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.

Homily for the 16th Sunday of Matthew on the Parable of the Talents (Patriarch Germanos II of Constantinople)

Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew

Parable of the Talents

(Matthew 25:14-30)

By Patriarch Germanos II of Constantinople (+ 1240) 

The farmers who guard the fields and orchards of their masters are in the habit of gathering whatever flowers they find beautiful and fragrant, and offering them to their masters; and if they have other friends, they give them to them as well. Those receiving the lilies with joy, they thank and give gifts to the farmers, although they receive no other benefit from those flowers than that they please the sight for a little while and that they perfume their sense of smell. And we, the spiritual farmers and teachers, to whom the Lord has entrusted us with the evergreen meadow of the holy Gospel and we tend such a beautiful and fruitful orchard, do not only once a year offer you, our beloved brethren and friends, bountiful flowers of the summer, but daily we collect spiritual words from the evergreen Paradise of Scripture and teach you with much desire and diligence, delighting your souls with various admonitions and examples, by which you benefit, repent of your sins and find eternal salvation. Therefore, receive the teaching with joy, brethren, and expel the stench of sin with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit; and after you are thus cleansed, you will become the temple of God and dwelling places of divine grace. Therefore listen to today's parable of our Lord, and may you receive much benefit in your soul, especially those who are negligent and idle, who do not take care to transmit to their brethren and neighbor the gift that each one has according to his art and science. Take heed therefore with much precision.

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 16th Sunday of Matthew

Parable of the Talents

(Matthew 25:14-30)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on October 7, 1951)

You heard a very important parable of Christ in this Gospel reading. Try to delve into it and understand it properly.

You know the content of this parable, but I will begin my homily from the end of it, from the words with which our Savior ended it: “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

If these words are heard by a person who is not spiritual, but soulful, a man of this world, he will not only not understand them, but will be indignant: how is it that he who has much will have more, and whoever has nothing will have his last taken away?

Homily for the Epistle Reading on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (St. Luke of Simferopol)

16th Sunday after Pentecost

Be Afraid to Accept the Hour of Death Without Repentance

(2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

Enemies constantly pursued the prophet David and tried to kill him many times. Once, being in extreme danger, he said to those around him: “I am only one step away from death.”

I remember these words now because a week ago I had to repeat them. Only one step was between me and death - for several hours I lay completely without a pulse, from minute to minute my heart was ready to stop. But the Lord had mercy on me. True, I still feel weak, so I can only talk to you while sitting. But I want to tell you about remembering the hour of death, for each of us must die, and this can happen suddenly.

Our life is short, we cannot waste short days and hours in carelessness. We must always remember the hour of death and be faithful to Christ as He Himself commanded in the Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian - when he spoke about the seven Angels of the Asia Minor Churches, He called the bishops of these Churches Angels and said to one of these Angels: “Be faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

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.

Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew Resource Page

Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew
 
(Matthew 25:14-30)

 

Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew: Gospel Reading

 

Gospel Commentary for the Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. John Chrysostom) 

 

Gospel Commentary for the Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Theophylact of Ochrid)

 

Homily for the 16th Sunday of Matthew on the Parable of the Talents (Patriarch Germanos II of Constantinople)

Reflection on the Parable of the Talents (St. Theophan the Recluse)

 

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Luke of Simferopol)

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

 

 

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

 

(2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

 

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 

 

Homily for the Epistle Reading on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

 

"Hands up. Knives down. Tonight there was a miracle of Saint Haralambos at the Polyclinic!"

Nikolaos and Andreas Alivizatos, founders of the Athens Polyclinic in 1903

A miracle of Saint Haralambos for Konstantinos Livadas, an employee of the Hellenic Court of Audit, when he was young. Here's how he describes it:

"In January 1931 I was hospitalized at the Athens Polyclinic with an abscess in the liver. For four weeks I was tormented by fever. I had a temperature between 38-40 °C (100-104 °F) at night and terrible pain. It was decided to do an operation.

It was the eve of Saint Haralambos, February 9, 1931. In the evening and while I was in a lethargic and exhausted state due to the high fever, I saw a priestly man with a long beard enter my room. He approached me and not the patient across from me who was suffering from peritonitis.

He caressed my head and said:

"Don't be afraid... Tomorrow you will be perfectly fine. You're a good kid."

Homily on the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Stratelates (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

On the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Stratelates

By S. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered in 1958)

Recently I spoke in the cemetery church about the very important significance for us of the lives of the saints.

Yesterday in Alushta there was a temple feast in memory of the transfer of the relics of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates. I would like to introduce you to the life of this great saint.

He was a Stratelates, that is, a military leader in the city of Heraclea near the Black Sea and lived at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ.

The news reached Emperor Licinius that Theodore was a Christian and was turning the inhabitants of Heraclea away from the pagan gods, and he demanded Theodore to come to Nicomedia.

Fr. John Romanides as a Professor of Dogmatics at Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston (7 of 8)

...continued from part six.

e. Orthodox Anthropology

"According to Plato, the real human being is in the intelligible world. In order to see the intelligible world, one must start from the phenomena, which reflect the idea, and reach the prototype. The real knowledge of the truth is to know the idea. This is why the philosopher studies the phenomena in the world.

For the Platonists, this world is a bad copy. The Papists identify the ideas of Plato with the essence of God. Plato's intelligible world is the Sophia or the Logos for the popes. For them there is no distinction between essence and energy. When God, they say, created the world, He simply copied His essence. That is, the world is a copy of the archetype. The first to make such an identification was Augustine. If we accept these conditions we will notice what is the position of the Natural Theology of the Western Church. According to Westerners, a simple man can learn about the essence of God, if he studies the present world. The Gnostics say that an inferior creator god did a bad copy of the intelligible world. This is because God is perfect and the perfect cannot be copied. 'Be perfect, as our Father is perfect.'"