Saint Nikolai Velimirovich as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Nikolai, Bishop of Ochrid, was born on 23 December 1880 in the village of Lelić in Serbia to pious parents. He learned his first letters at the Monastery of Ćelije and afterwards entered the Clerical School of Saint Sava in Belgrade. Later, with a scholarship from the Church, he continued his studies in Switzerland, Germany, and England, and subsequently was elected professor at the Clerical School of Saint Sava.

During the First World War he supported the suffering and the poor. After the end of the war he was elected Bishop of Žhicha in 1919, and two years later he was transferred to Ochrid. He frequently visited Mount Athos and stayed mainly at the Sacred Monastery of Saint Panteleimon. There he met Saint Silouan, whose holiness he immediately recognized and made known. He also met Saint Sophrony, whom he ordained a deacon.

Homily on the Parable of the Talents (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

Homily on the Parable of the Talents

On God-Created Inequality

(Matthew 25:14-30)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

God creates inequality; men grumble at it. Are men wiser than God? When God creates inequality, it means that inequality is wiser and better than equality. God creates inequality for man’s good, but men cannot see the good in their inequality. God creates inequality because of the beauty of inequality, but men can see no beauty in it. God creates inequality out of love, that is aroused and sustained by inequality, but man can see no love in it.

This is a primitive human revolt of blindness against perception, of folly against wisdom, of evil against good, of ugliness against beauty, of malice against love. Eve and Adam gave themselves into Satan’s power in order to become equal with God. Cain slew his brother Abel because their sacrifices were not equally righteous in God’s sight. From then till now, sinful men have waged war on inequality. Before then, though, God created inequality, and it is still with us. Before then, we say, because God created the angels unequal.

Homily on Zacchaeus of Little Stature (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

Homily on Zacchaeus of Little Stature

 

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Today, salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9).

Thus it was spoken by the One Whose word is life and joy and restoration of the righteous. Just as the bleak forest clothes itself into greenery and flowers from the breath of spring, so does every man, regardless of how arid and darkened by sin, becomes fresh and youthful from the nearness of Christ. For the nearness of Christ is as the nearness of some life-giving and fragrant balsam which restores health, increases life, give fragrance to the soul, to the thoughts and to the words of man. In other words, distance from Christ means decay and death and His nearness means salvation and life.

Saint Kyriaki and the Widow Who Lost Everything

 By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Tell me, sister Marina, something from the people. You have traveled a lot, learned many destinies of people and understood the paths of Providence."

Sister Marina thought about it, and after a long hesitation and speaking as if she knew nothing, that she was unworthy, and so on, she narrated the following:

"In the village of Izdeglavlje, I spent the night with a widow. That widow told me how once a pestilence struck her house and in four days she carried seven dead people out of the house. Among the dead was her husband, several sons and other family members. It was with great difficulty that she could prepare everything for the funeral as it should be. When all seven were buried, she was left with three small children. Then her neighbors and relatives come and advise her to move out of that house and into a hut, because there is a curse on the house. But what hut was there to move in to?