“Who Will Roll Away the Stone For Us?” (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

“Who Will Roll Away the Stone For Us?”

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Myrrhbearing women were saying among themselves: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” (Mark 16:3). And they were going forward with this thought, that morning, “very early on the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2). Who will roll away for us the great stone that lies at the entrance of the tomb, there where Christ had been buried through the care of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos? This particular Gospel passage informs us that the stone “was very great” (Mark 16:4). Who will lift it so that the door may be opened, so that this obstacle may be removed for the entrance into the tomb, into the All-Holy Sepulchre?

However, this question, “Who will roll away the stone for us?” is also the question of each one of us. It is a concern. Who, and in what way, will we move the “stone” of our inner world, the great mass of our heart?

Translation of the Holy Relics of Saint Athanasios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The only reference in today’s service, on the occasion of the commemoration of the translation of the relic of Athanasios the Great, is found in the verses of the Synaxarion: “Athanasios, where are you being borne? Are they again sending you forth as an exile, even dead? On the second, the corpse of Athanasios came out of the tomb.” In no other troparion is there even the slightest reference to the celebrated event of the translation. All the hymns constitute a hymn to his Orthodox faith, to his struggles for the triumph of this faith, as he opposed the heresy of Arianism and its supporters, to his virtuous life, and to the exiles which he endured. Thus we must accept that according to the codex of Kavsokalyva and the distich of the Lavriotic Codex I 70, the principal commemoration of Saint Athanasios ought to be celebrated today, where his repose is also historically attested, and not the translation of his relics… For what reason his principal feast was established on the 18th of January together with that of Saint Cyril we do not know. Most likely it is for the same reason that the feast of the Three Hierarchs was established.

Interpretation of the Prophecies of the Divine Jeremiah - Book I, Chapter 1 (Theodoret of Cyrus)

CHAPTER 1

Verse 1. "The word of God which came upon Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, from among the priests, who dwelt in Anathoth." The prophet partook of a twofold grace, of priestly and of prophetic; and the one he drew from his lineage, but the other he received as a gift from above. And he also states the time of the prophecy.

2. “For in the days,” he says, “of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” And he also makes mention of those who reigned after him, up to the final siege. Then also he teaches the things spoken by the God of all.

4–5. “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you.’” The choice is not unjust; for knowledge anticipated it. For He knew, and then He sanctified, since He knows all things before their coming into being. And “I sanctified” He has used in place of “I set apart.” Then he also states the purpose for which He chose him: “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” For he proclaims beforehand not only the things of the Jews, but also those of the other nations.

Prologue in Sermons: May 2

Obedience is Greater Than Fasting and Prayer

May 2

(A word from the Paterikon, that obedience is greater than a life of fasting and desert asceticism.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

They say that obedience is greater than fasting and prayer. Can this be believed?

Two blood brothers came to live in a monastery. One of them was a great faster, while the other was distinguished by great obedience, and whatever the elders commanded him, he immediately fulfilled without question; and through obedience he gained renown in the monastery. His brother, the faster, began to envy him and said: “I will test him, and then we shall see how much he has progressed in obedience.” And with these words he went to the abbot and said: “Father, allow my brother to go with me; we need to go to a certain place.” The abbot permitted them.

The brothers set out. When they came to a river, the faster said to the brother who excelled in obedience: “Enter the river and cross it.” The obedient brother entered, and crocodiles surrounded him and began in every way to fawn upon him. Seeing this, the faster said: “Come out of the river.” The brother came out.

Prophet Jeremiah Resource Page

Holy Prophet Jeremiah (Feast Day - May 1)

Verses

Souls of stone strangers to divine fear,
With stones they slew the divine Jeremiah.
On the first of May Jeremiah was killed by stones.

