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

The Month of October

Day 30

61. What Blessings Does Almsgiving Bring Us?

(From the Life of the Hieromartyr Zenobios and His Sister Zenobia)

The Lord teaches us to give alms. “Sell,” He says, “what you have and give alms” (Luke 12:33). And we give alms according to the Lord’s word. But here a question inevitably arises of its own accord: why, then, do we give alms? Is there any benefit to us ourselves from our almsgiving? Do we gain anything for ourselves through it? Does it bring us any blessings as well? Know, brethren, that almsgiving is of great benefit to us ourselves, that through it we acquire much for ourselves, and that it brings us great blessings. What are these blessings? And what, in general, does almsgiving bring us?

Synaxarion of the Venerables Abramius and Maria

Synaxarion

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

On this same day, the commemoration of our Venerable Father Abramius and Maria, His Niece.

Verses For Abramius

Having mortified every member of his body, Abramius,
At his death, dwells with the bodiless Angels.

Verses For Maria

Having abandoned the lovers of the flesh, Maria,
You mystically embrace the Lover of souls.

This Saint Abramius was the son of Christian parents. Having taken a wife in marriage against his will, he abandoned everything of the world out of longing for Christ and withdrew into the desert. He shut himself inside a small hut and practiced every form of hardship and ascetic discipline.

After spending fifty years in asceticism, he was ordained a priest and afterward became a bishop and shepherd, against his will, of a village called Tainia, which lies in Lampsacus on the Hellespont, that is, by the Sea of Marmara. For the salvation of the people of Tainia, the blessed man endured many hardships and temptations on numerous occasions, for the inhabitants there were sunk in the delusion of idolatry.

October: Day 29: Teaching 3: Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman

 

October: Day 29: Teaching 3:
Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman
 
(How Can We Learn to Be Grateful to God?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the feast of Saint Anastasia of Rome, who, amid her torments, sang praises and offered thanksgiving to God in the words of the Psalms of the Prophet-King, it is fitting, brethren, to speak about how we too may learn to be grateful to God, we who, having received thousands of blessings from Him, have failed to value them and have not thanked Him for them.

II. Someone may ask me: Can one really learn to be grateful? Yes, brethren, one can. Everything can be learned in the school of the gospel. Put this to the test.

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

The Month of October

Day 29

60. Mercy Is the Best Means of Turning a Sinner to the Path of Truth

(From the Life of Venerable Abramius the Recluse)

Just as physicians treating the body, when they consider it necessary to remove an infected limb from a sick person, first endeavor to encourage and calm the sufferer and only then proceed with the operation, so also those among you, brethren, who may wish to become physicians of the soul and undertake the great task of turning sinners from the path of sin to the path of truth should first approach them, not with harsh words of reproach, but in the spirit of evangelical meekness. They should not aggravate the wounds of sinners’ souls, but pour the balm of mercy upon them. If spiritual physicians act toward sinners in this way, following our advice, they will see good results from their efforts on behalf of sinners, and the sinners themselves will indeed return to the right path.

Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi of Iconium

St. Paraskevi of Iconium (Feast Day - October 28)

The Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi lived in the third century in Iconium, a city in Asia Minor. She was born into a wealthy and pious Christian family. Her parents held Friday in special reverence because it was the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the Cross. For this reason, they named their daughter Paraskevi, a Greek name meaning “Friday.”

Paraskevi was devoted from an early age to the Christian faith. After her parents died, she dedicated herself entirely to the service of God. When she reached adulthood, she took a vow of virginity, choosing to devote her life to Christ rather than enter into marriage. She also devoted herself to proclaiming the Christian faith among the pagans, seeking to bring them to the knowledge of the true God.

Saint Athanasius Sakharov the Confessor and Bishop of Kovrov (+ 1962)

Saint Athanasius Sakharov (Feast Day - October 28)

The future Bishop Athanasius (Sergei Grigoryevich Sakharov) was born on July 2, 1887 (Old Style), on the feast of the Placing of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae. Sergei’s parents, Gregory and Matrona, lived in Vladimir. His father, a native of Suzdal, was a court councillor, while his mother came from a peasant family. Their goodness and piety provided fertile ground in which the spiritual gifts of their only son could grow. Named in honor of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, the intercessor for the Russian land, the future hierarch deeply embraced the selfless love for the Church and the Fatherland that so distinguished the Venerable Sergius.

Encomium to our Venerable and God-bearing Father Symeon the New Theologian (St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite) - 5 of 5

...continued from part four.

37. But what are we to do, brothers, we Christians and monks of this evil age—or, rather, we who are the refuse of Christians and monks? What are we to do, or what means are we to employ, in order to please God and be saved? Let us imitate the example of the God-pleasing life and conduct of our Venerable and God-bearing Father Symeon. For this is why we have gathered today to celebrate his venerable memory: not so much to honor him, because the transcendent honor and glory that he enjoys in the heavens are sufficient for him, and he does not need any further addition of honor and glory from us; rather, we celebrate the memory of the sacred Symeon so that we ourselves may benefit by imitating his life according to God. For thus Basil the Great instructs us:

“His memory, therefore, is sufficient for continual benefit. For those men have no need of an addition to their good repute; rather, remembrance is necessary for us who are in this life, for the sake of imitation. For just as giving light follows fire spontaneously, and fragrance follows perfume, so benefit necessarily follows good deeds.”³⁴

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 28

The Month of October

The 28th Day

59. How Children Who Are Left Without Parents and Receive Large Inheritances from Them Should Conduct Themselves

(From the Life of Holy Great Martyr Paraskevi)

Unfortunately, especially in recent times, we often see children who have been left without parents and have received large estates from them behaving very badly. Again and again, we see such wealthy children, as soon as they reach adulthood, and sometimes even before they attain it, forgetting God, associating with bad people, beginning to indulge in every kind of vice, squandering the wealth their parents may have gathered through hard labor, and ultimately meeting their ruin amid great commotion. What, then, remains for us to do? We can at least turn other children, who have not yet perished, away from a sinful life and toward virtue. But how can we do this? It seems to us that the best way is to show our wealthy orphans how other wealthy orphans of ancient times, who were saints, conducted themselves, and how they used and managed the wealth their parents had left them. Let our own heirs, therefore, hear about such children and learn from them.

Miracles of Venerable Demetrios the New of Basarabov

 

Venerable Demetrios the New came from the village of Basarabov, in present-day Bulgaria, a few kilometers from the border with present-day Romania. He lived in the thirteenth century, during the reign of Peter and John Asen.

He was very poor and for a long time herded the villagers’ cattle in Basarabov. On Sundays and great feast days, he attended church together with the other villagers in the village church. He later decided to dedicate his life to Christ, abandoned the world, and took up the ascetic life in a cave that he dug into a rock near the Lom River, close to a male skete. He became a monk and practiced asceticism through continual fasting, prayer, and remembrance of God.

When he foresaw the end of his life, he hid himself between two large stone slabs, as if in a coffin, on the banks of the Lom River, where he fell asleep in the Lord. Later, following floods, this piece of land broke away, and his holy body fell into the Lom River, where it remained incorrupt for hundreds of years.