Homily for the Sunday of Pentecost (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Sunday of Pentecost

On the Gift of Speaking in Tongues

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

"Tongues will cease" (1 Corinthians 13:8)

As much as the mercy and compassion of God will help us today, we shall speak about the cessation of the gift of speaking in tongues in the Church of Christ.

The gift of speaking in tongues was given by God to the Holy Apostles on the Sunday of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, but only for a time, with the purpose of helping the pagan nations more easily convert to Christianity.

Indeed, at the Descent of the Holy Spirit, God spoke to the Jews through the mouths of foreigners. For the Jews from foreign lands, hearing the Apostles speaking in their own languages about the wonderful works of God, believed (Acts 2:11). Concerning the gift of speaking in tongues, the Apostle Paul prophesied that it would cease in the Church (1 Corinthians 13:8), because it was a gift and a sign only for the beginning of Christianity, in order to convert unbelievers more easily (1 Corinthians 14:22–28).

Homily One on Pentecost (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on Pentecost 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 at the Ćelije Monastery)

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

If it were not for this Day, brothers and sisters, there would be no Christianity; there would be no Holy Apostles, no Holy Martyrs, no Holy Confessors, no Righteous Ones, no Desert Fathers. If it were not for this Day, neither would you exist! If it were not for this glorious and great Day, there would be no Church of Christ in the world. This world would have been and remained an arena of death, a prison of sin, a hell. Man would have ceased to be man and would have become some kind of monstrous distortion.

Today's great and holy Feast, today's great and holy Event — the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the first disciples of Christ — gave being to the Church of Christ. Today is the birthday of the Church of Christ. Today the Church was born through the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Holy Apostles. The Lord was in the world in the flesh, preaching, working miracles, suffering, rising from the dead, and ascending into Heaven. And yet, behold, His disciples fled in fear of the Jews and hid themselves. What happened? Where was His power? Where was His promise: "I give you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy"?¹ They fled, they hid, they were runaways and cowards...

Holy Martyr Hermias of Comana in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Hermias lived during the reign of Emperor Antoninus, in the city of Comana, and was a soldier. He was advanced in age and had white hair. He was arrested because he confessed his faith in Christ and was brought before the governor Sebastian, who ordered first that his jaws be broken, the skin of his face removed, and his teeth torn out. Then they lit a furnace and threw him into it. Yet he remained unharmed by the fire, so an order was given that he be killed with poisonous potions. He drank the poisons, and when he remained unharmed by them as well, he drew to the faith of Christ the very man who had administered them to him. Because that man confessed Christ as God, they cut off his head. Then they tore out the sinews of the Saint's body and cast him into a red-hot cauldron; afterward they pierced his eyes, and for three days they hung him upside down. Finally, after cutting through his neck, he departed to the Lord.

2. It is natural to see courage and bravery in young people. To see them, however, in people who are old and advanced in years is something marvelous and extraordinary. For the elderly person, seeing his strength abandon him, feels more vulnerable and usually seeks shelter and security. Thus fear becomes a characteristic of old age, increasing along with advancing years.

Prologue in Sermons: May 31

He Who Regrets What He Has Given to the Poor Loses His Reward from God

May 31

(A Homily in Praise of Those Who Give Alms to the Poor)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When we give a poor man a small coin, we do not usually regret it and give it with a peaceful spirit. But when we must give away something more substantial, and actually do so, we often regret such a sacrifice, joined as it is with self-denial, and we give it with sadness and dissatisfaction, sometimes even with reproaches toward the one receiving it. In the latter case our misfortune is twofold: we regret what has been given away, and we lose our reward from God for it; and in some cases we may even incur punishment from God.

It is said, among other things, in the Prologue, in the Homily in Praise of the Merciful, “Almsgiving has value only when it is offered with love and good will... It is better not to do good at all than, having done it, to grieve over it and become despondent... Almsgiving is measured not by the amount given, but by the love of the heart... And if the rich do not give with love, they will not escape punishment. Almsgiving is valued not by the quantity distributed, but by the love of the heart.” That almsgiving has value in the eyes of God only when it is done with love, and loses its value when one grieves and becomes despondent over what has been given away, is evident from the following.

The Melancholy of the Palaiologoi (Photios Kontoglou)

The Melancholy of the Palaiologoi 

By Photios Kontoglou

When I was working in Mystras, it often happened that I found myself alone inside the Peribleptos Church. In the late afternoon the church would grow dark and forbidding. From above, on the scaffolding, I would hear footsteps.

“Some ghost must be walking about,” I would think to myself, and I would always turn my head toward the place where the soldiers and commanders were painted.

They stood in a circle, one after another, a little above the ground. Most of them had their eyes gouged out; their chests had been pierced. Many had been slashed to pieces by swords. On many faces only a single eye remained intact, but that one eye looked as though it were ten living eyes.

“Remember me, O Lord!”

Synaxarion of the Holy Twenty-Three Hagarane New Martrys of Thyateira

 

Synaxarion

By Haralambos M. Bousias

On the same day [May 30], the commemoration of the Holy and Glorious Twenty-Three New Martyrs from among the Hagarenes, who contested in Thyateira.

Verses

Three together with twenty Martyrs of Thyateira,
You have now magnified Christ by your contests.

The glorious New Martyrs of Thyateira, who came from among the Hagarenes, recently [1649] contended for the faith of Christ, the faith that brings salvation. As obedient students sitting at the feet of the Sheikh of Thyateira, the most wise teacher of the Mohammedan law, they followed him into the knowledge of the truth, which the grace of the All-Holy Spirit had taught him. When the twenty-three young men came to know the truth of the gospel, they abandoned the error of their fathers and enlisted themselves under Christ, remaining faithful to Him even unto martyrdom. Having therefore all struggled lawfully, they endured their sufferings with steadfastness. The Sheikh suffered death by strangulation, while his blessed martyr-disciples endured impalements, the burning of their limbs, and suspension upon the gallows. After their martyric consummation, they became workers of miracles by their own agency through the grace of God.

