October: Day 1: Teaching 4: Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos

October: Day 1: Teaching 4:
Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos
 
(On the necessity of protecting those in need of our help.)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Several centuries ago, on this very day, Blessed Andrew, brethren, was granted a wondrous and at the same time consoling vision. When he was in the Blachernae Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Constantinople, together with the other inhabitants of Constantinople imploring the Lord to avert the calamity from the Greek capital, which at that time was threatened with an invasion by the terrible Saracens, it appeared to him that the vault of the church was opened, and he saw in the air the Mother of God with a host of Angels, Prophets, Apostles, and other heavenly beings. The Most Holy Virgin knelt in prayer before God and covered the Christian world with Her honorable omophorion. Seeing this, Blessed Andrew said to his disciple Epiphanios: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady of all, praying for the whole world?” “I see Her,” Epiphanios replied, “and I am filled with awe.” This vision was accompanied by the deliverance of Constantinople and all of Greece from the invasion of the barbarians; therefore, the Holy Church established that it be celebrated annually on this day, for the remembrance and edification of the faithful.

Prologue in Sermons: October 1

One Should Not Have Scandalous Books and Pictures in One’s Home
 

October 1

(From the Lemonarion, concerning why the Most Holy Theotokos did not enter the church of Kyriakos the priest.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In your homes one sometimes encounters very unpleasant things. On the walls, beside the holy icons, one sometimes sees pictures of the most scandalous kind, while in the homes of literate people, on the shelves among the sacred books, there are often songbooks or immoral books. How sinful and destructive to the soul this is, you can see from the following account.

The Presbyter Kyriakos, who served in the Kalamon Monastery near the Jordan, relates:

“I saw in a dream a woman, reverent in appearance, dressed in purple, and with her two men. They were all standing near my cell. In the woman I recognized the Most Holy Theotokos, and in those accompanying Her, John the Baptist and the Evangelist John. Rejoicing at such a visitation, I rushed to the feet of the Intercessor for the world and began asking Her to enter my cell and offer prayer there to God on my behalf. But She would not agree. When I continued without ceasing to entreat Her with tears, She said to me: ‘You keep My enemy in your cell; how then do you want Me to enter your cell?’ With these words She departed, and the vision ended.
 

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 1

 

The Month of October

Day 1

32. To Young Students

(From the Life of Venerable Romanos the Melodist)

Why is it, young men, that it so often happens that the most capable among you, who have been exalted above everyone else, suddenly become weak in their studies and either do not complete their course, or, if they do complete it, do so only somehow and end up far below even those with whom they never once thought of comparing themselves and whom they always considered nothing more than pitiable mediocrities? And why, on the contrary, does it happen again and again among you that your classmates, although hardworking, yet at first making little progress, but gentle and humble, suddenly begin to study better than everyone else and pass their examinations brilliantly? It is not difficult to answer these questions. In the first case, the reason the first became last was that they were proud, and God resists the proud; in the second, the reason the last became first was that they were humble, and the Lord always gives His grace to the humble and always grants them wisdom.

Holy Hieromartyr Gregory of Greater Armenia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Gregory lived during the reign of Diocletian. He was a Parthian by descent, the son of Anak, a relative of Kusaros, king of Armenia. He was arrested by King Tiridates as a Christian and endured many punishments for this reason. When Tiridates learned, moreover, that he was the son of Anak the Parthian, who had murdered his father, he had his hands and feet bound and sent him to the city of Artaxata, where they cast him into a deep pit filled with wild beasts and reptiles. He lived in this pit for fifteen years, secretly fed by a widowed woman. Meanwhile, King Tiridates went mad; he ate his own flesh and lived among the pigs in the mountains. His sister, Kusarodukta, then had a dream and heard a voice saying: ‘Unless Gregory comes out of the pit, Tiridates will not recover.’ Indeed, Kusarodukta freed Gregory, and at the same time the king was healed. Gregory became Bishop of Armenia, baptized its inhabitants, built many churches, and finally departed peacefully to the Lord.

September: Day 30: Teaching 2: Saint Michael, First Metropolitan of Kiev

September: Day 30: Teaching 2:
Saint Michael, First Metropolitan of Kiev
 
(Our Idolatry)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. More than 900 years have passed since our forefathers accepted the Christian faith under Saint Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and his great fellow laborer in the work of spreading the faith, the first Metropolitan of Kiev, Saint Michael, whose memory is celebrated today.

