Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 8

 

 

The Month of September

8th Day

9. What Parents Should Do if They Desire Their Children to Grow Up as Good and Godly People

(From a homily on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. Menaion, September 8)

All parents, perhaps we may say, even without exception, naturally desire that their children should grow up to be good and godly people. Even the most wicked person, we see, punishes his child when the child has done something wrong, thereby showing that he too, although he himself is wicked, nevertheless wants his son to grow up good and not evil. Thus, the desire to see one’s children good is, one may say, the desire of all parents. But we would add only this, which we do not think is superfluous: although the desire is the same among all, its fulfillment is not the same for everyone. With some, the children turn out good, while with others they are wicked. And what follows from this? In our opinion, it is that it is not enough for parents merely to desire that their children should turn out good; they must also know what they, as parents, need to do so that their desire may become a reality. What, then, must they do?

Prologue in Sermons: May 21

To Guard Ourselves Against Sin, It is Good to Reflect Often That the Devil Wages Constant Warfare Against Us, and That Those Who Overcome Him Do Not Remain Without Reward

May 21

(From a Homily of Saint John Chrysostom on the Upbringing and Discipline of Children)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some foolish parents completely neglect the upbringing of their children in their early years. When a child does something wrong, the foolish parent says: “Oh, it is nothing; he is still a child and does not understand. When he grows up, he will stop doing such things.” And so the child grows up like a wild apple tree in the forest — uncultivated, overgrown, and barren. But if you taste the fruit of that tree, you will not rejoice, for it is sour and bitter. Thus, without restraint, correction, or instruction, the child eventually grows into a slave of his disordered inclinations; his early bad behavior becomes habit, and he becomes an unworthy member of society, a grief to his parents, and a burden and scandal to many.

“Nothing is worse,” says Saint Chrysostom, “than when the faults of children are not corrected, and thus become habits in them. These faults, when neglected, usually corrupt the child to such an extent that later there is no possibility of correcting him by any exhortation. The devil then leads such children about like captives wherever he wishes. He becomes their absolute ruler, gives them destructive counsels, and the unfortunate children, not even realizing that these counsels lead them to eternal ruin, carry them out with full willingness.”

March: Day 21: Teaching 2: Saint James, Bishop and Confessor

March: Day 21: Teaching 2:*
Saint James, Bishop and Confessor
 
(How to Raise Children in the Spirit of Piety?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint James, whose memory is celebrated today, was distinguished by the strictness of his life. From his youth he loved piety, which he preserved until the end of his days. For his holy life he was appointed a bishop, and he labored greatly for the veneration of icons, which in his time were under persecution. But his zeal resulted in exile and imprisonment, in which he also reposed.

II. We have said that Saint James loved piety from his youth. Even in our own time, many children from an early age show an inclination toward a pious life. See how some children are obedient, gentle, yielding; how well-behaved, diligent, and zealous in prayer they are. See with what attentiveness a child listens to lessons in the Law of God, how long and fervently he prays, how he loves the house of God. Tell him something divine, wondrous, extraordinary — he will never forget it; read to him stories from the lives of the saints — he will listen with remarkable attention, for hours at a time. And how compassionate some children are toward the poor! For them, their greatest joy is to give alms. In some, the inclination to piety is innate, but in many their pious disposition also depends on external causes.

Prologue in Sermons: March 3

How Should Adult Children Relate to People Who Teach Them to Act Against the Will of Their Parents

March 3

(A word of Saint Ephraim, that one ought not to obey those who swear one to evil.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Today our word is addressed to you, grown children, and this is what we shall say to you. We often see that evil people surround you and teach you to go against the will of your parents — and you listen to them. Indeed, why is it that in your families there are constant quarrels with parents, all kinds of disorders and family divisions? Chiefly it is from the slander and instigation of evil people.

A son meets some wicked man, tells him about some family misunderstanding, and that man begins to inflame the misunderstanding and to arm the son against his father or mother. And so the son, after meeting such a person, returns to his father’s house no longer the same as when he left it; he begins to raise his voice more and more in conversations with his parents, and then a spark turns into a flame, which in the end consumes the happiness and peace of the family.

From this it clearly follows that you, children, must flee from people who teach you to go against your parents as from a destructive plague. Only then, as the Venerable Ephraim the Syrian says, will you, by God’s mercy, escape family misfortunes and great calamities.

January: Day 25: Teaching 2: Saint Gregory the Theologian

January: Day 25: Teaching 2:
Saint Gregory the Theologian
 
(Children Are the Support of Their Parents)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the life of Saint Gregory the Theologian, so called for his writings about God the Word, the Savior of the world, and about the Holy Spirit, whose memory we celebrate today, there is one trait of his noble character that is especially instructive for us: his filial love and devotion to his parents. It is this that we recall on this day.

