Renewal Friday - The Zoodochos Pege in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church (Fr. George Dorbarakis)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Hymnographer of the Service for the Zoodochos Pege (Life-Receiving Spring) of the Theotokos, in regards to the church of the Panagia with its renowned holy spring at Balıklı Monastery in Constantinople, is Saint Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos.[1] The Saint cannot find words in order even slightly to define what has taken place at this holy spring for centuries: the flood of healings, the benefactions, the countless miracles. Therefore he summons images from the natural world and from Holy Scripture in order to give the proper analogies: the church there of the Theotokos is a noetic ocean, something surpassing even the river Nile in the offering of the grace of God; it is a second Pool of Siloam, a second rock gushing forth healing water, a continuation of the Jordan River, another manna covering the needs of the one seeking salvation. It is divine water, ambrosia and nectar[2] (Vespers Aposticha).

And of course these are not only miracles related to the healing of the bodily illnesses of men. The healing water of the Theotokos cures also the illnesses of the soul, the passions of men, so that through it man may find God and become healthy in both respects, spiritually and bodily. Besides, the gift of the grace of God through the water there aims at this: the true restoration of human beings, that is, their spiritual health. For what meaning has bodily health alone, if it is not accompanied by its spiritual dimension as well? Bodily health by itself often proves destructive for man, because it pushes him toward the increase of his sins. Thus the Zoodochos Pege healed man in a twofold manner, “flowing abundantly to all who have need of health of soul and health of body, with the water of grace” (Vespers Sticheron).[3] “How great are your wonders, O Spring, which you offer to all! For not only have you driven away grievous diseases from those who come to you with longing, but you also wash away the passions of souls” (Glory at Vespers).[4] Therefore, because “the water of the Virgin heals souls, let us run to the Maiden, we who are afflicted by the stains of the passions, and let us wash them away” (Praises).[5]

Prologue in Sermons: April 17

Our Humility Is Especially Unbearable to Demons

April 17

(A saying from the Paterikon on humility, which conquers all the power of the devil.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Our humility is especially unbearable to demons and hateful to them. We will prove this to you by the following two examples.

Two blood-brother monks lived together, and they lived in perfect love. The devil envied this and wanted to separate them. And so, when the younger brother lit a candle and placed it on the candlestick, the devil extinguished the lamp and knocked it down. The elder brother, thinking that his younger brother had done this, beat him, and with great anger.

The younger bowed to the ground before him and asked forgiveness. “Brother,” he said, “wait a little, and I will light the candle for you at once.”

But the invisible power of God terribly tormented the demon until morning. When he was freed from the torment, he told everything to Satan. All this was heard by a pagan priest who happened to be there. Soon after this he became a monk and became humble, saying to everyone:

“Humility destroys all the power of the enemy, for I myself heard the words of the demons.”

The Miraculous Discovery of the Relics of Saint Leonides and His Companions in 1917

The commemoration of the Holy Martyr Leonides and his seven female disciples, who were also glorified as saints because of their martyrdom, is celebrated on April 16.

In 1917 their relics were discovered in the region of Nea Epidavros (Nea Epidaurus), and they have been placed in a silver reliquary and constitute a place of pilgrimage in the Church of Saint Leonides there.

The beginning of the revelation of the Church of Saint Leonides took place on April 12, 1898, after a vision seen at dawn on that day by seventeen-year-old Ioannis Georgiou Bimpis. In the vision, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared — clothed in black yet radiant — with the Divine Infant in her arms, at the very spot where the church stands today, and she instructed him to dig in that place and he would find an invaluable treasure.

After recounting the vision to his family and praying, the young man took a hoe and, at sunrise, went to the place indicated by the Panagia.

Five Miracles of Saint Amphilochios of Patmos

1. An event that shows how he received mysterious calls for the salvation of others, and which recalls the great Apostle of the Nations, Paul the Apostle, who heard the voice of the Macedonian: “Come over and help us.” 

The ever-memorable Elder, while he was in his cell at the monastery in Patmos, heard a certain Helen from Ikaria calling him to hasten and save her. He did not lose time; he went down to the harbor of the island and, as if by a miracle, found a sailing vessel departing for Ikaria.

Battered by the sea, he arrived at his destination and immediately asked whether there was a certain widow named Helen, and was informed that a few days earlier she had lost her husband. At once he asked to learn the road that led to the house of the widow. He did not seek to rest his weary body, but hastened without delay — the voice of Helen troubled him. As he was walking, he saw a frantic woman running in despair; he called her by name and said to her: “Helen, where are you going? I have come for you.” And the grieving woman came to herself, saw the spiritual father, thought about what she was about to do, and confessed that at that very moment she was going to drown herself in the sea. The woman was saved; the miracle took place, as she herself told me.

His constant journeys and his labors in hearing the confessions of his spiritual children are not easy to record. He ran with all missionary zeal to find and save the lost. His concern for sinners in general shows him to be a good shepherd, an imitator of Christ the Chief Shepherd.

