Prologue in Sermons: May 24

The Word of God Has a Powerful Effect Upon the Human Heart

May 24

(Repose of our Venerable Father Nikita the Stylite, Wonderworker of Pereslavl.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The word of God has a powerful effect upon the human heart. In this we shall now try to convince you. 

 

Our Venerable Father Nikita, whose memory the Holy Church celebrates on May 24, was born and raised in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. From his youth he was not distinguished by piety. He was harsh, irritable, stirred up disturbances, brought many sorrows upon people, dragged them into lawsuits, and robbed them. And as he himself was, so also were his companions. Once, during Vespers, he entered a church. There he heard the following words of Scripture: “Wash yourselves and be clean; put away the evil from your souls,” and the rest. These words produced such an effect upon Nikita that he was seized with terror, and returning home, he spent the entire night sleepless, continually thinking about what he had heard. In the morning he remained in fear for a long time, and then, coming to himself, he sighed from the depths of his heart and said: “Woe is me! Greatly, greatly have I sinned!” And he went out from his house, praying and weeping. Then he came to one of the monasteries, fell at the abbot’s feet, and said: “Save a perishing soul!” The abbot gave him a penance, and for three days he stood at the monastery gates, weeping and confessing his sins to all who entered and departed. Afterwards he went completely naked into a swamp, sat among the reeds, and began praying to God. Gnats and mosquitoes swarmed about him in great clouds. When he returned to the monastery, it was impossible to recognize his body, so abundantly did blood flow from it. The abbot said to him: “My son, what have you done to yourself?” Nikita answered nothing else, but only kept saying to the abbot: “Father, save a perishing soul!” Afterwards he continued in constant prayer and fasting, spending days and nights without sleep. Then he made for himself a pillar near the church and dug a narrow passage beneath the church wall, by which he would come into the church for prayer. For such struggles he received from God the gift of working miracles. And many who were afflicted with various diseases came to him and received healing.

Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (St. Basil the Great)

 

The full English translation of St. Basil the Great's Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah by Nikolai A. Lipatov (published by Edition Cicero in 2001, 441 pages) is a scholarly translation that can be accessed through Academia.edu (see here). The translator has also argued on the genuine authenticity of the authorship of St. Basil for this commentary (see here), which was doubted in the West for centuries.

“…As for the Scriptural passages about which you enquire, we were much surprised that an explanation was requested from us, the unlearned, and about such expressions which properly should be elucidated only by men inspired by God. Such interpretations have already been produced by them, and above all - the detailed interpretation by the Great and divine Basil. So, when you take the book of his commentary on Isaiah, you will learn the things about which you enquire. Otherwise their consideration, which requires a whole treatise, would go beyond the limits of a letter."

St. Theodore of Studion, from the Letter to Hegoumenos Auxentios

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture: The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture 

The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Sunday, July 27, 2025)

After the historical books that we saw in previous sermons, there are the prophetic books in the Old Testament, which were written by blessed people called Prophets. In addition to the Kings who politically governed the Israelite people and the High Priests who performed religious ceremonies, there were also the Prophets, who performed miraculous works.

In the Hebrew language, Prophets firstly means those who speak in the name of God. Secondly, it characterizes those who spoke with divine inspiration and enthusiasm for the return to God of people who had strayed from Him. Thirdly, it denotes those who see God, but also all the future things that were to happen to Israelites and Gentiles, mainly they saw and predicted the coming of Christ at the appropriate time.

In these three senses the Prophets were the “foreseeers”, the “seeers” of God, they had communion with Him and prayed saying: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” And afterwards, when they received a word from God, they spoke to the people with the phrase: “Thus says the Lord.”

The "Coal" of the Prophet Isaiah

 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

He is the first of the “major prophets.” The “most loud” and the so-called “fifth evangelist.”

The Prophet Isaiah was born around 770 BC, coming from a noble family. He lived in Jerusalem.

He was called by God to the prophetic office through a divine vision and his activity extends over a full fifty years with the power of his pen and his word.

Indeed, the Prophet Isaiah admonished the people and advised the rulers, stood as a consolation to the righteous and prophesied punishments for the impiety of the rulers and the people.

He lived during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh. The era was certainly extremely critical.

Furthermore, Isaiah became the bearer of very important divine revelations, which referred to the coming, the work and the salvation of mankind by the Savior and Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.

He was a wonderful personality and the Book of Isaiah holds a prominent place in world literature, and he himself has been described as “one of the greatest orators of the world”.

Homily Two for the Leavetaking of Theophany (St. Luke of Simferopol)

On the Light of Christ

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on January 21, 1945)

 

“The people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and to those who sat in the land of the shadow of death a light shone upon them” (Is. 9:2).

These words refer to the inhabitants of the country of Transjordan, to the inhabitants of the land of Naphtali and Zebulun, to the pagans, for the Lord Jesus Christ came to them and illuminated their impenetrable pagan darkness with His heavenly light.

I will also apply these words to you, who for many years also sat in darkness and the shadow of death. For many years you were deprived of worship and the Mysteries of Christ, for many years you did not hear the preaching of the Gospel, for many years you did not hear church singing and prayers. And a new generation has already grown up - young people who do not know Christ at all, to whom no one preached about Him, to whom no one preached His teaching, who know nothing about the Christian faith. And they, these unfortunate children, and all of you, deprived of the preaching of the Gospel of Christ for many years, were like these people who inhabited the country of Zebulun and sat in darkness and the shadow of death. And the light of Christ shone over them when Christ Himself came.

Homily for the Sunday Before Theophany (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Homily for the Sunday Before Theophany

"The Voice in the Wilderness"

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on January 4/17, 1954)

Listen to the amazing prophecy of the great Isaiah about John the Forerunner of the Lord. This prophecy was spoken by Isaiah 800 years before the coming into the world of the Lord Jesus Christ and His great Forerunner.

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God in the desert. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low, the crooked places made straight, and the rough paths made smooth” (Isa. 40:3-4).

The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of the great Forerunner. But did he preach in that desert, did his mighty voice resound in that desert, in which only jackals and hyenas could listen to him?