Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, 
or Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

On the Priesthood and Pastoral Ministry

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“There was a certain man, a master of his house, who planted a vineyard. He surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, and gave it to the vinedressers…” (Matthew 21:33).

Beloved faithful,

In several places in Holy Scripture, the world created by God is compared to a vineyard. The Gospel reading today states this most clearly: “There was a certain man, a master of his house, who planted a vineyard.” This is God Himself, the Master of heaven and earth, who created all things visible and invisible and made the world as a vineyard of His house! Elsewhere the Savior says: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser… I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:1–5). The Prophet David likewise compares the world to a vineyard and prays for its perfection, saying: “Lord, Lord, look down from heaven and see, and visit this vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and perfect it” (Psalm 79:15–16).

Why does God compare the world to a vineyard or to wheat ready for harvest, and not to something else? Because both the vine and the grain are the two foremost fruits of the earth that sustain people's bodily life. Then, because bread and wine, through the Divine Liturgy, are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, which sustain the spiritual life of our souls. For just as bread and wine “strengthen man's heart,” so Holy Communion strengthens faith, forgives sins, and saves the soul of the faithful person. Bread and wine, along with the oil that is also often mentioned, are basic foods of humanity that possess a twofold sacred character, for they nourish both body and soul through the liturgical sacrifice.

Homily One for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

 

Homily One for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew
(13th Sunday After Pentecost)

By St. John of Kronstadt

Today during the Divine Liturgy, beloved brothers and sisters, there was read from the Gospel the parable of Christ the Savior concerning the master of a house who planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, and, having entrusted it to vinedressers, went away. When the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to receive his fruits. But the vinedressers seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than before, and they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, “They will surely be ashamed before my son.” But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and take possession of his inheritance.” And having seized him, they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the master of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those vinedressers? The chief priests and elders, to whom this parable was spoken, said to Him, “He will bring those wicked men to a wicked end, and will give the vineyard to other vinedressers, who will render him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes (Ps. 117:22–23). Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” (Matt. 21:33–43).

Homily on the Epistle for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Epistle for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Have you heard the thunder? Have you seen the lightning? This lightning flashed here; this thunder resounded in this very church. For was it not here, from this very sacred place, that the apostle’s lightning-like word was proclaimed today: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus… let him be anathema!” (1 Cor. 16:22). What are all the thunders and lightnings compared with the one curse of God? Thunder and lightning strike at a particular time and in some particular place upon the earth; but the curse of God, once pronounced in Paradise, has continued to this day to make the whole earth bring forth thorns and thistles. Thunder and lightning may kill the body, may take away temporal life; but the curse of God may cast both soul and body forever into the fiery Gehenna. Therefore, we must look more carefully into ourselves: are we standing beneath this terrible thunder? Are we in some way drawing this unquenchable lightning down upon our own heads? Has someone perhaps already been struck by it? For this, too, may happen: someone may already have been struck by it and yet feel nothing of his affliction, just as one struck by physical thunder and lightning does not know his condition; and if he can be restored to life, it is through the help of a beneficent hand belonging to another.

Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of the Honorable Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John (Gennadios Scholarios)

Introduction

The following text, “Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of the Honorable Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John,” was written by George Scholarios, who later became known as Gennadios II, Patriarch of Constantinople. Scholarios (ca. 1405–1472) was one of the most important Greek theologians and intellectuals of the fifteenth century. He was deeply involved in the theological controversies surrounding the Council of Florence and initially supported union with the Latin Church before becoming one of the most prominent opponents of the union. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he became the first Patriarch of Constantinople under Ottoman rule, taking the monastic name Gennadios. His patriarchates were troubled and relatively brief, and by the autumn of 1465 he had withdrawn permanently to the Monastery of the Forerunner on Mount Menoikeion, where he devoted himself to prayer, study, and writing. It was during this final period of his life that many of his most important surviving works were composed.

