February: Day 2: Teaching 1: The Reception of the Lord

February: Day 2: Teaching 1:
The Reception of the Lord
 
(On Decent Behavior in the Temple)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the Old Testament Temple of Jerusalem, prayers and sacrifices were performed according to the precise instructions of the ritual law. Therefore, the elder Joseph and Mary the Mother of God, having come there and brought the infant Jesus, on the fortieth day after His birth, did everything there as was prescribed in the law of the Lord.

Instead of the Jewish temple, we have Christian temples; instead of the ritual law of the Old Testament, we have our own ecclesiastical law, liturgical law.

We, children of the Orthodox Church, are obliged to coordinate all our actions in the Church with this ecclesiastical law.

February: Day 1: Holy Martyr Tryphon

February: Day 1: Holy Martyr Tryphon
 
(On the Means of Fighting the Devil)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Tryphon, whose memory is celebrated today, at a young age, by the power of God’s grace, healed illnesses and cast out demons.

The Roman Emperor Gordian, from whose daughter Saint Tryphon had cast out a demon, wished to see the exorcised demon in some sensible form. The Holy Martyr Tryphon, yielding to his command, actually summoned the demon, and everyone saw him in the form of a black dog with fiery eyes.

Saint Tryphon asked the demon: “Who sent you to the maiden?” The demon answered: “The father, the head of all evil, who sits in hell.” Sait Tryphon asked again: “Who gave you such power?” The demon answered: “We have no power over those who know God and believe in the only begotten Son of God; only by God’s permission do we inflict light temptations on them. But we have complete power over those who do not believe in God, who walk in their lusts and do what pleases us. The deeds that please us are: idolatry, blasphemy, fornication, envy, murder, love of money, pride and other vices. These people are entangled in sins as in nets; they are our friends, and the same fate awaits them with us.”