Homily at the Paraklesis of the Theotokos: On the Humility of the Most Holy Theotokos (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily at the Paraklesis of the Theotokos: 
On the Humility of the Most Holy Theotokos

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1962)

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

"For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed: for He that is mighty hath done great things unto me, and holy is his name" (Luke 1:48–49), answered the Most Holy Theotokos to the greeting of righteous Elizabeth, and the long succession of centuries that have passed since the moment these words were spoken serves as confirmation of their immutability. The name of the Mother of God is revered and glorified by all Christians. Her selection for the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, the purity and high holiness of her life, her service to God's dispensation for the salvation of men, her intercession before the Throne of God for the whole world, and her uninterrupted series of good deeds to those who require her help — these are the rays of the incomparable glory that belong to the Mother of God.

August: Day 13: Teaching 2: Venerable Dositheos

August: Day 13: Teaching 2:
Venerable Dositheos*
 
(Humility and Obedience Are the Path to Spiritual Perfection)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Dositheos, commemorated today by the Church, in his youth, despite the fact that he was noble and rich, left the world and retired to a desert monastery, which was distinguished by the special strictness of the life of its monks.

The young Dositheos was taken under the guidance of Venerable Dorotheos and given the obedience to look after the sick. The experienced leader gradually led Dositheos along the path of ascetic life. First of all, he tried to cut off any attachment to sensual things in Dositheos, no matter how unimportant they were. Thus, one day a good knife was brought to the hospital, which Dositheos liked very much, and he, showing it to the mentor, said: “Really, father, the knife is very good.” But the latter sternly answered him: “Dositheos! Do you want to be a slave to this knife, and not to God, and to bind yourself with an attachment to this knife, so that the knife would possess you, and not God; go, put it down, and never touch it again.” And Dositheos obediently did this: all the others used this knife, but he never even touched it again. 

August: Day 13: Teaching 1: Saint Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh

August: Day 13: Teaching 1:
Saint Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh
 
(A Role Model for Christians)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The great Saint Tikhon, the intercessor of the whole Russian land and the glorious wonderworker, the discovery of whose holy relics is commemorated today, was born in 1724 in the village of Korotsko, now in the Valdaysky district of the Novgorod province. His father Savva Kirillov was a very poor village deacon and died soon after his birth, so that the Saint did not remember him. The eldest son took his place and became the breadwinner of the family. Their mother Domnikia, three brothers and two sisters had to subsist on the meager wages of a psalmist. There was often no bread. The future luminary of Russia in his infancy and adolescence sometimes toiled until the sweat of his brow, harrowing the whole day for some peasant, just so that they would feed him with bread. But, in poverty, what a wonderful family it was! This is what happened one day: there was a coachman in their village, a well-to-do man, but childless. He often said to Timothy's mother (the secular name of Saint Tikhon): "Give him to me, I will feed him and arrange for him." One time, the elder brother, the breadwinner, was not at home: the mother, unable to bear to see her orphans without bread, without shoes, after crying, took Timothy and led him to the coachman. But the elder brother soon came, rushed after his mother, fell on his knees before her and said: "Where are you taking him? I would rather go out into the world with a bag, than give my brother to a coachman." The mother returned home. What brotherly love! And what it means to support a person in time! If it were not for such a good brother, we, perhaps, would not have had the great Saint, who for his great soul-saving writings can truly be called the Russian Chrysostom.

Location Where the Archangel Gabriel Announced to the Theotokos Her Dormition Three Days Prior

The Temple is called "My Soul Magnifies the Lord," or the Church of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, and is dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. It is located in what is called Small Galilee on the Mount of Olives. The feast day is celebrated on August 12th.

The very place where this church stands was said to be the place of prayer of the Most Holy Theotokos in the years she lived after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Lord. And three days before her Dormition and Metastasis the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her here to announce her repose in three days and she was given a palm branch as a sign of her imminent repose.

At present the place belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In 1880 Patriarch Hierotheos of Jerusalem purchased the land of Small Galilee from Muslim owners, and it quickly became a monastic community. The current church of "My Soul Magnifies the Lord", a small cubical chapel crowned with a dome, was built on the foundation of a Byzantine church of the 4th-5th centuries by Archbishop Epiphanios of Jordan and consecrated in 1889.

August: Day 12: Holy Martyrs Photios and Aniketos

 

August: Day 12:
Holy Martyrs Photios and Aniketos
 
(On the Saving Nature of the Thought of God's Omnipotence)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyrs Photios and Aniketos, celebrated today in church hymns and readings, together with many other Christians, suffered under the Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century in Nicomedia. Diocletian ordered that instruments of execution be placed in the city square in order to frighten Christians. But at that time Aniketos, a nobleman, came to the emperor and boldly confessed himself a Christian, calling the pagan idols creatures, reproaching the idolaters and saying: “O emperor, the executions and tortures you have prepared for Christians do not frighten us. We do not regard them as anything.” The enraged emperor ordered that Aniketos be tortured and then cast forth to be devoured by wild beasts. But the terrible lion released upon him became so meek that it fawned on him. Saint Aniketos thanked God and asked for the strength to overcome the tormentor. His prayer was heard. At that time there was suddenly a strong earthquake, so that the temple of the idol of Hercules and part of the city wall fell, and many pagans perished from this. Then the emperor gave orders to cut off the head of the Saint with a sword, but as soon as the executioner raised his sword, he himself fell unconscious. They began to break Saint Aniketos on the wheel and at the same time burn his body with fire, but the wheel stopped and the fire went out. They threw the Martyr into a cauldron of boiling tin, but the tin cooled, and the Martyr remained unharmed. Then one of Aniketos' relatives, Photios, seeing how the Lord was protecting His servant, approached Aniketos and greeted him; then, turning to the emperor, he said: "Idolater, your gods are nothing!" The emperor gave orders to cut off Photios' head, but when the executioner raised his sword to strike him, the sword struck the executioner himself to death. Finally, Diocletian ordered a large furnace to be made in order to burn all the Christians with their wives and children. The Christians, without waiting for the torturers to throw them into the furnace, went into it themselves, saying: "We are Christians!" The first to enter were Saints Aniketos and Photios, and after them came a multitude of Christians, and they all died with prayer on their lips. The bodies of Saints Aniketos and Photios were found to be completely unharmed.