This homily is dated 15 June 1466. The manuscript heading itself identifies it as having been written at the Monastery of the Forerunner on Mount Menoikeion near Serres. It was therefore composed only a few months after Scholarios had made his final withdrawal from Constantinople and entered the more secluded monastic period in which he produced much of his later theological and ascetic writing. The editors of Scholarios's complete works specifically note that the homily was written to be read, rather than preached, and describe it as an expression of gratitude toward the Honorable Forerunner, combining historical reflection with ascetic exhortation.

The Community of Saint John the Forerunner on Antigone Island

Antigone is the second inhabited island of the Propontis after Prinkipo (Büyükada), when coming from Istanbul, and is the second in size in the group. It is covered with pine trees and has an area of approximately 1,500 square meters. Its Turkish name is “Burgaz,” meaning “fortress” or “wall.”

In the center of the island's inhabited area stands the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner. According to tradition, it was built around 841 by the Empress Theodora over the crypt of Saint Methodios the Confessor. Following the Fall of Constantinople, the church was renovated twice, in 1759 and again in 1817. On June 28, 1894, during the great earthquake, the church was split in two and could no longer be repaired. The people of Antigone undertook a major effort to rebuild their church and organized a collection among themselves. Eventually, through the generous donation of the great benefactor Demetrios Pantziris, and with his son-in-law Nikolaos Dimadis serving as architect—he was the son of Konstantinos Dimadis, the architect of the Great School of the Nation—the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner was erected. The church was consecrated on July 11, 1899, with the Patriarch of Constantinople Neophytos presiding over the ceremony; he was serving at Antigone at the time.

“The Honorable Forerunner is Gentle, Lovely, Exceedingly Beautiful”

Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis would say about Saint John the Forerunner, while pointing to his icons:

“The Honorable Forerunner is not so stern and fierce! He is gentle, lovely, exceedingly beautiful.”

And when he was asked whether he had seen him, he replied:

“I have seen him; that is why I tell you that he is gentle. Indeed, he told me that he would be my protector in this life and the guarantor of my salvation!”

Source: From the book Taught by God published by the Metropolis of Veria, Naoussa and Campania in 2023, which contains the file for the canonization of Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.

 

New Archaeological Discoveries Beneath the Holy Sepulchre Strengthen the Case for Jerusalem’s Traditional Tomb of Christ

New archaeological discoveries beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are shedding important new light on one of the oldest and most disputed questions in Christian archaeology: whether the traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection is historically credible.

The discoveries do not provide an inscription identifying the tomb as that of Jesus, nor do they constitute definitive proof that the tomb preserved within the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb in which Jesus was buried. What they do provide, however, is a remarkably detailed picture of the landscape that existed beneath the church during the first century. That landscape—a disused quarry subsequently used for cultivation and burial—fits important elements of the Gospel accounts and provides new archaeological context for the traditional identification of the site.

The excavations, directed by Francesca Romana Stasolla of the Sapienza University of Rome, have been conducted since 2022 as part of restoration work involving the floor of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. The preliminary results of the 2025 campaign have now been published in Liber Annuus, the archaeological journal of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. The research represents the culmination of investigations in several areas of the complex and provides a broader topographical reconstruction of the site.

The Revealed Path: Saint Phanourios and the Memory of Nafplio’s Liberation

The veneration of Saint Phanourios occupies a unique space within Greek Orthodox folklore. Unlike many military, clerical or monastic saints whose legacies were codified in homilies or formal ecclesiastical historiography, Saint Phanourios exists primarily through the lens of lived experience and communal practice. The hallmark of his devotion is the baking of the phanouropita, a vegan cake made with seven or nine ingredients, which functions as a domestic ritual of intercession, traditionally associated with the recovery of lost objects, opening of closed paths, or offering prayers for his legendary, unrepentant mother. Alexandros Papadiamantis beautifully preserved this folklore and act of piety in his 1899 short story, Goutou Goupatou, recording the custom of offering a cake while quietly praying, "God forgive the mother of Saint Phanourios." Yet, when this same underlying folklore interacted with the localized realities of Nafplio, the concept of a saint who "reveals" (phaneronei) underwent a profound, civic transformation, shifting from a private domestic prayer into a literal catalyst for the Greek War of Independence.

