand, the theological stature of the letters he left us — a truly significant contribution to overcoming ecclesiastical distortions — and, on the other hand, his deep love and fervor for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is precisely this love that the hymns of our Church also highlight today, on the occasion of the translation of his honorable relics. Indeed, it is impossible to speak of Saint Ignatius on any occasion without being moved by the furnace of his heart, which burned for the sake of Christ.

Prologue in Sermons: January 29

The Benefit to the Souls of the Departed from Commemoration at the Liturgy

January 29

(The account of Saint Gregory the Dialogist concerning a monk who died under penance and was forgiven after thirty days of commemoration.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

For the souls of those who have died in faith, but did not have time to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, the prayers offered for them are salvific—prayers performed with faith in remembrance of their benefaction, and especially the offering for them of the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ. Concerning the special propitiatory power of the bloodless sacrifice for the departed, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says: “Very great benefit will accrue to the souls for whom supplication is made, when the holy and awesome sacrifice is set forth” (Mystagogical Catechesis, V, 9). Saint John Chrysostom teaches the same: “Let us not grow weary,” he says, “in helping those who have departed and in offering prayers for them, for there lies before us a common purifying sacrifice for the whole world… And without doubt it is possible to obtain for them forgiveness through the gifts offered for them and through being named together with them” (Homily 41 on 1 Corinthians). Finally, examples also confirm this teaching. Here is one of them.

Saint Athanasios the Great and Our Times (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

Saint Athanasios the Great and Our Times 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Transcribed sermon delivered at the Sacred Metropolitan Church of Saint Athanasios in Ioannina, 18 January 2017)

Your Eminence Metropolitan of Ioannina, dear brother Maximos, and my beloved brothers,

Today we celebrate two great Fathers of our Church, and indeed in this very Metropolitan Church of Ioannina which bears the name of one of these two great Fathers and Ecumenical Teachers of our Church, namely Saint Athanasios. Of course, we also celebrate the memory of Saint Cyril. Both were Patriarchs of Alexandria — great Fathers of our Church and great confessors of the faith, great theologians and at the same time great Fathers. For we know that in the Orthodox Church theology is very closely bound to pastoral care and the patristic tradition. That is, one who is a theologian, in the patristic sense, is also a spiritual father, meaning that he guides his spiritual children on the path of salvation. And one who is a spiritual father, in order to guide his spiritual children, must also be a theologian. Thus theology is inseparably linked with spiritual fatherhood.

Yesterday your Eminence, Metropolitan of Ioannina Maximos, analyzed in an excellent manner the historical and dogmatic context in which these two great luminaries and Fathers of our Church, Saint Athanasios the Great and Saint Cyril, both Archbishops and Patriarchs of Alexandria, lived and worked.

Saint Ephraim the Syrian in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Ephraim was from the East, Syrian by origin. He learned piety and faith in Christ from his forefathers and lived in the time of Theodosius the Great. From his childhood he embraced the monastic life, and it is said that grace was poured out upon him by God. Through this grace, having written a great many compunctionate works, he guided many toward virtue and became an example of ascetic excellence for later generations. 

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian is among the most well-known Venerables and Fathers of our Church, in the sense that he is known even by those who do not know him. What do we mean by this? One may not be aware that the quintessential prayer of Great Lent — "Lord and Master of my life” — is his prayer, yet one has certainly heard it, has perhaps whispered it himself, and may even have incorporated it into his own prayers. And this means that he has been challenged — and is challenged each time by this prayer — to live repentance as a struggle against evil passions: idleness, curiosity, love of power, idle talk, and to acquire the virtues of chastity, humility, patience, and love, through which one lives in the presence of God.

January: Day 28: Teaching 2: Venerable James the Faster

January: Day 28: Teaching 2:*
Venerable James the Faster
 
(The Benefit of Bodily Fasting)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

Venerable James, an ascetic of the sixth century, lived for fifteen years in a single cave in Phoenicia. For his God-pleasing life he received from God the gift of working miracles, so that not only believers but also pagans came to him seeking healing from illnesses, and through this many pagans of that region were converted to Christianity. 

One of the Venerable one’s miracles is especially noteworthy. Once a severe drought came upon all Phoenicia, and famine began to threaten the inhabitants. Together with their bishop, the people fervently prayed to God to grant rain. Then, in a vision, the bishop was commanded to go to the cave where Venerable James was struggling in ascetic labor and to ask him to pray for rain. The bishop, gathering the clergy and accompanied by the people, went with supplicatory chanting to James, asking his intercession before God. At first James, considering himself unworthy of God’s mercy, refused them; but after persistent entreaties he began to pray, and during the prayer rain fell.

Materials for a Sermon on the Feast Day of Venerable Theodosius of Totma (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

 

Materials for a Sermon on the Feast Day of Venerable Theodosius of Totma*

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

“Rejoice, for as a faithful servant you walked piously before the Lord all the days of your life.” (From the Akathist to Venerable Theodosius of Totma)**

At the glorification of a saint, they are invisibly present with us and instruct us. The Venerable one (Theodosius) seems, as it were, to say to all of us:

“You, dear ones, have gathered to honor my memory, and I have come to you. See, I was the same kind of man as you, yet throughout my earthly life I strove to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things were added to me. I also command all of you: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”