Venerable Isaac of Dalmatoi in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Synaxarion of Venerable Isaac may focus exclusively on his gift of foresight, the courage of his heart, and his Orthodox faith even unto sacrifice, as seen in the incident involving the heretical emperor Valens. Yet his liturgical service does not concern itself with these matters at all. The Hymnographer of our Church prefers instead to present the foundation of the Venerable One’s stance: namely, his venerable life manifested through his ascetic struggles for the purification of his heart and, consequently, his being filled with the virtues and the radiant illuminations of the Holy Spirit.

And this is understandable. No one can possess courage of heart, an Orthodox phronema (mindset), or the gifts of foresight and spiritual discernment unless he has first made himself a fitting vessel for the indwelling of the Triune God Himself. In other words, the Hymnographer approaches the Venerable One at the most fundamental level, in order to show us that what is truly noteworthy in the life of a saint is not some miraculous event, but rather the saint’s purified heart itself. This is the constant goal set before us by our faith, according to the words of the Lord Himself: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” God always seeks from us a pure heart, not miraculous powers, which are entirely His own gift.

A Reflection on the Saturday of Souls for the Eve of Pentecost

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It is well known that, for our Church, although every Saturday is dedicated to the holy martyrs and to her departed faithful, there are two principal Soul Saturdays: the one on the eve of Meatfare Sunday and the one on the eve of Holy Pentecost. For this reason, on both of these days we hear the Synaxarion note: “On this same day, the most divine Fathers decreed that remembrance be made of all who from the ages have fallen asleep in piety, in the hope of the resurrection unto eternal life.”

For the Church, the departed do not constitute a part of the world that has “ended and passed away” — as many believe, those who have confined their existence within the suffocating boundaries of this present world because they have erased God and Christ from their lives. The departed are an organic part of the Church, that is, a part of the Body of Christ, because death is not the gate leading to nonexistence, but the gate opening into the embrace of Christ. Just as we faithful live within that embrace in this present world, so too — and even more so — at the hour of our death and thereafter. The Apostle Paul tells us this directly, basing his words upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” In other words, whether we remain in this life or depart from it, we belong to the Lord.

Prologue in Sermons: May 30

On Honesty

May 30

(A Story from the Paterikon.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

All of us, brethren, ought to be honest, that is, to act according to justice. How should this be understood?

Once, three brothers went out for the harvest and hired themselves out to reap sixty fields. On the very first day of labor, one of them became ill and returned to his hut. One of the remaining brothers said to the other:

“See, our brother has fallen sick. Let us stand in prayer and ask God to help us reap both our own share and the portion that fell to him.”

They stood in prayer, and the Lord helped them successfully complete not only their own work but also the work of their sick brother.

29 May 1453: The City Has Fallen! A Lamenting Synaxarion of Constantine Palaiologos (Photios Kontoglou)

29 May 1453: The City Has Fallen! 

A Lamenting Synaxarion of Constantine Palaiologos 

By Photios Kontoglou

(Excerpts from a manuscript text by Photios Kontoglou, 1949)

This King Constantine Palaiologos, whom I wish to recount, was not one who was fortunate, long-lived, and glorified in his life, but rather a man afflicted and sorrowful. As many days as he lived in this world, he never ate bread in peace. The water he drank was bitter as poison. He came into the world in a storm-tossed age, to become king over a nation that was in anguish and unceasing struggle from the time the inhabited world was formed, and which by then had become utterly exhausted, poor, and struck from both East and West. And he was the last of his line, a true Palaiologos, and he took upon himself the sins of his people and, instead of a crown, wore a crown of thorns. Worn and old was his royal mantle; humbled was his scepter. Sorrowful was his face, humble his appearance. His words were like hymns. He was raised among weapons, yet he seemed like a saint. Therefore, a synaxarion would be fitting for him rather than a royal history.

Homily on the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ (St. Diadochos of Photiki)

Prologue

This is the Latin editorial introduction from Migne before the text of Diadochos of Photiki's homily:

Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Epirus, became renowned both through the ascetical writings that survive and through his distinguished disciple, Victor of Vita, who, at his master's urging, wrote the History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa and honored his teacher with this praise in the prologue:

“Having been instructed by so great a bishop, the blessed Diadochos, worthy of every kind of praise, whose many monuments of orthodox teaching shine forth like brilliant stars.”

Moreover, this brief homily On the Ascension of the Lord, which we have brought forth from Vatican Manuscript 455, was known to Lucas Holstenius, as is evident from one of his letters (Boissonade edition, pp. 209–210). However, Holstenius, prevented by his many occupations and then by his death, was unable to publish it, just as happened with other homilies of various authors that he had prepared for publication.

Therefore, we have judged that this homily, being entirely genuine and containing doctrinal teaching toward its conclusion, ought to be deposited in the public treasury of the Church before it might perhaps perish through some accident.

Homily on the Ascension of Christ (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Homily on the Ascension of Christ

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Ascension of Christ is a supernatural event. The testimony of this historical event is found in Holy Scripture.

Specifically, the description of the Lord's Ascension is found in the Gospel according to Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel writes: “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He was blessing them, that He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, having worshiped Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen” (Luke 24:50–53).

The Acts describe: “And He said to them (the Lord): ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ And when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was lifted up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into heaven while He was going, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said: ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you saw Him going into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away” (Acts 1:7–12).

“The City Has Fallen": But Why?