The Teaching on Weeping of Venerable Poemen the Great

A brother asked Abba Poemen what kind of spiritual labor a monk ought to undertake. The Abba replied: “When Abraham came into the Promised Land, he purchased a tomb for himself, and from the tomb he began to take possession of the Promised Land.” The brother asked: “What does the ‘tomb’ signify?” The Abba replied: “It is a place of weeping and lamentation.”

The following saying also belongs to Abba Poemen: “Weeping is twofold: it brings about and preserves.”

A brother asked Abba Poemen: “What should I do about my passions, which trouble me?” The Elder said to him: “Let us weep with all our strength before the goodness of God, until He has mercy upon us.”

A brother asked Abba Poemen: “What should I do about my sins?” The Elder said: “He who desires to be freed from the sins that dwell within him is freed from them through weeping; and he who desires not to fall into sin again avoids falling through weeping. This is the path of repentance handed down to us by Scripture and the Fathers, who said: ‘Weep!’ There is no other path apart from weeping.”

Venerable Poemen the Great Resource Page

Venerable Poemen the Great (Feast Day - August 27)

 

Verses

As from the open mouth of a wolf Poemen snatches,

The lives of the sheep of the exceedingly great Shepherd.

On the twenty-seventh Poemen is mourned as a great shepherd.

 

Life and Sayings of Holy Abba Poemen the Great

 

August: Day 27: Venerable Poemen the Great 

 

Homily One on Venerable Abba Poemen, the Shepherd of Souls (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

 

Homily Two on Venerable Abba Poemen, the Shepherd of Souls (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The Teaching on Weeping of Venerable Poemen the Great 

 

On Those Who Do Not Accept Our Forgiveness (Abba Poemen)

 

Seven Precepts For An Assured Salvation 

 

Prologue in Sermons: February 16 

 

Christians Today Are Like Watermelons

“Elder, what are Christians like today?”

“Like watermelons, my child.”

With this simple remark, full of spiritual wit, an elder on Mount Athos expressed a profound truth about our times.

If you think about it, a watermelon is a fruit that can easily deceive you. On the outside, it is deep green and firm, and you see a beautiful, hard surface that gives you the impression that nothing can bend or break it.

So it is with many Christians today. They wear the “garment” of piety, know the right words, follow religious customs, and appear steadfast.

“Help Us To Love Our Enemies, Our Brothers and Sisters.”

At the Sacred Pilgrimage Cave Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Forerunner (Damialis, Crete), traditionally believed to have been built by Saint John the Xenos (10th century), where, according to the liturgical schedule of the shrine, Divine Liturgies and Parakleses are celebrated every month, with the commemoration of all the names that the many pilgrims record during their pilgrimage, His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selinos celebrated the Paraklesis to Saint John the Forerunner on July 14th 2026.

At the conclusion of the Paraklesis, the His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios referred to one of the “For Health” prayer requests that had been recorded at the shrine during the month of July.

In this particular request, which was written in English, the person making the request asked God to keep his or her family “in Lebanon” safe and to grant them peace: “Keep them safe. Make peace.”

The next sentence of the prayer request was a prayer for the “enemies.”

It reads:

“Help us to love our enemies, our brothers and sisters.”

The Hidden Greatness of Greece

“Scattered across the surrounding hills and throughout the entire rural amphitheater are an astonishing number of churches.

The immeasurable depth of Orthodoxy, with the houses of God that you encounter everywhere in Greece, whether you make your way through the ravines and mountains or along the sea-washed shores of this maritime land, three-quarters of which is surrounded by the sea, where the people have always found the foundation of their spiritual truth: 'that you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.'