Synaxarion of the Holy Prophet Jeremiah

 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah as a Model for our Lives

 

May: Day 1: Teaching 2: Holy Prophet Jeremiah 

 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

The Love of the Prophet Jeremiah After Death

 

Holy and Righteous Prophet Baruch 

 

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture:  The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

 

Interpretation of the Prophecies of the Divine Jeremiah - Book I, Prologue and Introduction (Theodoret of Cyrus) 

 

Interpretation of the Prophecies of the Divine Jeremiah - Book I, Chapter 1 (Theodoret of Cyrus)
 

Holy Prophet Jeremiah in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. The wondrous Prophet of the Lord, who was sanctified already from his mother’s womb, was from Anathoth. In Taphnae of Egypt he was stoned by the people and died, and he was placed in the place where the Pharaohs dwelt. For the Egyptians honored him, because they had been benefited by him: by his prayer, both the venomous snakes (asps) that were destroying them died, and also the beasts of the waters, which the Egyptians call Ephoth and the Greeks call crocodiles. And all who are faithful even to this day go to that place, and by taking some of the soil, they heal the bites of asps.

They say that Alexander of Macedon, when he came to the Prophet’s tomb and learned these things about him, transferred his relics to Alexandria and distributed them throughout every part of the city and around it, thereby driving away the asps from there. In their place he introduced the snakes called argaloi, which he brought from Argos, from which they also received this name.

Moreover, the Prophet gave a sign to the priests of Egypt that their idols would be shaken and fall to the ground through a child Savior who would be born of a Virgin in a manger. For this reason, even until now they honor as a goddess a virgin who has given birth, and they place an infant in a manger and venerate it. And when King Ptolemy asked what the cause of this was, they said that this mystery is ancestral, handed down to our fathers by a certain holy prophet, and we believe, they said, that this mystery will be fulfilled.

Interpretation of the Prophecies of the Divine Jeremiah - Book I, Prologue and Introduction (Theodoret of Cyrus)

Interpretation of the Prophet Jeremiah

 

 By Theodoret of Cyrus

 

PROLOGUE

For my part, I had supposed that the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah had no need of interpretation. But since many of the earnest urged me also to interpret this book, saying that most people are ignorant of the meaning of the prophecy, having entreated that divine grace might become my helper, I shall attempt to fulfill what has been commanded. And I shall take care, as much as possible, for brevity; and of the clearer passages I shall make a paraphrase in summary form, while those that require fuller treatment I shall endeavor to unfold. But first I shall set forth the subject of the prophecy.

Synaxarion of our Venerable Mother Isidora the Fool for Christ

Synaxarion

By Hieromonk Athanasios of Simonopetra (1987)

On this day (May 1st), we remember our Venerable Mother Isidora.

Verses

Your life is a radiant example for monastics, Isidora,
A gift from God who prefers the humble.
Isidora was secretly adorned with an immortal wreath.

This most blessed and most venerable Mother of ours, Isidora, flourished in the middle of the 4th century A.D., in the women’s cenobitic community established by the great luminary Pachomios and called that of the Tabennesiotes. Feigning foolishness and assuming the role of one possessed by a demon, she was dishonored by all her fellow nuns, rejoicing in such dishonors as in great wealth. Yet she did not escape the all-beholding eye of Christ the Pantocrator, and the holiness of her life was revealed through an angelic vision to the great ascetic and disciple of Venerable Anthony, the most holy Pitirim, who, before the entire sisterhood of the monastic women, made known the hidden treasure of the despised Venerable Isidora. But she, not enduring the wonder and the honor thereafter being shown to her, secretly fled to an unknown and desert place, seeking to please and to be acceptable to God alone, by Whom also she receives the just reward of her lifelong humility, having become a wondrous example for all the pious and God-loving.

Prologue in Sermons: May 1

 

True Friends Are An Invaluable Treasure

May 1

(A discourse on love, for the sake of which God forgives sins.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Wise people say that a true friend is an invaluable treasure. Is this really so?

Once, two monks were going to the marketplace to sell their handiwork. On the way, they parted in different directions, and during that time one of them fell into sin. When they returned home, the monk who had not sinned said to the one who had: “Come, brother, let us go to the cell.”

But he replied: “I will not go.”

“Why?” asked the pious monk.

“I have fallen into a mortal sin,” answered the fallen one.

The one who had not sinned, wishing to save his friend who was near despair, used a kind of wise deception. He said to him: “Do you know? Without you, I also fell into the same sin as you. But what is to be done? We must ask God for forgiveness.”