Fr. George Dorbarakis

May 29 is the anniversary of the tragic day for Ecumenical Hellenism - the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. The thousand-year-old Empire fell at that time and was delivered as prey to the barbarous hordes of the Ottomans, who filled most parts of the Great City with the corpses of Christians. “And in some places the ground could not be seen because of the multitude of the dead,” the well-known historian of the Fall, George Phrantzes, tells us in his Chronicle. He continues:

“It was a dreadful sight, and one heard many and varied lamentations, and saw countless enslaved noblemen, noblewomen, virgins, and monks, whom the Turks mercilessly dragged by their clothes, hair, and braids out of the churches, while they wept and wailed... One saw the divine Blood and Body of Christ being poured upon the ground and cast away...”

Venerable Ypomoni in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It is a remarkable case, that of the princess who later became an empress, then the mother of an emperor, and afterward a nun: Helen Dragas, who later became Ypomoni. For it is certainly not easy for someone to leave behind honors and glory — even in a period of decline — and shut herself up in a monastery, living as an ordinary mortal and carrying out even the most difficult and humble obediences. This reveals an exceptional humility, which is the necessary condition for receiving the grace of God in abundance.

Even more remarkable, however, is that she not only became a nun, but attained such heights of holiness that our Church recognized them and proclaimed her sanctity. The miracles recorded through her interventions, both in earlier times and in more recent years, are many. One example is the case of a taxi driver who, only a few years ago on this very day, was transporting a simple nun from Athens to Loutraki. During the journey he revealed his problem — skin cancer. He received her blessing, and it acted immediately as a cure for his illness. When, after a brief stop, he looked for her, she had vanished. No one around the place where he had stopped had seen her. He later recognized her in the doctor's office he visited, because the doctor had an icon of Saint Ypomoni hanging on the wall.

Holy Martyr Theodosia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This sacred and holy maiden was from Tyre. At the age of eighteen she was arrested by the pagans and thrown into prison to be tried, because she openly confessed her faith in God. When the judges had already taken their seats, she was brought before the governor Urbanus, who ordered her to offer sacrifice to the idols. When she refused and would not be persuaded, he commanded that she be tortured with severe blows to her sides and breasts, and that they continue even to the bones and inner organs, for he saw that despite the relentless tortures she endured everything in silence. Realizing that she still had life within her, he addressed her again, urging her to sacrifice. Then the Saint looked him straight in the eyes and, opening her mouth as much as she could, said to him with a smiling face: "Why are you deceived, man? Do you not know that now I have been counted worthy to have communion with the martyrs of God?" The governor, realizing that he had become the laughingstock of the young woman, grew angry and ordered that she be tortured even more severely than before. Afterwards he had her cast into the sea currents, within which she received her blessed end.

2. According to the customary practice of many hymnographers, the name of a saint becomes the occasion for theological reflection. The Saint commemorated today bears the name Theodosia, and therefore, as the Holy Hymnographer notes, “You have become a gift of God, wise martyr Theodosia, shining through your contest and through the radiant beams of virginity, setting ablaze the minds of all who ever honor you in faith” (Kathisma).

Prologue in Sermons: May 29

A Lesson for the Miserly

May 29

(A story from the Leimonarion concerning almsgiving.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some wealthy people may be called people of calculation. These are those who, when their financial affairs are going well, are willing enough to help the poor; but as soon as their business declines even a little, they stop helping the needy and say: “What can we do? When income is abundant, it is no hardship to share some of it. But when times are difficult, should we begin spending our capital on the poor? Who would agree to that?” And so the poor leave such people empty-handed, and whether they will ever receive help from them again, God alone knows.

But what then? Do such calculations actually help the miser increase his prosperity? Do they assist him in enlarging his wealth? Hardly. The frequent bankruptcies of the miserly, together with the other lessons sent to them from above, convince us of the opposite. To confirm this truth, we offer the following account. 

Synaxis of the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God

 

Synaxis of the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God (Feast Day - May 28)

According to a Slavic tradition of unknown origin, the story associated with the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God dates back to the year 304 AD, when the city of Nicaea was under siege by an Arabic army under Amer. One of the soldiers of Amer, whose name was Constantine, saw an Icon of the Theotokos and threw a stone at it. Then he began to trample it underfoot. That night, the Mother of God appeared in a dream to the soldier who had perpetrated this sacrilege and said: "You have insulted me most grievously, and it shall lead to your death." The following day, during the battle, the impious soldier was struck in the head with a stone and fell down dead.

As we go on to read, this event was later mentioned by the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod that took place in Nicaea in 325, and they ordained that the following hymn, "Your womb became a Holy Table, bearing the Heavenly Bread, Christ our God; from whom everyone who eats does not die, as the Nourisher of all things has said, O Birth-Giver of God," should be sung before the desecrated Icon of the Mother of God, which later became known as the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God.

Though this is the traditional story of the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God, the fact of the matter is that it is not accurately told. This can be most easily determined by the fact that there was no Arab invasion of Niceae in the fourth century. Fortunately with a little research we can determine what the actual story behind the Nicene Icon of the Mother of God is, at least for the most part.

Holy Hieromartyr Eutychios of Melitene in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Eutychios, or Eutyches, shone forth as a true laborer of Christ and servant of the Church, both through his constant and fruitful teaching and through his blameless and edifying works. He was a vigilant and most skillful fisher of souls, and also their loving father, ready even to give his life for their safety and salvation. He was arrested and remained steadfast in our holy faith, and he received a martyr’s end: the tyrants cast him into the waters, and he was drowned in them.

2. The Holy Hymnographer dedicates many hymns to emphasize the Saint’s particular martyrdom — his drowning in the waters — while at the same time giving the spiritual interpretation of the tragic event: before his own drowning, he himself had “drowned” the senseless atheists through the power of his words, while by his death through drowning he also drowned the wicked devil, the “bodiless dragon.”