Faith and language, peasant and fisherman or sailor—the two primordial, indestructible cells, bound together in the form of a cross, like the lion, the angel, the ox, and the eagle upon the Tetramorph, or again like the four primordial elements, those four so celebrated, inexhaustible sources, flowing abundantly through life and death, ever-flowing springs that sustain a people who are the guardians of one of the most wondrous religions and languages in the world. […]

Saint Kosmas the Aitolos and His Vision for the Greek Nation

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

Father Kosmas¹ is one of the best-known ecclesiastical figures of the pre-revolutionary period, even within the sphere of scholarly research,² although his activity and contribution do not primarily belong to the field of scholarship. This has been emphatically underscored by Professor Gerhard Podskalsky, who included Father Kosmas in one of his strictly scholarly works as the sole exception.

Sufficient evidence of his significance for the enslaved Nation is found in the laudatory words spoken about him by the German researcher himself: "An exceptionally popular missionary and teacher of the Nation." He was a characteristic example of a popular preacher who "possessed a religious piety foreign to academic theology" — "His sermons deeply moved the People both from a national and from a religious perspective" — and for this reason they were regarded as "subversive from a sociopolitical perspective."³ Indeed, it is a fact that, in the mouths of the People and in their Songs, the echo of the sermons of this great teacher of the Nation has been preserved.

Saint Kosmas the Aitolos: His Athonite Paschal Procession to the Enslaved

 

By Stelios Koukos

Every second day of Pascha, in the capital of the monastic state of Mount Athos, Karyes, the procession of the icon of the Axion Estin takes place. Following the morning Paschal services of Matins and the Divine Liturgy, celebrated in the magnificent Church of the Protaton, with its famous frescoes, shining like a full moon in its splendor, the great procession of the wonderworking icon of the Axion Estin is held.

The procession is led by the Greek flag, followed by the hieromonks and deacons, who cense the icon with their thuribles. The icon of the great noblewoman of Mount Athos is protected from the weather by a large umbrella, which also serves as an indication that she is a person worthy of great respect.

The chanters of the Protaton also participate in the entire procession, chanting Resurrection hymns throughout its course.

The icon is initially carried by hieromonks, then by monks, and toward the end of the procession, pilgrims from the world, and in our world, are also permitted to carry it as a blessing. In fact, the first year that I carried it myself, the icon had no weight. After several years, the friend with whom I had carried it together revealed to me that he had experienced the same thing. The second year, however, it had weight.

The Most Holy Theotokos as the Restoration of Fallen Adam and the Redemption of Eve (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Transcribed Sermon delivered at Vespers for the Leavetaking of the Feast in the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Palaio-Panagia, August 22, 2025.)

We celebrate today as well, beloved fathers and brethren, most honorable rulers, the Leavetaking of the feast of the Most Holy Theotokos, specifically the feast of the Dormition of our Panagia, which is a very great feast of the Theotokos. We have the feasts that refer to Christ the Master, which are called the Despotic Feasts, and we also have the feasts that refer to the Most Holy Theotokos, which are called Theometoric Feasts.

Throughout this entire period, from August 1 until today, and tomorrow, when we will celebrate the services of Matins and the Divine Liturgy, we glorify the all-praised name and person of the Most Holy Theotokos. Every day in the holy churches we celebrate and chant the troparia, not only now, but throughout the entire year, with various feasts, and we clergy, the bishops and preachers, each time during the sacred service that we celebrate, try to contemplate some aspect of the personality of the Most Holy Theotokos. And I can say that we never tire of chanting the troparia for our Panagia and speaking about her.

If you consider it, other priests and clergy do this as well, but personally I have been speaking about our Panagia for more than fifty years. And because I have various archives and keep a record each time of what I say, I observe that only rarely do I repeat myself in sermons that I have given on other occasions. You understand, therefore, that our Panagia is a very great person. She is not simply, as we usually say, our mother who cares for us and loves us, but she has an enormously profound theological significance.

Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Matthew (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Matthew, 

or Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost

On Christian Perfection

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give them to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; afterward, come and follow Me” (Matthew 19:21).

Beloved faithful,

The ideal of every Christian on earth is the salvation of the soul, that is, the attainment of eternal life. Until the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, no one could be saved, for Paradise was closed and the grace of the Holy Spirit had not been poured out upon the world. Therefore, all the righteous of the Old Testament awaited the deliverance of their souls through the death and Resurrection of the Son of God.

Salvation, according to the teaching of the Holy Gospel and of the Orthodox Church, is attained through keeping the commandments given by God to mankind, contained both in the Decalogue of the Old Law and in the New Testament, which is also called the Law of Grace. Every Christian who desires to be saved must fulfill these three conditions: to have right faith in God; to possess the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is given to all through the seven Holy Mysteries of the Church — Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, Holy Communion, Marriage, Priesthood, and Holy Unction — and to fulfill the commandments contained in the Holy Gospel. Without these three obligatory conditions, there is no salvation. If even one of them is lacking, a person cannot be saved and loses his soul, “which is more precious than the whole world.”

Homily Two for the Twelfth Sunday of Matthew (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Twelfth Sunday of Matthew
(12th Sunday of Pentecost)

By St. John of Kronstadt

In today’s Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ addresses an important question put to Him by a rich young man: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The Lord directs him to the commandments given by God to mankind through Moses, specifically to the commandments concerning love of one’s neighbor, passing over the commandments concerning the Lord God Himself, undoubtedly because love for one’s neighbor is also the foundation of love for God, and without love for one’s neighbor it is impossible to love God. “For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?” (1 John 4:20), says the Holy Apostle John the Theologian. Thus the Lord says to the rich young man: “If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments,” namely: “Do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Yes, the Lord resolves an important question for us in today’s Gospel: the question of how, and by what paths, we may attain eternal life. There is nothing more certain than death: we will all die, and our bodies will return to dust, to the earth from which they were originally created, while our immortal souls, created in the image and likeness of God, will be taken up to God for judgment. For “it is appointed for men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27), says the Apostle — the particular judgment of the soul of each person departing from this life. At this judgment a person’s fate is determined until the final universal judgment of the whole world following the resurrection of all the dead. Therefore, in view of the inevitability of bodily death for each one of us, it is exceedingly important and necessary for every one of us to resolve satisfactorily the question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

A Woman Wrapped in the Sun: 2026 Pastoral Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

A Woman Wrapped in the Sun
 
Pastoral Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (2026)

Today we celebrate the great feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, and we celebrate it with great splendor. Contributing to this is also the season of summer and the holidays, which provide an opportunity for physical rest and relaxation from the many activities of the winter. Thus, the feast of the Most Holy Theotokos, our Panagia, as we customarily call her, urges us to contemplate even more, as much as we are able with our limited capacities, the glory that surrounds her, the honor she possesses in our Church, but also the glory she possesses in the heavens.

Much has been written about the Most Holy Theotokos by the Fathers of the Church, who theologize about her, while the sacred hymnographers have also composed many hymns that we chant in honor of her glorious person, both concerning the work she accomplished through the birth of Christ and concerning her present state in the heavens, in the glory that Christ has bestowed upon her, as well as her intercessions on behalf of us all. Today I will interpret a vision that the Evangelist John saw and recorded in the sacred book of Revelation, which reveals her honor and her glory.

The Snakes of the Panagia Have Made Their Appearance in Kefallonia (2026)

Just as every year, from the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ till the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or from August 6th to the 15th, snakes appear in a wondrous manner in two villages of Kefallonia with chapels dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, in Markopoulo and Arginia, that appear to worship among the pilgrims who flock to these chapels, and venerate of their own accord the icon of the Panagia. Many noted miracles are associated with these snakes.

For more information: Panagia Fidousa (Snakes of the Panagia) Resource Page