Homily Four for the Entrance of the Theotokos (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Four for the Entrance of the Theotokos 

By St. John of Kronstadt

"The angels, beholding the Entrance of the Most Pure One, were amazed: 
how the Virgin entered the Holy of Holies." (9th Ode of the Canon)

Today, beloved brothers and sisters, we celebrate two feasts: the Resurrection of Christ and the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple; one is a weekly feast, the other an annual feast; one is the Lord's feast, the other is the Theotokos's feast. The subject of our discourse will be the Theotokos's feast.

In remembering the sacred event which the Holy Church now solemnly celebrates, our entire being should be filled with joy and awe. For what do we remember and celebrate today? The Entrance of the three-year-old Maiden, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, into the Temple of God, so that in the Holy of Holies she might be nurtured for the Lord, that is, prepared to be the dwelling place of God. O unspeakable joy! For the Lord Himself desires, through the youthful Maiden, pre-purified by the Spirit, to enter into the closest union with mankind and to pour out upon them His immeasurably great blessings, which surpass all understanding: to enrich human poverty with Divinity, to clothe our nakedness, to make the ugly beautiful, to purify the impure, to enlighten the darkened, to renew the corruptible, to strengthen the weak. But joy is involuntarily combined with awe. For the God, Who is without beginning, great, unapproachable, and terrifying even to the angels, enters into the closest communion with frail human nature; the Most Holy One with sinners, even those cleansed by repentance. Thus, let us meet the Lord, coming to unite with our frail nature, let us meet Him with joy and trembling — with joy because of the greatness of God's blessings, with trembling because of our sins.

October: Day 17: Teaching 2: Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan

October: Day 17: Teaching 2:
Venerable Martyr Andrew the Cretan
 
(How Do We Approach the Performance of our Duties?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast day of the Holy Martyr Andrew the Cretan, who, out of zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbors, denounced the impious iconoclastic Emperor Constantine Copronymos (who lived in the 8th century) and for this was subjected to the most cruel tortures and death in full view of the Orthodox, whom he never ceased to teach until his last breath the truth and obedience to Holy Mother Church, it is fitting, my beloved brethren, to discuss whether we fulfill our Christian duties as Saint Andrew the Cretan did.

November: Day 24: Teaching 1: Holy Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria

November: Day 24:* Teaching 1:
Holy Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria
 
(Lessons From His Life:
a. Obedience to the Dictates of the Authorities, and
b. The Need to Sacrifice One's Personal Safety for the Common Good)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Holy Hieromartyr Peter, whose memory is celebrated today, being the Archbishop of Alexandria, during the days of the cruel persecution of Diocletian, with complete self-sacrifice protected his flock, strengthened it for the feat of martyrdom and by his bold preaching about Christ could not fail to attract the attention of the pagan government. Emperor Maximinus, who lived at that time in Nicomedia, ordered the commander of Alexandria to seize Saint Peter and bring him bound to him. In carrying out this order, the commander encountered strong obstacles among the people, who rebelled and did not want to part with their shepherd. Day and night, the Christians devoted to him remained at the house where the Saint was kept until the time of a new order from the emperor. Hearing about the people's rebellion, the emperor immediately ordered the death of Saint Peter and all those resisting the royal decree. Despite this, the people, who had flocked in great numbers to the place where the Saint was imprisoned, showed a resolute intention not to hand over their shepherd to the enemies. Seeing such determination in the people and wanting to prevent the terrible bloodshed that could occur as a result of the rebellion, Saint Peter repeatedly admonished the people to hand him over to the lawful government. All was in vain, the people cried out: "Let them kill us all first, but we will not abandon our shepherd." The Saint of Christ, having firmly decided to suffer alone in order to avert public disaster and the death of many, sent one of his close servants to the governor with the proposal that if he wants to fulfill the emperor's will, he should come at night and, having dug under the wall of the prison from the back, take him and do with him as he pleases. The governor actually did so. Thus, Saint Peter, having suffered for the faith of Christ as a true and faithful follower of Christ, at the same time fulfilled the duty of self-sacrifice as a citizen, a member of society, for the sake of preserving public peace.

"If a Priest, Be a Priest; If a Ploughman, a Ploughman" (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By  Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

 

In Parliament recently, when they were debating the Bill on the "civil marriage of homosexuals" and "adoption", the phrase "If a Priest, be a Priest; if a Ploughman, a Ploughman" (ἤ παπᾶς παπᾶς ἤ ζευγᾶς ζευγᾶς) was heard as a response to the Church and its spokesmen, some journalists considered it a contemptuous response to the Archbishop, after the positions formulated by the Church on this matter.

The Origin of the Phrase

Takis Natsoulis in his book Words and Proverbial Phrases (Λέξεις καί φράσεις παροιμιώδεις) writes about the origin of this proverb:

"If a Priest, be a Priest; if a Ploughman, a Ploughman". This is also an expression that we hear regularly and the first person who said it and it reached our time was the Old Man of Morea, Theodoros Kolokotronis.

One day when they had appointed a meeting, in order to go and hold an ambush, after receiving information that they would pass through an Arvanite village, one of his lads was late in coming. He was a priest who had given up his teleliturgical duties and had dedicated himself to the holy struggle of liberating his homeland from unbelieving enemies. Where he was ready to give the order to the troops to begin, seen from afar was Papa-Lefteris coming running.

When the Old Man asked why he was late, he replied that, as he was passing through the village, he saw the widow of the ill-fated Thanasis who was killed, trying to plow her field, but it was impossible for her. "Then I felt sorry for her and remained behind to help her."

"If a Priest, be a Priest; if a Ploughman, a Ploughman," Kolokotronis told him then and ordered them to begin.