Prologue in Sermons: May 28

To Simple Folk

May 28

(A discourse about the shoemaker whom the emperor’s scribe found at midnight praying in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Chalkoprateia.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

To you, simple folk, our word shall be addressed, and this is what we shall say to you. In order to turn you away from the thought that one can be saved only in a monastery or in some desert, today we propose that you listen to an incident which happened to a certain inhabitant of Constantinople.

“One night,” he says, “I went to church to pray. At midnight I saw near it a man who, standing at the church doors, prayed for a long time and with tears. Then the church doors opened before him by themselves, and he entered in. After praying fervently in the church, he came out, and the church doors again closed behind him by themselves. Marveling at this vision, I followed him and learned where he lived.

A few days later I visited him and said: ‘On Friday I saw you praying in church, and I saw that the church doors both opened and closed before you by themselves; therefore I have come to you so that you might reveal to me your virtues, that I may learn to imitate them and through you obtain forgiveness of sins.’

Two Miracles of Saint John the Russian Recounted from an Encyclical Issued in 1978

 

Metropolitan Chrysostomos I of Chalkis standing over the sacred relic of St. John the Russian

Metropolitan Chrysostomos I of Chalkis, in his encyclical no. 1609/17-11-1978 addressed to the most reverend parish priests and the pious Christians of the Holy Metropolis, made known the following two miracles of Saint John the Russian.

1) “... Last winter, a Greek ship in the North Sea, heavily loaded with cargo, was sailing toward a port in the Low Countries. In the middle of the sea they were struck by a terrible cyclone. The radar stopped functioning. At any moment the ship was about to sink. The captain, an experienced sailor, saw clearly that there was truly no hope of salvation.

Someone had once told him that there exists an incorrupt saint, Saint John the Russian is his name, who grants whatever one asks of him with faith. The captain remembered this, and amid the storm of destruction he prayed to the Saint John unknown to him and said to him:

‘Great Saint of God, whom I have never known, tonight I pray to you, not to save myself, though I am the captain, not for the ship that costs millions, but I pray for these suffering sailors who left their homeland in order to support their poor families and who at this moment are drowning. Come, Saint of God, and hold the ship fast so that it may not be lost in the depths of the sea.’

Homily on the Ascension of the Lord (Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia)

Homily on the Ascension of the Lord 

By Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki

(Delivered in 2024)

“You are the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world”
(from the Apolytikion of the feast)

The event of the Ascension, although it constituted the end of the Lord’s presence on earth, in essence constitutes the beginning of the reality of the Church and of the grace of God within the souls of the faithful. Let us carry our minds a little beyond the historical event, to that place where the soul is truly refreshed, where reality truly endures, where it never ends and always leaves its deep imprint within our soul, becoming the true celebration and the genuine feast.

After the Resurrection, the Lord takes the disciples and begins to initiate them into the mystery of the Resurrection, to reveal Himself to them and gradually to draw them into dialogue with Himself as the Risen One. And while only a few days earlier their senses had perceived the Cross and the confirmed death, He begins to open their minds and to appear to them, as the Evangelist says, “in another form” (Mark 16:12). After thoroughly assuring them through proofs of the truth of His Resurrection, He gradually leads them outside Jerusalem, to the Mount of Olives. There He begins to ascend into heaven, giving them His blessing, separating Himself from them, while they, astonished, behold the now final visible separation from the Lord. Two angels say to them: “Do not be amazed; He who now blesses you and ascends into heaven is not merely the risen teacher, but the true Christ, God Himself.”

The First Ecumenical Synod: Description and Significance (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

The First Ecumenical Synod: Description and Significance

By St. Nektarios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis

Arius

Arius was born in Libya around the middle of the third century A.D. He studied in Alexandria and became a follower of Origen, of Meletius, and of Lucian the Presbyter, head of the Antiochian School. His broad education, his philosophical training, and his skill in the knowledge of the divine Scriptures made him very well known, while his grave appearance, his somewhat proud manners, his imposing stature, and his handsome countenance inspired in all respect and sympathy. At first, after leaving Meletius, he was ordained deacon of the Church of Alexandria by its Bishop Peter.

From this period already there appears the strength of his character and his persistence in his convictions. Later, when Peter of Alexandria denounced the associates of Meletius and did not accept their baptism, Arius rose up for the first time, reproaching what had been done and protesting against this measure of his Bishop. Consequently, he was expelled from Alexandria. But afterwards, when the mild-mannered Achillas succeeded the deceased Peter, Arius, having asked forgiveness, was received back into the Church, and in the year 312 was ordained Presbyter.

Synaxarion of Venerable John the Russian and the New Confessor

Synaxarion

By Monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis

On the twenty-seventh day of the same month [May], we commemorate the Venerable John the Russian, the New Confessor, whose divine relic, having been brought from Asia Minor, is preserved incorrupt in New Prokopi on the island of Euboea.

Verses

The captive appeared full of graces,
Having taken captive the ruler of darkness.
On the twenty-seventh John was taken from here unto God.

This man lived in the eighteenth century, having been born in a certain village of what is called Little Russia, from pious parents, by whom he was raised in a God-loving manner in piety and honorable morals. Having reached manhood, he entered military service during the reign in Russia of Peter the Great, who, having undertaken war against the Turks, was defeated, and very many of the soldiers became captives to the neighboring Tatars, among whom was also John. Having been sold to a certain Ottoman cavalry commander, he was led by him to a certain town whose name was Prokopion, situated a day’s journey from Caesarea in Cappadocia.

