July: Day 26: Teaching 2: Venerable Moses the Hungarian

July: Day 26: Teaching 2:
Venerable Moses the Hungarian
 
(Means to Avoid Sins Against the Seventh Commandment of the Law of God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Venerable Moses, whose memory is celebrated today, came from Hungary, which is why he is called Hungarian, and was the brother of Saints George and Ephraim and served with them under the Holy Prince Boris, brother of the Holy Prince Gleb. When villains killed his master, he hid from the murderers. In 1018, the Polish king Boleslav captured Kiev and took many boyars captive, including Moses. In captivity, the Saint languished in prison for 6 years. But here he completely surrendered himself to the Lord and vowed to remain celibate forever. It happened that a young, beautiful widow of a Polish nobleman saw Moses in prison and, struck by his beauty, since Moses was very handsome, decided to seduce him, promising freedom and wealth. Moses however answered: "Adam, Samson, Solomon and Herod suffered from women; and will I be free if I enslave myself to a woman? I do not need riches, nor honors, nor any of the blessings of this world. Above all this for me are purity and chastity." But this did not stop the wicked wife. She ransomed the captive, took him into her house, dressed him in rich clothes and began new temptations. But Moses, like Joseph, threw off his rich clothes, turned his face away from the seductress and prayed to God to strengthen him in the feat. Then the Polish woman ordered Moses to be locked up in a stuffy dungeon and starved to death, thinking thereby to force him to sin. Many persuaded Moses to marry the Polish woman; but he answered: "I made a vow before God to lead a chaste life until the grave and to be a monk. You know what is said in the Gospel: 'Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life' (Matthew 19:29)." Seeing that imprisonment had no effect on Moses, the Polish woman released him and showed him all her vast estates; but she could not entice the righteous man with this either. Then she began to threaten him with terrible torments, saying: “I will not let you out of my hands alive.” “God is my protection, I fear nothing,” Moses answered, and he himself took monastic vows. When the Polish woman learned of this, she ordered him to be cruelly beaten and finally disfigured him so that he almost bled to death and suffered greatly for the rest of his life. God punished the immoral woman: a rebellion occurred in Poland, and she was killed. Moses received his freedom, went to the Cave of Saint Anthony, and here after 10 years of fasting and prayer he died. Here his relics rest, to which those suffering from carnal passions successfully resort for help.

"Outside the Body ... Towards the Same Body"

By Protopresbyter Themistokles Mourtzanos

"Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins towards the same body" (1 Cor. 6:18).

The human being becoming an object, a thing, a res, is not just a current phenomenon. Nowadays, in the third world, people are cheap labor, so that the rich can enjoy goods, especially technological ones, in abundance. In war, everyday people become “collateral damage”, while the number of dead is what matters, not who they really were. In relationships, many see the other as body and flesh and not as a complete coexistence of soul and body. Thus, relationships today are characterized by the exclusivity of sensuality.

Homily on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

On the Sin of Carnal Impurity

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1963 on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son)

"Rejoice, zealous guardian of spiritual and physical purity!"
(Akathist to Saint Sergius, Oikos 2)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are now preparing to enter the holy days of the Lord's Great Lent. The Holy Church, caring for our salvation, with wonderful touching hymns and edifying Gospel readings tries to awaken us to the upcoming feat of repentance, cleansing ourselves from everything passionate, wicked, sinful, from everything that has removed us from the face of the loving God to a "far country" (Luke 15:13).

February: Day 13: Venerable Martinian of Caesarea

February: Day 13:
Venerable Martinian of Caesarea
 
(On the Means of Combating Temptation)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Martinian, whose memory is celebrated today, was a hermit, who lived ascetically first in the vicinity of Caesarea in Palestine, and then on a rocky island. He died in Athens at the beginning of the 4th century; his relics were transferred to Antioch.

One harlot, who tempted the righteous man, was converted by him to a virtuous life and, under the name of Zoe, spent 12 years in severe asceticism in a Bethlehem monastery.

This is how it happened.

Having taken off her luxurious clothes and put on a torn rag instead, this woman, on a stormy, rainy night, penetrated into the hermit's solitude and, approaching his deserted cell, with feigned crying and a frightened voice asked him to shelter her from the bad weather and not to give her over to the beasts as a sacrifice.

September: Day 11: Teaching 1: Venerable Theodora of Alexandria

September: Day 11: Teaching 1: Venerable Theodora of Alexandria
 
(Unlawful Carnal Love is not Love, but Hatred of Man)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Theodora, whose memory is celebrated today, lived in the 5th century. Having committed a sin against the 7th commandment of the law of God and her husband due to inexperience and youth, blessed Theodora decided to devote her whole life to repentance. “If there is repentance for me,” she said to herself, “then I will break my connection with the world and will pray to God for mercy.” Out of fear that she would be found in a women’s monastery and prevented from performing the feats of repentance, Theodora secretly left her husband’s house and hid in a men’s monastery (Octodekatos), where the relics of Saint Thomais, an ascetic of chastity, were located. For many years she endured all the monastic labors, never revealing her feminine weakness, but voluntarily increasing her labors, which, it seemed to her, were too easy and insufficient to cover the sin of her youth. Her whole life was spent in struggle, and in exerting all her strength, and in deprivation of any rest or peace. She did not even allow herself to eat more than once a week. And her tearful prayer day and night with humility rose to the merciful God and attracted upon her complete forgiveness and abundant grace. Thus she lived for 8 years.

Homily on Saint Martinian (St. Luke of Simferopol)

On Saint Martinian

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on February 13/26, 1948)

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two,' He says, 'shall become one flesh'” (1 Cor. 6:15–17).

These words of the holy Apostle Paul penetrated the heart of that Venerable Martinian, whose memory we are now commemorating, penetrating with such force that they took possession of his whole heart. All his thoughts were focused on maintaining purity, so as to never, ever fall into fornication, for fornication is something that defiles us like nothing else.