The Lord endowed the great hierarch Saint Gregory with great natural gifts: the gift of eloquence in him was extraordinary. Because of this gift, when Gregory was only twenty-one years old, he was left as an instructor of rhetoric in the very city of Athens where he had received his final education. A great and glorious future lay before Gregory, both in the secular sphere and in the spiritual one; he was invited everywhere to occupy one chair or another. But his love for his aged parents was so great that he once and for all refused all flattering offers, once and for all he resolved to live in Nazianzus until the death of his parents and to help his father there in his episcopal and household labors.

January: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

January: Day 23: Teaching 2:
Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra
 
(Edifying Lessons From the Life of the Holy Martyr Clement: 
a. Mothers Should Take Care of the Upbringing of Children; 
b. Children Should Obey Their Parents; 
c. We All Should Be Faithful to Jesus Christ)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On this day the Holy Church celebrates the memory of one of the great and holy men of the ancient Church of Christ — Clement, Bishop of Ancyra. He was one of those great martyrs with whom the first centuries of Christianity are so richly adorned. For our age of weak faith and moral laxity, it is extremely beneficial to recall the feats of the true followers of Christ, who sealed their faith with the crown of martyrdom. Let us therefore, brethren, honor the memory of the martyr Clement with reverent remembrance of him.

Saint Clement was the son of a pious Christian woman and was himself raised in the rules of the Christian faith. The upbringing of her son in the faith of Christ was the sole task of the mother of Saint Clement. Saint Dimitri of Rostov thus describes the deathbed speech of this Christian mother of the third century to her twelve-year-old son:

Prologue in Sermons: December 30

To Wives Without Children

December 30
 
(From the Life of our Venerable Mother Theodora of Caesarea)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Wives who have husbands but no children are the most sorrowful of wives. Some have everything: a good husband, health, wealth, and public respect, but no children. Such wives weep, and a hopeless anguish gnaws at them, and they feel ashamed before others, and sometimes they are close to despair. How can we console them? This is how. 

We ask them: "Have you prayed to God to grant you children?"

They say: "We have prayed." 

"But to the Most Holy Theotokos? No? Well, then pray to Her, and your prayer, one can hope, will not be in vain."

Prologue in Sermons: December 9

For Childless Spouses

December 9
 
(The Conception of the Holy and God-bearing Mother Anna, when the Holy Theotokos was Conceived. On the same day, the Holy Prophetess Anna (Hannah), the Mother of the Prophet Samuel.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Childless couples often grieve deeply over their childlessness. Others have everything: wealth, high social status, health, and good fortune, yet still have no children. And the desire for them sometimes even becomes a torment. What can one say to console such people, and what advice can one offer them?

Prologue in Sermons: November 5

To Young Lovers of Monastic Life

November 5

(From the Life of Saint John Chrysostom)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother," among other things, imposes upon children the duty to feed and comfort their parents in times of poverty, illness, and old age. Unfortunately, we often encounter children violating this duty in various ways. For example, some young people, after spending some time in a pious, strictly Christian life, sometimes fall into spiritual pride and begin to think that it is not worthwhile for them to remain in the world, that they can and should leave it and begin a monastic life. And so, you see, a young man abandons his aged father and mother to their fate and leaves. He leaves, and they, poor things, struggle like fish against ice, in cold and hunger, and are forced, like beggars, to beg from their neighbors for alms. Are such young people behaving well or not? I don't know what you would say to them; I, for my part, would advise these lovers of monastic life to act in the same way as the aforementioned Saint of God acted in this case.

Prologue in Sermons: October 18

It Is a Sin to Indulge in Hopeless Grief Over Dead Children

October 18

(About Blessed Cleopatra and Her son John)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

It is difficult for parents to bear the grief of their children's death. Only those who have lost children themselves can fully understand and feel the depth of this grief. However, no matter how difficult this loss, those parents who, in their grief for their deceased children, reach the point of despondency and despair and even approach utter hopelessness, commit a sin. To enlighten such parents, we deem it useful to share the following account from the life of Blessed Cleopatra, whose memory the Holy Church celebrates on the 19th of October.

September: Day 9: Teaching 2: Holy Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna

September: Day 9: Teaching 2: 
Holy Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna
 
(Lessons From Their Lives:
a. Piety Does Not Interfere With Family Life, 
b. Christians Should Not Shun Family Life, and 
c. Do Not Be Afraid of Having Many Children)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Let us, Christians, transport ourselves in thought almost nineteen centuries back, to those times of Old Testament history, when the people were increasingly losing their independence and autonomy, and when the time was coming for the work of saving the human race to be accomplished through the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the most blessed Virgin Mary.

In those days, in the poor Galilean town of Nazareth, there lived a pious couple, Joachim and Anna. These humble Nazarenes were not famous in Israel for anything, and did not differ from the simple inhabitants of Nazareth by any special external advantages.