Venerable John the Russian in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Russia may boast of its remarkable offspring, Saint John; Asia Minor may exalt because in its land the holiness of the Venerable Father was manifested; New Prokopi on the island of Euboea may shine radiantly because there his grace-flowing relic came to rest; yet all the faithful throughout the whole earth celebrate the great Venerable New Confessor. And this is because our saints are the boast and blessing of all the Orthodox everywhere on earth. A saint, that is, may have been “bound” to a certain place while he lived in this life, yet in the end he belongs to the whole Church, which means that every believer can regard the saint as his own, can have him as friend and protector, brother and father. The good Hymnographer of the Venerable one, the sacred teacher Joseph from Kermeira of Cappadocia, repeatedly comes and emphasizes this truth to us through his service:

“Rejoice, most excellent offspring of Russia and honored praise of all the faithful without exception” (Lity).

“Your homeland Russia boasts of your swaddling clothes, while the Asiatic land rejoices in your holy relic” (Second Apolytikion).

Yet: “Come then, all you Orthodox, let us celebrate his divine memory” (Doxastikon of the Lity).

Prologue in Sermons: May 27

From Unrighteous Wealth You Will Not Be Happy

May 27

(A discourse of Saint John Chrysostom concerning those who take garments from orphans.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

People driven by greed do not distinguish whether the means by which they increase their wealth are sinful or not. Their only goal is to obtain money, and everything else means nothing to them. And because of this, orphans are often left hungry because of them, widows suffer distress, and debtors robbed by them weep. Yet the hard-hearted rich pay no attention to this and continue their work. What do you think, brethren? Will all the evil that greedy men do pass without punishment or not? Will the Lord require from them the tears of the unfortunate, or will He not require them? How should we look upon this?

Discourse on the Venerable 318 God-Bearing Fathers and on Constantine the Most Pious Emperor (Gregory the Presbyter of Caesarea)

Discourse on the Venerable 318 God-Bearing Fathers and on Constantine the Most Pious Emperor 

By Gregory the Presbyter of Caesarea in Cappadocia*

Having been permitted by the apostolic exhortation to obey those who rule, O lover of God, and, as it were, having forgotten my own weakness, and having overlooked the lack of elegance in my discourse, I submitted myself to the honored Father, who was proposing to me that I should write briefly concerning the gathering at Nicaea of the holy three hundred and eighteen Fathers, and that I should present it also to the most holy Church in Nicaea under his care; so that the narratives might preserve in written form both the spiritual struggle of those whose bodily presence it had enjoyed. And indeed, the things spoken by me according to my own ability, in comparison with the surpassing greatness of the virtuous conduct of the Fathers, I would say resemble the smallness of dew contending against ocean waves; but of his perfection it would be fitting not to direct the mind toward the grandeur of the words, but rather to measure the zeal of sympathy by the eagerness of obedience.

When Maximian and Licinius and Maxentius had ruled impiously in Rome, and had subjected to tortures and death many who refused to sacrifice to demons and abandon the faith of the Christians, and had themselves found in the destruction of their lives a fitting reward for their madness toward idols, then wondrously from the regions of the West there arose, like the morning star, Constantine the most Christ-loving, the leader of orthodox rule and the champion of the spotless faith; who, at the same time that he transferred the imperial scepters from the West to the East, had his soul illumined by the divine light. And having anointed his mind with piety, he entered first into contest against the devil; and he established everywhere decrees granting freedom to Christians; he dissolved the dejection that had fallen upon the faithful from the lawless; he cast down the revered objects of the idols; he triumphed over the nonexistence of falsehood; he made manifest the proclamation of the truth; he bestowed honor and boldness upon those who honored the Lord; the bodies of the faithful, injured by scourges, were restored, while those devoted to demons were subjected to torture and exile. And it was possible to behold both the recall of the faithful from persecution and the recovery of those from demonic delusion, resembling an angelic choir, while all with boldness glorified the Lord.

Homily Two on the Ascension of the Lord (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

Homily Two on the Ascension of the Lord 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

“Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with a voice of rejoicing.”

Today the Holy Church calls us to gladness and joy. But wherein does this joy consist, and why should we rejoice?

Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ from earth to heaven. Today the Lord has ascended, and therefore “all you nations clap your hands, for the Lord has ascended to where He was before” (Sticheron at “Lord, I have cried,” 1st).

If the Lord had not ascended into heaven, but had continued to remain on earth, then this great joy would not exist, because then the work of our salvation, for which the Lord came down to earth, would not have been completed. Therefore we must rejoice today, because the Lord ascended bodily into heaven. The Lord descended from heaven in order to restore human nature, fallen into corruption, “to raise it up and glorify it together with Himself” (Canon 1, Ode 3) — to bring it back to its former state, truly making us gods by grace. For “the Word of God became man so that we might become deified” (Saint Athanasios the Great, On the Incarnation of the Word, ch. 59).

The Visitation of Elder Eumenios to a Homosexual Couple With AIDS

 

By Fr. Evangelos Papanikolaou -
Priest, Medical Doctor, Author

Two of these young men were at one point discharged from the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Attica and went back to their home, where they lived together. When they later went again to the Elder Eumenios (+ 5/23/1999) to see him, they said to him: “Elder, all this time that we have been coming here, you have fed us, given us drink, and cared for us. We also want to invite you one day to our home, so that we may take care of you.”

So the Elder said to me:

“Vangelis, we shall go.”

I said:

“Elder, where are we going? These people are…”

“Vangelis, I know, I know what they are…”

“But, Elder, these two are living together. They live in the same house. They also wear rings.”

