December: Day 1: Teaching 3: Holy Prophet Nahum

December: Day 1: Teaching 3:
Holy Prophet Nahum
 
(God, Although Long-suffering, Is Also Just)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Church now remembers the Holy Prophet of God Nahum, who lived about 700 years before the birth of the Savior. Two hundred years before Nahum, the prophet Jonah, by command of God, threatened the Ninevites with the destruction of Nineveh for the great iniquities of its inhabitants. The Ninevites repented and the All-Good Lord canceled the strict sentence. But after some time the Ninevites again became corrupt; and then the Lord, through the mouth of the Prophet Nahum, revealed to them the terrible disasters that would befall them. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly. Nineveh, one of the most significant and richest cities of the ancient world, was completely destroyed and plundered by enemies; the flooding of the Tigris River completed the devastation; and now one can hardly even recognize the place where this huge city stood.

December: Day 1: Teaching 1: Holy Righteous Philaret the Merciful

December: Day 1: Teaching 1:
Holy Righteous Philaret the Merciful
 
(On the Distribution of Alms)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Righteous Philaret, whose memory is celebrated today, called "the Merciful" for his special mercy to the poor, lived in the Asia Minor region of Paphlagonia, in the village of Amnia, during the reign of Emperor Constantine and his mother Irene, in the 8th century. He was married and had children. Saint Philaret came from noble and pious parents and was very rich, but did not enjoy wealth. Constantly thinking about the future life, he loved the poor and needy and gave them generous alms. And in general, no matter what anyone asked of him, no one was refused. It pleased the Lord to test Saint Philaret in patience, as he once did Righteous Job. A wild people, the Arabs, attacked Paphlagonia, robbed the inhabitants, and Saint Philaret was left with only two oxen, one cow and the house where he lived. The Saint did not grieve over his loss, but, like Job, surrendered himself to the will of God and did not cease to help the poor with his last goods. Thus, he gave first one, and then another of his oxen to the villagers whose oxen had fallen in the field; he also gave away a cow, even with a calf, so as not to separate the calf from its mother; he gave away his last clothes and bread. His wife and children grumbled at the Saint, but he consoled them, saying prophetically: "I have so many treasures in one place that if you live another hundred years, everything will be enough for you." And indeed, the Lord returned Philaret's wealth.

November: Day 30: Teaching 1: Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called

November: Day 30: Teaching 1:
Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called
 
(On the Means to Maintain Spiritual Joy in Oneself)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Andrew the First-Called, whose memory is celebrated today, one of the Twelve Apostles, was a fisherman from the city of Bethsaida. He was the first to follow Jesus Christ, which is why he is called the "First-Called" and brought his brother Simon Peter to Him. After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Saint Andrew preached the faith of Christ along the shores of the Black Sea, passed through Pontus, Bithynia, Iberia and transferred his preaching to Scythia (present-day Novorossiya). According to tradition, he reached Kiev and predicted that the grace of God would shine on the mountains of Kiev and throughout that country. He founded the Church in Byzantium, for which he appointed Stachys as Bishop. Around the year 62, in the city of Patras, in Achaia, he died by crucifixion.

Homily One on the Fourteenth Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

 

Homily One on the Fourteenth Sunday of Luke
(31st Sunday After Pentecost)

Spiritual Blindness

By St. John of Kronstadt

[Jesus] asked him, saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Regain your sight; your faith has saved you” 

(Luke 18:40–42).

In today's Gospel, beloved brethren, it spoke of the miraculous healing by Jesus Christ of a blind man in the city of Jericho. This blind man had a strong faith that the Son of David, as he called Jesus Christ, would surely heal him of his blindness, and when he cried out: "Son of David, have mercy on me!" those passing by him said to him: "Be silent," so he began to cry out even louder: "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And he cried out loudly because the Lord was not close to him, but was at quite a distance.