The Professor and Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

By Georgios Papazachos (1935–2001), 
Professor of Medicine, University of Athens

I would meet him on Patmos, where he lived as a monk, and also in Athens — indeed, once when he had come to the capital, I even had the special “blessing” of hosting him in my home. He was serene, gentle; you rejoiced even just to look at him!

The first time I met him, as soon as he saw me from afar, without even knowing me, he opened his arms wide and cried out warmly: “Blessed is he who comes!”

He embraced me and then kissed me. This is the love of the elders: they embrace you and truly warm your soul!

The Ineffable Event of the Resurrection of Christ (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

The Ineffable Event of the Resurrection of Christ

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

It is a fact that we now live in the age of globalization, where on the one hand there exists the threat of hateful insecurity, and on the other a hedonistic, materialistic understanding of life. At the center stands the human being. And this postmodern human being seems to prefer the path of autonomy, self-sufficiency, and his own reason alone. The cogito, ergo sum of René Descartes stands not only at the beginning of modern times, but also determines the entire course up to the present day. Neo-rationalism becomes the small or great god and the criterion — like another “infallibility” — and the “man is the measure of all things” becomes dominant in all the structures of our society.

However, the problems of man are not diminished, and the fundamental ontological category of existence remains unredeemed. The man of the 21st century continues to feel the unsatisfied void within himself and remains troubled.

And yet, before modern man comes the unprecedented and astonishing event of the Resurrection of Christ. The words are heard: “We celebrate the death of death,” and the proclamation resounds: “Christ is Risen.”

Sunday of Holy Pascha (8-9 of 15)

...continued.

8. What Have Hades, Earth, and Heaven Become After the Resurrection of Christ?

The descent into hades and the Resurrection of Christ have great significance in the work of the salvation of mankind.

Saint Philaret of Moscow wrote:

“Is it necessary to establish faith, to create hope, to inflame love, to enlighten wisdom, to raise up prayer, to bring down grace, to destroy calamity, death, evil, to give life to life, to make blessedness not a dream but reality, glory not a phantom but the eternal lightning of eternal light, illuminating everything and striking no one? — For all this, sufficient power will be found in one miraculous word: ‘Christ is Risen.’

What is hades after, since by the descent into hades, Christ is risen? A fortress into which, under the appearance of a prisoner, the conqueror entered; a prison whose gates are shattered and whose guards are scattered; this is truly, according to the image of Christ, a monster that swallowed the prophet cast from a ship; but instead of devouring and destroying him, it became for him another, though not so calm, ship, in order to bring him to the shore of life and safety. Now it becomes clear how someone hoped to pass safely even through hades itself: ‘Even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me’ (Ps. 22:4) — You, Who for us descended from heaven, walked on the earth like us, and like us descended into the shadow of death, so that from there also You might open a path for Your followers into the light of life.

Renewal Thursday - Wonders Have Been Revealed To Those Who Worship the Mystery in Faith (Fr. George Dorbarakis)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“Lord, though the tomb was sealed by the lawless, You came forth from the grave, just as You were born from the Theotokos; Your bodiless Angels did not know how You were incarnate; the soldiers guarding You did not perceive when You rose; for both were sealed from those who inquire; but the wonders have been revealed to those who worship the mystery in faith; grant us who hymn You gladness and great mercy” (Resurrectional Sticheron, plagal tone 1).

The Holy Hymnographer places in a straight line the mystery of the birth of the God-man Christ from the Most Holy Theotokos and the mystery of His going forth from the tomb in which He had been buried. No human being, nor even angels, knew the counsels of God in these events; both the supernatural Birth of the Lord and His Resurrection remained hidden from all creation, because there we have the action of the Triune God — we stand before the mystery of His almighty presence. And this is not only, of course, when the Lord came; even afterward, and for as long as the world and creation exist in the form we know, these saving events will remain completely closed to every rational being that thinks it can investigate the activity of God by its own powers — even for the angels! In other words, no created rational nature, however endowed it may be, can enter into the inner depths of the thought of God. These belong only to the three divine Persons, which means that God keeps “secrets” even from His holy angels. The Apostle Paul confesses this with complete awe at a certain point in his epistles: “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor?”

Prologue in Sermons: April 16

Three Friends

April 16

(A Parable of Barlaam the Elder About Three Friends)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Although the Lord teaches us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), and assures us that if we seek Him, all that is necessary for temporal life will also be added to us, yet we somehow listen little to the words of the Savior. Instead of enriching ourselves with virtues for the attainment of the Kingdom of Heaven, we care most of all about acquiring temporal and perishable goods, and in them we place all our hope. “I have,” says the greater part of us, “a wife and children. What will they be left with after me? How will they live if I do not provide for them?” And a person begins to think only about money, and in sleep and in waking sees only money, dreams only of it, and places in it the chief good. But care for the one thing needful — for conscience and the immortal soul, for adorning oneself with virtues — he considers, if he considers it at all, the very last object of his concern. And meanwhile, how does all this end? The lover of money dies, and his money remains on this side of the grave. In the other world it will not be needed by him; there what would be most necessary and most useful for him is precisely that to which in life he paid the least attention, and which in fact ought to have been the first object of his care.