Holy Apostle Carpos of the Seventy in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This great Apostle of the Lord, who was numbered by the Lord Himself among the seventy disciples and apostles, and who ministered to the great Paul in his preaching, as well as carried his divine epistles to those to whom they were sent, taught many of the pagans to worship the Holy Trinity. Therefore, when his mind was illumined by the divine radiance of the Paraclete (on the day of Pentecost), and he arose like an unsetting sun from the East, he enlightened the whole world with his divine teachings, performing exceedingly wondrous miracles daily and saving many from evil spirits.

He drew many cities and peoples to the Christian faith, and through holy baptism the believers were thus separated from the unbelievers, with the result that he endured many persecutions and afflictions from the unbelievers. And this was because, advancing with complete steadfastness toward the harshest and most painful tortures, he did not shrink at all before the wrath of rulers. Therefore, because he glorified God also with his very body, he was glorified by Him in a radiant manner. He reposed in the Lord, and now works miracles daily through his relics, healing every kind of illness and driving away unclean spirits.

Prologue in Sermons: May 26

One Must Not Leave Church Before the End of the Service

May 26

(A discourse on how the devil leads people out of church before the dismissal.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some people, out of laziness, leave church before the end of the service and think that it is nothing serious. But in reality, brethren, this is very wrong; for it is none other than the devil himself who leads us out of church before the proper time. Therefore, when we leave church before we should, we thereby do what is pleasing to the enemy of our salvation. We shall now prove this to you.

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA - SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE FIRST ECUMENICAL SYNOD

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

The High-Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ

While celebrating the final Passover with His disciples, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed at the end of the Passover supper in these words: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (John 17:1–13). This Gospel passage, in which the teaching concerning the consubstantiality of the Son of God with God the Father — and thus His Divinity — is set forth so clearly in the very words of Jesus Christ Himself, is appointed to be read on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, who synodically affirmed and restored the true teaching concerning the consubstantiality of the Son of God with God the Father against the heretic Arius.

On the Ecumenical Synods

On the Seventh Sunday after Pascha, the Orthodox Church yearly commemorates and glorifies the Holy and God-bearing Fathers who were present at the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea. An Ecumenical Synod is the gathering of the shepherds and teachers of the Church of Christ, insofar as possible from the whole inhabited world, for the confirmation of true dogma and good order among Christians. The great authority and importance of synodal deliberations and decisions are founded upon the words of Jesus Christ Himself, Who said: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

The Third Finding of the Honorable Head of John the Baptist and Forerunner in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

 

1. The honorable and holy head of John the Forerunner, which had long been hidden, has now come forth from the bosom of the earth like gold from the mines, enclosed not in a jar as before, but in a silver vessel, found in a sacred place and revealed by a priest. This head, which glorious Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, received from Comana together with the faithful emperor, her shepherd, and the faithful people, she welcomes with great rejoicing; and after all had venerated it with deep faith, they placed it in a holy place.

2. A very beautiful image of the relationship between Saint John the Forerunner and Jesus Christ, presented to us in the hymnography of today’s feast, is that of the voice in relation to the Word: “Having become the voice of the Word… O heavenly man and Forerunner” (Ode I). Saint John is thus presented, on the basis of the actual events of his life, as the one who reveals the presence of Christ, who proclaims with a mighty voice, so that all may hear, the coming of the Messiah.

May: Day 25: Teaching 3: On the Birthday of Her Imperial Majesty, the Most Pious Sovereign Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

May: Day 25: Teaching 3:
On the Birthday of Her Imperial Majesty, the Most Pious Sovereign Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
 
(How Should the Gift of Life Be Used?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today our national Church gratefully commemorates and celebrates the birth of our Most Pious Sovereign Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and prays to the Lord that He may grant her many years in health and unchanging prosperity. The gift of life, beloved brethren, is immeasurably great for every individual person, as the gift of rational and free life, to which immortality has been promised, as a gift accompanied throughout a man’s life by countless sweet blessings from the Creator, especially in the life of a Christian. But the gift of the life of the Empress, the Mother of the Russian people, who lightens the heavy burden of rule borne by her sovereign husband the Emperor — the gift, I say, of life, precious for her, is also precious for the whole people, because her life has brought and continues to bring many blessings to the entire nation. Therefore it would be great ingratitude on our part before God and before the sacred person of the Empress not to celebrate this day with hymns of thanksgiving and praises to the Lord flowing from the grateful hearts of the great Russian people.

May: Day 25: Teaching 2: The Third Finding of the Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

 

May: Day 25: Teaching 2:
The Third Finding of the Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
 
(How Should Christians Honor the Memory of John the Baptist?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today, brethren, we celebrate the third finding of the honorable head of the glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord, John. Even before the birth of John it was foretold concerning him that he would be pleasing to the Lord and would be His Forerunner; that he would be a great ascetic; that he would drink no wine or strong drink; and that he would lead the strictest life of fasting. Such indeed was John the Baptist.

From his early years he settled in the wild desert of the Jordan. His food was locusts — a kind of grasshopper — and wild honey; his drink was only pure water. All who came to him he taught repentance, righteousness, love, and a God-pleasing life. Thought of God and pleasing Him was his constant occupation. Therefore the Lord glorified him, calling him an angel and saying of him that among those born of women there had not arisen anyone greater or more glorious than John the Baptist. And the Holy Church in her hymns calls him righteous, worthy of all our praise, and more honorable than all the prophets. Today, on the day of the finding of his honorable head — which had been cut off by order of King Herod and at the desire of his unlawful wife Herodias, because John rebuked their lawless life — the Church has established a feast, inviting all of us to honor his holy memory in a fitting manner.

Prologue in Sermons: May 25

 

It is a Good Thing, During Times of Absence, To Entrust our Loved Ones to the Most Holy Theotokos

May 25

(A word from the Lemonarion concerning entrusting one’s wife to the Most Holy Theotokos.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some pious Christians, when setting out on a long journey, entrust their loved ones to the protection and care of the Most Holy Theotokos. Do they do well in this?

