Prologue in Sermons: December 5

 

Love Is Above Fasting

December 5 

 

(Hospitality is Considered by God to be Higher Than a Life of Fasting and Solitude)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

No matter how good the various virtues by which a person pleases God, love conquers all. It's certainly good to pray, fast, not judge, be humble, and adorn oneself with other Christian virtues; but to love God above all else and to express this love in love for one's neighbors is above and beyond all else. Here, for example, is how this last point was vividly demonstrated, so to speak, during a meeting between two saints.

Prologue in Sermons: December 4

 

How To Deal With Strangers Living In Our Families and Behaving Disapprovingly

December 4

(How Venerable Lot Dealt With An Elderly Guest)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

It happens that some Christians, out of kindness, sometimes give shelter to their poor relatives or other helpless wanderers. This is a good deed, but here's the problem: often, instead of repaying their benefactors with all possible meekness and love, these people cause them grief with their behavior. What should we do with them?

July: Day 18: Teaching 2: Venerable Pambo

July: Day 18: Teaching 2:
Venerable Pambo
 
(Is It Possible To Please God Equally With Virtues That Are Different From One Another?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the days of Venerable Pambo, whose memory the Holy Church celebrates today, there lived in Egypt two brothers: Paisios and Isaiah, who were the children of rich parents. After the death of the latter, Paisios and Isaiah, having divided a large inheritance between them, said to each other: "What kind of life should we choose?" And in a general council they decided to choose the monastic life. So one of them distributed his property to the poor, monasteries and churches, then went into the desert and there spent his time in solitude in fasting and prayer. The other built a monastery, arranged a hospice and a hospital near it, and gave rest to all the pilgrims who came, served the sick, and fed the poor. Several years passed and both brothers died. After their death, among the monks who knew the brothers, a dispute arose regarding which of the brothers pleased God more. Some said that it was the hermit, while others praised the other more for having founded a monastery and serving the poor, the stranger, and the sick.

June: Day 27: Saint Sampson the Hospitable

June: Day 27:
Saint Sampson the Hospitable
 
(On the Virtue of Hospitality)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Sampson, whose memory is celebrated today, was a Roman by birth, the son of very noble and rich parents, who gave him a good education and from his early years instilled in him love for God and the desire to follow the law of the Lord. Loving his neighbors, as the Lord commands, Sampson learned the art of medicine in order to help the suffering. The Lord blessed his good intentions and gave him the miraculous power to heal any ailment.

After the death of his parents, Sampson inherited a rich estate, which he used for the benefit of his neighbors. He set all his slaves free, gave generous alms, received and fed the poor and the strangers. He loved solitude very much, but, caring above all for the benefit of his neighbors, he settled in Constantinople and built a house where he received the poor, the sick, and the strangers. He himself treated the sick and by the power of God worked many miracles. Out of humility, he tried to hide these manifestations of God's special mercy to him, but his holy life became known, and the Patriarch ordained him a priest.

January: Day 2: Teaching 1: Saint Sylvester, Pope of Rome

January: Day 2: Teaching 1:
Saint Sylvester, Pope of Rome
 
(The Virtue of Hospitality)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Sylvester, Pope of Rome, whose memory is celebrated today, lived at the end of the third and the first half of the fourth century A.D. His favorite occupation was to care for weak and tired "wanderers." When the Holy Bishop Timothy arrived in Rome to preach the gospel, Sylvester received him into his home, and when he was tortured and beheaded for his preaching, Saint Sylvester brought the body of the martyr into his house at night and buried it. Here the relics of Saint Timothy remained until they could be transferred to a church, which was later built in their honor by a pious Christian woman.

Saint Sylvester ruled the Roman Church for more than twenty years and died in the year 335 A.D.