Prologue in Sermons: January 19

On How Avarice and Ingratitude Anger God

January 19

(A Discourse on a Man Who Was Saved from Illness for the Sake of Almsgiving and, Having Repented Again, Died)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In illnesses — and especially severe ones — even the miserly often become generous. Desiring to recover, yet having lost all hope of help from physicians, they, like everyone else, are ready to give up everything, if only they might rise from their sickbed and escape death, so they give alms with a liberal hand. But once the illness has passed, the generosity is as if it had never existed! The greedy lover of money forgets the mercy of God shown to him, grumbles over what seems to him his own prodigality, complains of his weakness of spirit, and is ready for anything — anything at all — only to recover what he gave away during his illness. Such ingratitude toward God is inexcusable! Such hard-heartedness is extreme!

Listen, brethren, to how the wrath of God sometimes overtakes such people, and learn to flee avarice and ingratitude toward God. A certain man living in Constantinople fell gravely ill and, seized by the terror of death, resolved to draw God’s mercy to himself through almsgiving. He distributed thirty litras of gold to the poor, and the alms indeed saved him. He recovered. What, after this, would one think remained for him to do but to thank God day and night for his deliverance? But no! He grieved bitterly over his gold, and the thought of the alms he had given during his illness did not allow him a moment’s peace. Tormented by this, he once went to one of his friends and revealed all his sorrow.

October: Day 29: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman

 

October: Day 29: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman
 
(About our Ingratitude to God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the life of Anastasia of Rome, celebrated today, there is a trait worthy of our great attention and reverence: when she was subjected to cruel scourging, she is said to have glorified God with the words of the Psalms — not a word of murmuring, not a word of hesitation, doubt, or cowardice, although her torment was so cruel that even the common people, accustomed to such spectacles, began to reproach the ruler. How, then, can this wondrous, angelic act of the Holy Martyr Anastasia be explained? Her profound gratitude to God for that immeasurably great and indescribable blessedness which the Lord has prepared after death for all who love Him — in short, for her salvation, the path to which must inevitably be narrow and sorrowful. How few such Christians are there in our time!

August: Day 24: Teaching 1: Holy Hieromartyr Eutyches

August: Day 24: Teaching 1:
Holy Hieromartyr Eutyches
 
(On Gratitude and Ingratitude)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Eutyches, commemorated today by the Holy Church, was a contemporary of the Apostles. He came from Sevastopol, or Sebastia, in Palestine. Having heard the preaching about Christ, he became a disciple of John the Theologian, zealously preached the gospel and eradicated paganism. Saint Eutyches had to endure many torments during his preaching: he was tormented by hunger, and his body was scraped with iron claws, and he was thrown into the fire and then cast to be eaten by wild beasts; but the Lord always preserved His Saint. One day they released a lion upon him, and the lion spoke with a human voice. Saint Eutyches died by being beheaded with a sword in his native city.

June: Day 2: Holy Great Martyr John the New of Suceava

June: Day 2:
Holy Great Martyr John the New of Suceava
 
(Nature and Human Life Teach Gratitude to God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Great Martyr John the New, whose memory is celebrated today, is called "of Suceava" because his relics are in the city of Suceava, the Moldavian Whalachian capital, in Austria. Saint John lived in Trebizond and was engaged in trade. Trade affairs did not prevent him from being a good Christian. He loved to study the word of God, and this directed his life and work to everything holy and pleasing to God. Once, when he was traveling on a ship with goods, the captain of the ship, who was, in all likelihood, of the Catholic faith, entering into disputes with him about the faith, could not dispute and decided to destroy him out of hatred. Upon arriving with the ship at the city of Akkerman, he presented himself to the city governor, a Muslim, and informed him about John, stating that he wished to renounce Christianity and embrace Mohammedanism. The mayor summoned John and offered him to accept Mohammedanism, but John said: "God forbid that I should ever renounce Christ!" The mayor began to threaten him with executioners, but John answered: "Chop, burn, hang, beat, torture me as best you can; I am ready to endure everything out of love for my Christ." Then the executioners began to beat him with briar sticks, so that his body flew in pieces through the air, and the blood flowed in streams, but John "thanked God for having granted him the ability to wash away his sins with his own blood." Finally, they tied him by the legs to the tail of a horse and dragged him through the streets of the city. There they laughed at him and cut off his head. The Holy Martyr died on June 2, 1492.* At night, lighted lamps and three angels were seen over John's body, singing and censing, and it was buried. After 70 years, the holy relics of the Great Martyr John were transferred to Suceava, to the Moldavian-Valakh city.

The Path to Panagia Hozoviotissa in Amorgos

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Homily on the Twelfth Sunday of Luke (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on the Twelfth Sunday of Luke

On the Healing of the Ten Lepers

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

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

Dear brothers and sisters, today we are offered a very edifying Gospel story about the miraculous healing of ten lepers by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Evangelist Luke narrates that the Lord, going to Jerusalem, passed between Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten lepers, who stood afar off, and cried with a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And when He saw them, He said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him; and he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus said, "Were not ten cleansed? Where then are the nine? How is it that they did not return to give glory to God, except this stranger?" And He said to him,"Arise, go your way: Your faith has made you well" (Luke 17:12–19).

Homily One for the Twelfth Sunday of Luke (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on December 17, 1950)

You heard in today's Gospel reading how our Lord Jesus Christ miraculously healed ten lepers, and how ungrateful nine of them turned out to be.

This Gospel is read at every thanksgiving service for our edification.

The miracle performed by the Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest blessing for the unfortunate lepers, for leprosy is one of the most terrible, most horrible diseases. Leprosy is a very contagious disease, people die from it, rotting alive, and therefore in ancient times lepers were expelled from cities and villages, and they did not dare to enter them, did not dare to come close to people, they asked for alms from afar. And now the unfortunate lepers are isolated from the healthy: they are placed in leper colonies, where they remain until death.