There once lived in Alexandria a Christ-loving man, reverent and charitable, who received strangers and washed the feet of monks. He had a humble and fasting wife and a six-year-old daughter. Once, when he was leaving for Constantinople on business, his wife asked him: “To whom, my lord, do you entrust me and our daughter during your absence?” — “To our Lady the Theotokos,” the husband answered. Leaving one servant in the house, he departed.

During his absence, the devil inspired in that servant an evil thought: to kill his master’s wife and daughter, plunder the property, and flee with the stolen goods. Taking a knife, he went toward the room where his mistress sat doing needlework, intending to kill her. But when he approached the door, he was suddenly struck blind and could move neither forward nor backward. After suffering for a long time, searching for the entrance or the exit and finding neither, he began calling out to his mistress, shouting: “Come here!”

Holy Confessor Blandina of Iasi (+ 1971)

Blondina Gobjilă, commonly known as “Mother Blandina,” was born on February 24, 1906, in the village of Grușenți-Chelmești in Bessarabia, into a priestly family. Her father was named Zaharia Popovici, and her mother Serafima. They had two more daughters and a son, Blandina being the youngest of them all. Her name comes from the Holy Martyr Blandina, who lived in the second century in the region of present-day Lyon and was martyred in the year 177 during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius (161–180). The meaning of the name, derived from the Latin blandus, -a, -um, meaning “gentle, comforting, pleasant, charming, inviting,” very well describes both her character and the way she related to people throughout her life, regardless of the difficulties she encountered.

She received an excellent education, both moral and intellectual. The priestly family into which she was born deeply influenced her upbringing and personality. Faith, piety, love for the holy services, respect for one’s neighbor, and self-sacrifice were virtues she cultivated from earliest childhood until the end of her life. From the age of six she attended daily the services celebrated by her father, read at the chanter’s stand, knew the order of the services, replaced the chanter when needed, and knew the Divine Liturgy by heart. She attended elementary school and gymnasium, eventually becoming a teacher for grades one through seven.

On August 27, 1926, she married Gheorghe Gobjilă, an agronomist engineer and son of a priest, with whom she had one son, Vladislav-Slavcic. From this point, Mother Blandina’s life may be divided into three periods of fifteen years each: 1926–1941 were years spent in peace and happiness with her husband and their son; 1941–1956 was the period in which she was deported to Siberia; and from 1956 until 1971, when she departed to the Lord, she lived her years of freedom in Iași, at the Metropolitan Cathedral near Saint Paraskeva.

Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod

On Preserving the Orthodox Faith

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one!” (1 John 5:7)

Christ is Risen!

Beloved faithful,

Today, on the Seventh Sunday after Holy Pascha, the Orthodox Church celebrates the First Ecumenical Synod of the Christian world, which took place in the year 325 in the city of Nicaea, in order to condemn the heresy—that is, the false and heretical teaching—of Arius. The Synod was organized by Holy Emperor Constantine the Great together with his mother Helen, at the request of the Holy Fathers of that time, for he was the first Christian emperor in the world (306–337).

What is an Ecumenical Synod? It is the gathering of all the great Orthodox hierarchs—bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs—from the whole world, with the purpose of discussing certain teachings of the Christian faith that had not yet been fully clarified, and establishing them in fixed and unchangeable laws called dogmas. An Ecumenical Synod also judges and condemns all deviations from the faith that are foreign to the teaching of the Holy Gospel and the Holy Fathers, and excludes from the Church—that is, anathematizes—all heretics who tear apart the unity of faith of the Church, symbolized by the seamless tunic of the Lord, woven in one piece, as the Holy Gospel says: “The tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout” (John 19:23). By the word “synod” we mean assembly or council; by the word “heresy” we mean someone’s personal opinion or teaching about God that stands against the true teaching of the Church of Christ.

Homily Two on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of Nicaea (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily Two on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of Nicaea 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1967 at the Monastery of Ćelije)

Here is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod. Why is this so? After the wondrous and unprecedented events, after the Resurrection of the Savior, after the Ascension, after Golgotha, after the whole earthly life of the Savior lasting thirty-three and a half years, the Church glorifies the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod. Why? Because the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod were, together with the Holy Apostles and after the Holy Apostles, the greatest fighters for one truth — the truth that Christ Jesus is the True God. This was their chief struggle, this was their chief battle: Christ is the True God! In this lies all their preaching, in this lies their heart, their soul, their conscience. Christ is the True God, Christ is the God-man. Behold, this is the whole truth which the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod fearlessly preached and confessed. In the beautiful hymns they are called divine warriors, warriors who fought fearlessly, fighting for the most important truths in all worlds and for the most important Person — the True God.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them” (John 17:10)

Today, beloved brothers and sisters, we have gathered together two or even four feasts: first, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the memory of the Holy Fathers of the Nicene Synod, who confirmed the teaching about the Divinity of Jesus Christ against the heretic Arius, who blasphemed the Son of God by denying His Divinity and His eternal equality with God the Father. That already makes two feasts. The third is the feast of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, the great servant of God, and the fourth is the memory of the great Prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed the Divinity of Jesus Christ seven hundred years before His birth.

So, my brethren, there were heretics who, taught by the devil, dared to deprive people of the hope of salvation, to deprive them of the Savior, the Destroyer of death and hades, the Lord Jesus Christ, reducing Him — the Creator and God — to the level of a creature. Against these bold and senseless men, led by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine convened the Ecumenical Synod in the city of Nicaea in the year 325 after the Birth of Christ. There the blaspheming Arius was refuted, removed from the priesthood, and excommunicated from the Church of God together with his followers, and soon afterward he died a shameful death.