The Synodal Act of Canonization for Saint Demetrios Gagastathis is Signed

Today, Saturday, August 30, 2025, His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Trikki, Gardiki and Pyli, accompanied by Priests, the President of Urban Development of the Municipality of Trikala, as well as a multitude of pilgrims from Trikala, paid a visit to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

His Eminence, with emotion and gratitude, thanked His All-Holiness for the great blessing of the official canonization of Saint Demetrios Gagastathis, expressing the thanks of the faithful people of Trikala (see his words below).

He also particularly thanked the members of the Patriarchal Holy Synod, who were present during this sacred meeting.

July: Day 19: Venerable Macrina, Sister of Basil the Great

 

July: Day 19:
Venerable Macrina, Sister of Basil the Great
 
(The Fundamental Principles of Christian Upbringing for the Salvation of Oneself and our Children)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. An example of how beneficial a good religious and moral education is for a child, for a family, and for the whole of society in general, can be found in the life of our Venerable Mother Macrina, who is remembered today and who lived in the second half of the 4th century. The granddaughter of martyrs, the eldest daughter of Basil and Emmelia of Cappadocia, Macrina was raised by her parents, as it is said in her life, “not in Hellenic fables and poetic verses, as parents usually raised their children then (and as they partly raise children in our schools now), but from the Wisdom of Solomon and the Psalms of David and from other books of Divine Scripture, choosing such excellent verses that are both prayers and glorifications of God, and good moral teaching. And the singing of prayers, appropriate to each time and divided into parts, rising from bed and taking up some work, sitting down to dinner, and after dinner giving thanks: at midday and evening she did not pass without psalmody, and before going to bed she had the established prayer performed by her. Moreover, she was taught by her mother in the art of handiwork suitable for young ladies, and she was not allowed to spend her time in idleness and childish games, but was always engaged either in reading books or in manual tasks." This constituted the upbringing of the young Macrina.

July: Day 4: Teaching 2: Saint Martha, Mother of Venerable Symeon of the Wonderful Mountain

July: Day 4: Teaching 2:
Saint Martha, Mother of Venerable Symeon of the Wonderful Mountain

(Advice on the Religious and Moral Education of Children)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Martha, whose memory the Holy Church celebrates today, had an only son, Symeon; she brought him up, as is said in her life, with great care, and God granted her, while she was still alive, to rejoice in the holy and God-pleasing life of her son. But the time came for Martha to depart to the heavenly world, and then, on the day before her death, she was honored with the following vision. It seemed to her that she was caught up to the heights of heaven and there she saw a most wondrous and bright house, the beauty of which it is impossible to describe. And when she walked into that house and marveled at its wondrous arrangement, she suddenly saw the Most Holy Theotokos with two most radiant angels, Who said to her: "Why are you surprised?" Martha, reverently bowing to the Mother of God, answered: "I am surprised because, Lady, I have never seen such a wonderful house in all the days of my life on earth." Then the Queen of Heaven said: "What do you think, for whom is this house prepared?" - "I do not know, Lady," answered Martha. The Most Pure One continued: "Know that this rest has been prepared for you and this house was created for you by your son, and you will abide in it forever." After this, at the command of the Lady, the angels set up a wondrous throne, and the Mother of God continued: "This glory is given to you because you lived in the fear of God and in a God-pleasing manner. But do you want to see here even more glorious places?" And, having said this, she ordered Martha to follow her. And the Queen of Heaven took her to the highest heavenly places and showed her an even more wondrous and luminous house, incomparably compared to the first, the beauty of which neither the human mind can comprehend, nor can anyone's tongue utter. Here the Mother of God also said: “And your son built this house, and also laid the foundation of the third.” The day after this, blessed Martha died.

June: Day 24: Teaching 1: The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

June: Day 24: Teaching 1:
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

(Good and Pious Children Are the Fruit of the Fervent Prayers of Their Parents)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The nativity of the great Forerunner of the Lord is very remarkable for the fact that his birth itself was unusual and miraculous, that it was the fruit of the fervent, lifelong prayers of his parents, the reward of their faith and hope, their righteousness and piety, their patience and devotion to the will of God.

The holy parents of the Forerunner of the Lord were righteous and pious. Yet, these great righteous figures faced a temptation that was more unfortunate than any affliction recorded in the Old Testament Church. "They had no children" from the beginning of their married life until old age, which at that time was considered a clear indication of God's disfavor and seemingly an act of rejection by God. One can imagine, dear brethren, how fervent were the prayers of these pious spouses, who, despite their diligence in following God's law and their earnest efforts to "walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly," found themselves deprived of God's blessing; so, all these prayers seemingly went unheard. But in heaven, all their prayers were heard, all their sighs and tears were counted; there was prepared for them such a reward that abundantly fulfilled their long-standing deprivation. To them, in their old age, when they themselves had ceased to hope, they were granted such a son, "one greater than He has not risen among those born of women," whose birth was a cause of universal joy, whose life was a wonder to the holy angels, an object of reverence to the entire people of Israel, who was sent by God to prepare the way for the coming Redeemer of the world. A righteous reward for long-standing, lifelong patience and hope!