II. Glory and thanksgiving to God: the times of paganism have ended, but has idolatry ended? Are we who have accepted the law of Christ free from the service of idols? No. Worship of statues and material idols has ended, but worship of spiritual idols, the service of the devil, has not ended. Spiritual idols are sinful passions: whoever serves them and seeks to please them serves the devil. There are three such principal idols to which, unfortunately, we Christians also often bow down and render service: these are our “love of honor, worldliness, and gratification of the flesh.” “Everything that is in the world,” says the Holy Apostle John, is “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16).

Prologue in Sermons: September 30

For Those Who Conceal Their Sins in Confession

September 30

(A Homily of Saint John Chrysostom on the Confession of Sins.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Regarding the Mystery of Repentance, the Church, among other things, makes the following determination: whoever conceals his sins in confession not only does not receive forgiveness for them, but also doubles them. “But if you conceal anything from me,” the spiritual father says to the penitent before confession, “you have a twofold sin.” It would seem that such a stern determination of the Church ought to compel all Christians to be open in confession and to approach it not with a feeling of Pharisaic self-righteousness, but with the disposition of the publican and the prudent thief. Nevertheless, even to this day we often see that some, because of false shame, others because of weak faith, others because of pride, and still others at the instigation of the devil, in a word, many do not cease concealing their sins and thereby leave confession without true peace in their conscience, without the divine word of forgiveness within their souls. How, then, can such people be moved to openness? How can their false shame, weak faith, and pride be taken away? How can they be made truly repentant? Let us endeavor to do this through the following words of Saint Chrysostom. God grant that those who conceal their sins in confession may be convinced of their error and come to their senses.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 30

The Month of September

Day 30

31. Do Not Destroy the Defenseless

(From the Life of the Holy Hieromartyr Gregory, Bishop of Greater Armenia, and with him the thirty-seven maidens)

Although, fortunately, such people are rare, there are nevertheless those who, whether for the sake of gain, out of malice, or for some other vile purpose, consider it nothing not only to deceive or rob the defenseless, but even to destroy them completely. One man has a child in his care for instruction; he beats him and beats him, and by his beatings finally brings him to the grave. Another seduces a maiden and then spares no means by which he might be rid of her, and the maiden perishes forever, both in soul and in body. Another, in order to make use of the money and property of an orphan, sends her to the other world before her time. What do you think, brethren? Will such people's cruelty and inhumanity go unpunished, or not? Know that they will never go unpunished, and the Lord will strictly call such evildoers to account. “You shall not afflict the orphan,” He says; “if you afflict them at all... My wrath will be kindled” (Exodus 22:22–24), and the Lord confirms His words by deeds themselves.

Venerable Kyriakos the Anchorite Resource Page

St. Kyriakos the Anchorite (Feast Day - September 9)

Verses

The bitterness of the onions you warded off Kyriakos,

Giving them a sweet taste, or you would be condemned to die.

Onion-eating Kyriakos made his end on the twenty-ninth.  

Venerable Kyriakos the Anchorite

September: Day 29: Teaching 1: Venerable Kyriakos the Anchorite

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 29 

Venerable Kyriakos the Anchorite in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

Why Saint Kyriakos is Not Called a "Hermit" But Instead Called an "Anchorite"

  

The Relationship Between St. Gerasimos of Jordan and St. Kyriakos the Anchorite

Venerable Kyriakos the Anchorite in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Venerable Kyriakos lived during the reign of Theodosius the Great and was from the city of Corinth, in whose Church his father, John, was a presbyter. His mother was named Eudokia, and he was the nephew of Bishop Peter, while he himself served in the rank of Reader. When he was eighteen years old, he went to Jerusalem and became a monk under Venerable Euthymios the Great. As a monk, he demonstrated great and intense asceticism, rebuked those who held the erroneous doctrines of Origen, performed many miracles through the power of Christ, and reached an extremely advanced old age. He was gentle and sociable as a man, while by divine revelation he foretold many things that were to come to pass. He was large in stature, yet neither wild nor repulsive, but gracious in his manner, without suffering any bodily disability or illness as the years passed. For some years he also guided the Lavra of Saint Chariton.

2. Today, as we seek the intercessions of Venerable Kyriakos, we receive the grace of the intercessions of Venerable Chariton, whose feast we celebrated only yesterday. This is not merely because his feast is so close to today's, but chiefly because Venerable Kyriakos was the successor of Venerable Chariton, the one who, as the Synaxarion relates, guided the flock of the monastery founded by Elder Chariton after his repose. Thus, for those who honor it according to the manner of our Church, the grace of today's feast comes to us with double intensity. The Hymnographer emphasizes this as well:

“Standing in glory before God the Almighty, O God-proclaimer Kyriakos, together with divine Chariton, unceasingly remember those who celebrate your light-bearing memory, O Saint.”