Prologue in Sermons: May 24

The Word of God Has a Powerful Effect Upon the Human Heart

May 24

(Repose of our Venerable Father Nikita the Stylite, Wonderworker of Pereslavl.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The word of God has a powerful effect upon the human heart. In this we shall now try to convince you. 

 

Our Venerable Father Nikita, whose memory the Holy Church celebrates on May 24, was born and raised in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. From his youth he was not distinguished by piety. He was harsh, irritable, stirred up disturbances, brought many sorrows upon people, dragged them into lawsuits, and robbed them. And as he himself was, so also were his companions. Once, during Vespers, he entered a church. There he heard the following words of Scripture: “Wash yourselves and be clean; put away the evil from your souls,” and the rest. These words produced such an effect upon Nikita that he was seized with terror, and returning home, he spent the entire night sleepless, continually thinking about what he had heard. In the morning he remained in fear for a long time, and then, coming to himself, he sighed from the depths of his heart and said: “Woe is me! Greatly, greatly have I sinned!” And he went out from his house, praying and weeping. Then he came to one of the monasteries, fell at the abbot’s feet, and said: “Save a perishing soul!” The abbot gave him a penance, and for three days he stood at the monastery gates, weeping and confessing his sins to all who entered and departed. Afterwards he went completely naked into a swamp, sat among the reeds, and began praying to God. Gnats and mosquitoes swarmed about him in great clouds. When he returned to the monastery, it was impossible to recognize his body, so abundantly did blood flow from it. The abbot said to him: “My son, what have you done to yourself?” Nikita answered nothing else, but only kept saying to the abbot: “Father, save a perishing soul!” Afterwards he continued in constant prayer and fasting, spending days and nights without sleep. Then he made for himself a pillar near the church and dug a narrow passage beneath the church wall, by which he would come into the church for prayer. For such struggles he received from God the gift of working miracles. And many who were afflicted with various diseases came to him and received healing.

Constantine the Great and the First Ecumenical Synod (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Constantine the Great and the First Ecumenical Synod 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Transcribed Homily. Delivered during Great Vespers of Saints Constantine and Helen, Makynia of Nafpaktia, on May 20, 2025.)

Beloved fathers and brethren, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President of the Municipal Council, Mr. Vice-Mayor and members of the Municipal Council, beloved brethren in Christ, tonight we celebrate the memory of the Holy God-crowned Emperors and Equals-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen, and this sacred church of Saints Constantine and Helen in Makynia, here in Nafpaktos, is holding its feast. We celebrate and solemnly honor the memory of these Holy God-crowned Emperors and Equals-to-the-Apostles, and indeed, concerning Saint Helen one may say that she was a woman of virtue, because despite the difficulties she faced in her marriage, she was deemed worthy to bear and raise such a child, who became Emperor and Sole Ruler of the then united Roman Empire, both in East and West. I will not say more about Saint Helen, for on another occasion we have spoken about her. What is of great importance is that Saint Constantine the Great proved himself truly to be a great Emperor, not only for that era, but on a universal and timeless scale.

Venerable Eumenios the New of Crete in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Eumenios (1931–1999) was born in Ethia, in the province of Monofatsi, Heraklion, Crete. From his childhood he was wounded by divine eros and followed the monastic path at the Monastery of the Great Martyr Niketas near his birthplace. At his tonsure as a monk he received the name Sophronios, and at his ordination as a hieromonk — performed by Archbishop Timothy of Crete at the Monastery of Kalyviani — he received the name Eumenios. He was afflicted by demonic temptations and came to the glorious Monastery of Koudoumas, where he was freed from the influence of the Evil One. Later he fell ill with a contagious disease, and for this reason came to the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Athens, which became the arena of his ascetic struggles and a refuge of compassion for all the suffering and gravely ill. At the Hospital for Infectious Diseases he completed the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries and zealously served Saint Nikephoros (Tzanakakis), who was blind, leprous, and paralyzed. He ministered to all the afflicted and seriously ill and became the spiritual father and guide unto salvation for very many Christians of Athens. He endured his own bodily illnesses without complaint, imitating Job, and became distinguished for his humility, meekness, and compassionate love toward every suffering and weary person. He fell asleep in Athens on May 23, 1999, and his grace-filled relics were placed for veneration in the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries at the Hospital for Infectious Diseases, where they received the final kiss of countless mourners. He was buried with public honor in the land of his fathers. Through his holy intercessions, O Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Homily on the Ascension of the Lord (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

On the Ascension of the Lord

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

Happy Feast of the Ascension of our Lord and God Jesus Christ! The faith connected with the events of this day is confessed every time we recite the Creed. This event is not merely something like the conclusion of the gospel; in truth, this day is the completion of our salvation! Because Christ, in His Incarnation, overcame the corruption of human nature, since He took from the womb of the Most Pure Mother a nature no longer defiled by sin, though still bearing the consequences of sin — such as mortality, suffering, and vulnerability to pain. As a result of the Incarnation, divine life became accessible to us, a life of which we partake through Holy Communion. By His Crucifixion upon the Cross, the Lord redeemed us from beneath the wrath of God and the curse of death that rested upon every one of us because of Adam’s fall and our own sins, which grew from that fall like a tree from a seed.

By His descent into Hades, the Lord freed the ancient captives and shattered the power of the enemy, while by His Resurrection from the dead Christ destroyed the dominion of death over us, laying the foundation for the universal resurrection. And now the human nature assumed by the Lord had to be glorified. Today, on the Feast of the Ascension, the Lord raises our human nature above all the heavens and seats it at the right hand of God the Father. What does this have to do with us? Everything! Christ ascends into Heaven in order to intercede for us before the Father.