SIN!

 He who falls 

 into the sin is a man.

 

He who is saddened
by the sin is a saint.

 

He who takes satisfaction
and remains in the sin is a demon.

 

And he who forgives
the sin is God.

 

 

Homily One for the Eleventh Sunday of Matthew - Seeing Our Own Sins in the Lives of Others (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on September 9, 1945)

The Lord Jesus Christ often shakes our hearts with His words and parables, showing us the limits of human wickedness and sinfulness. The behavior of an immensely hard-hearted debtor, to whom the good king forgave a huge debt of ten thousand talents, is deeply outrageous. And what does he do when he receives this grace? Having met a poor man who owes him an insignificant amount of one hundred denarii, he grabs him by the throat and strangles him, despite the fact that from the mouth of the unfortunate man he hears the same words that he himself spoke before the king: “Be patient with me, and I will give everything to you.” But he does not want to endure and puts his debtor in prison (see Matt. 18:23–35). What could be more outrageous?

Homilies on the Litany of Completion of the Divine Liturgy - The Remission of Sins (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The Litany of Completion of the Divine Liturgy 

 

The Remission of Sins

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

 

One of the requests of the "completions" that we are interpreting in the Sunday sermons of this summer also refers to our day being perfect, holy, peaceful and sinless. This can be realized by Christ's friends with His own Grace and their own synergy. However, this is not done by all of us, that is why we usually taste from the bitter cup of failure. We fail to keep God's commandments, to respond to His love and, of course, then our sorrow is great, the pain is deep.

This is the reason why we feel the need to pray to God to forgive us: "For the forgiveness and remission of our sins and transgressions, let us ask the Lord."

Homily for the Epistle Reading of the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost - Flesh and Spirit (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Homily for the Epistle Reading of the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost 

Flesh and Spirit

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

I know that many of you read the Holy Scriptures at home, I also know that you mainly read the Gospels, while you read little of the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles.

Why don't you read more? Because, firstly, you do not know how much high wisdom is contained in these messages, you consider them secondary in comparison with the Gospels.

This is the first reason.

And the second reason is that the epistles of the Apostle Paul, which are the most among the epistles of the apostles, are written in a very difficult language. His thought flows in a very peculiar way, not in the way people usually think.

Homily for the Epistle Reading of the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost - Slaves of Sin and Slaves of Righteousness (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Homily for the Epistle Reading of the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Romans 6:17-19

Slaves of Sin and Slaves of Righteousness

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on July 22, 1945)

 

Jesus Christ said: “The one who saves his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for My sake will save it” (Matt. 10:39). To understand these words, you need to know what the human soul is. The soul is nothing but a collection of thoughts, concepts, aspirations. There are good souls, and there are those inclined to evil, full of sinful desires. For most people, the soul is subordinate to the flesh and strives to serve its passions, is inclined to a well-fed, contented life. Such a soul must be destroyed, all its base carnal demands, which defile both the body and the soul itself, must be destroyed.

The Holy Apostle Paul addresses the Romans who believed in Christ, who left their former pagan way of life, full of sin and lewdness, with the following words: “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17-18).

Homily for the Epistle Reading on the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Pentecost

"The Wages of Sin is Death" (Romans 6:23)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The passage that we heard today in the apostolic reading - "the wages of sin is death" - is very important, in order to understand what sin is and how the person who sins feels. We have heard it many times, and it is a phrase known to those who often read Holy Scripture.

The word "wages" (οψώνια) denotes the payment, the ration, the salary that the emperor gave to the soldiers. That is why Saint John the Forerunner exhorted the soldiers: "Be content with your wages" (Luk. 3:14), that is, do not take various goods from your fellow men, but be content with what the emperor or the king gives you.

Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: Homily on Repentance (Bishop Elias Meniates) - Part 5 of 5

...continued from part four.

Section Two

I think today's discourse will seem very harsh to you. It's a sharp blade that wounds the heart, but what can we do? When the wound is festering it does not need light emollients. It needs fire and iron. And for our case there is no need for flattering and sweet words, but bitter and terrible. This is a great truth.

We do not repent because we hope that we will always have time. But we are wrong. To repent properly, we lack the will, which cannot leave the habit. We still lack the grace of God, which can no longer endure, tolerate sin.

The devil invented this art. That is, to lead people to perdition, with the hope of later repentance. Hades will be full of people who hoped to reach Paradise! Ah! The false hope of our salvation, is the true cause of our hell!

First Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (St. Luke of Simferopol)

From Your Words You Will Be Condemned

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on April 15, 1945 - 4th Sunday of Great Lent)

Today we celebrate the memory of our venerable father John of the Ladder. Saint John belonged to a very noble family and received a high education for that time, but he despised everything and in his youth he went to Mount Sinai, and lived for forty-five years in the wilderness, at the foot of this mountain.

The Church honors his memory, because he wrote a book of great significance for the entire Christian world, which is called The Ladder. In this book, Saint John expounded the doctrine of all Christian virtues and the means of ascending their steps to perfection. Much could be said about this holy book, but today we will talk about what extremely strongly hinders us on the path to salvation - about the word.

Homily on the Friday of the First Week of Great Lent - The Fight Against the Passions (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 Homily on the Friday of the First Week of Great Lent

The Fight Against the Passions

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on February 24, 1950)

"When we fast bodily, brethren, we fast spiritually." Let us delve into these words, for they explain the purpose and importance of fasting.

What are fasts for? To teach us to abstain. Abstain from what? Directly - to abstain from hearty and tasty food, but the importance of fasting does not end there: this is only a bodily fast, and it should be a way for us to learn about spiritual fasting. What is a spiritual fast? This is abstinence from everything harmful to us, from everything that corrupts our soul, that is, from the passions that underlie all our sins. The Holy Fathers distinguished eight main passions: gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, sorrow, despondency, vanity and pride. Why is the passion of gluttony placed first? Because the one who does not conquer this lower, animal passion, will not be able to conquer all other passions.

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: Introduction (1)

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Idleness (2) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Despondency (3) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Lust for Power (4) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Idle Talk (5) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Chastity (6) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Humility (7) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Patience (8) 

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Love (9)

 

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: Conclusion (10)