Homily for the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas 

By St. Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

I spoke to you yesterday and today about the fact that the Holy Church now sets before us the example of Gregory Palamas in connection with the course of the Great Fast, and today at the Liturgy I spoke about, according to the teaching of Gregory Palamas, what life is and what death is, and what kinds of deaths there are: the death of the body and the death of the soul.

Here is what Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, writes to a certain pious old woman:

“Know, pious mother, or rather let the maidens who have chosen to live according to God learn through you, that the soul also has a death, although it is immortal by nature (Philokalia, III, 3). … For just as the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. And this is chiefly death — the death of the soul. It was this death that God indicated when, giving the commandment in Paradise, He said to Adam: ‘In the day that you eat of the forbidden tree, you shall surely die’ (Gen. 2:17). For then his soul died, having through transgression been separated from God, while in body he continued to live from that hour on for nine hundred and thirty years” (Philokalia III, 4).

In what does true death consist?

Homily for the Second Sunday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Second Sunday Evening of Great Lent 

By St. Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Repentance is above all reconciliation with oneself, and through this reconciliation with God and with people. About this I have already spoken to you, and now I want to give an example of external repentance — such repentance when outwardly there is real repentance, but inwardly it is a repentance that does not bear the knowledge of one’s sin and the striving, through the endurance of sorrows, to cleanse oneself from this sin.

In the times of the ancient Church there lived a certain steward (oikonomos), by the name of Theophilos. He lived in holiness, managed the church property righteously, and was loved by everyone for his kindness. To everyone he was a consolation in sorrow. When the bishop died, the people began to ask Theophilos to occupy the episcopal throne, but Theophilos refused. “I know my sins and therefore am unworthy of this rank; I cannot be a bishop,” he said, shedding tears and falling at the feet of the Metropolitan who wished to consecrate him as bishop. For a long time he lay at the feet of the hierarch, weeping and asking that the burden not be laid upon him. The Metropolitan gave him three days to think everything over well. After three days the same thing happened again: Theophilos stubbornly refused the episcopal rank. Then the Metropolitan appointed another bishop for the citizens, and Theophilos again remained steward. Here, it would seem, is an example of true repentance. A man recognizes his sins and refuses the episcopal rank in reconciliation with God and with men.

Venerable Ypomoni in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It is admirable the case of the little princess, later empress and afterwards mother of an emperor, who became a nun, Helen Dragas and later Ypomoni. For certainly it is not easy for one to leave honors and glories, even in a period of decline, in order to shut oneself in a monastery, living as a “common” mortal, performing even the most difficult and “lowly” obediences. This shows a particular humility, which constitutes the prerequisite for one to receive richly the grace of God.

What is even more wonderful, however, is that not only did she become a nun, but she also reached such measures of holiness that our Church recognized them, so as to proclaim also her sanctity. The miracles, for example, that have been recorded from her interventions, earlier and more recent, are many, like the case of that taxi driver who, on this very day only a few years ago, while transporting to Loutraki from Athens a simple nun and revealing his problem – skin cancer – received her blessing, which immediately functioned as a healing from his illness. And when after a small stop he looked for her, she had disappeared; no one had seen her, wherever he asked around where he had stopped, and he recognized her a little later in the medical office that he visited, because the physician had set up her holy icon.

Prologue in Sermons: March 13

What People Have Become in the Present Time

March 13

(Instruction of Saint Symeon the Wonderworker, who dwelt on the Wondrous Mountain.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Venerable Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain says concerning the people of his time:

“Few now are the people who deliver their souls into the hands of the Angels. Lawlessness and unrighteousness have multiplied, love has withered, and the souls of sinners fall into the hands of demons. And the demons torment them, especially at the separation of their souls from their bodies. Thus it has been said by the Holy Spirit: ‘In these present times scarcely one soul out of ten thousand is received by the Angels!’”

Such, brethren, were things in the time of Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain. Let us see: have the people of the present time become better?

The Second Sunday of Great Lent Commemorated in Piraeus as a New Sunday of Orthodoxy

At the Sacred Church of Saint Basil in Piraeus, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Sunday, March 8, 2026 — the Second Sunday of the Fast — by His Eminence Seraphim Mentzelopoulos, Metropolitan of Piraeus, honoring the feast of our Father among the Saints Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, and the God-bearing Fathers of the Holy Ninth Ecumenical Synod.

During his sermon, His Eminence, referring to the period of Great Lent, when the Church commemorates Saint Gregory Palamas and the Fathers of the Synod of 1351, who struggled to defend the Orthodox faith against heresies, emphasized that this day is a continuation of the joy of the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

“We have a new ‘Sunday of Orthodoxy’ today, honoring the Holy Ninth Ecumenical Synod and the God-bearing Ecumenical Teacher Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who took the lead and was the mentor and guide of this sacred synod of our Holy Church,” said His Eminence.

John Calvin and the Person of the Theotokos

Protopresbyter Basil A. Georgopoulos
Associate Professor of Theology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The person and position of the Virgin Mary constituted one of the most sensitive points of friction and controversy during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

In this connection the Roman Catholic dogmatic theologian Cardinal Gerhard Müller notes that:

“Mariology emerged as a popular field of theological controversy, mainly because within it the different conceptions regarding justification, grace, and anthropology are condensed and made manifest” (Katholische Dogmatik, 2016, p. 476).

The stance of John Calvin toward the person of the Theotokos is organically integrated into his broader theological vision, which is characterized by an absolute adherence to Holy Scripture and a strong concern about every practice or teaching that, in his judgment, might overshadow the unique salvific mediation of Jesus Christ.

Although Calvin rejects every form of honor and invocation, he does not adopt a simplistic view of the Theotokos.

On the contrary, he formulates an interpretation of her person and role which combines recognition of her election and faith with her undeniable inclusion in the common human condition — that is, in the need for redemption.

Saint Gregory Palamas Leads Us To A Theological Anthropology

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Second Sunday of the Fast of Great Lent is dedicated to the great Father of our Church, Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Sacred hymnography calls him: “a pillar of the faith,” “a champion of the Church,” “a brilliant herald of the Light,” and “a luminary of Orthodoxy.”

Indeed, Saint Gregory Palamas was an outstanding theological personality. He was born in Constantinople toward the end of the 13th century and was educated to an excellent degree. It is even preserved that at the end of one of his lectures on the logical method of Aristotle, the learned Theodore Metochites remarked that Aristotle himself, if he had been present, would have praised him. He lived as a monk for 23 years on Mount Athos, shepherded Thessaloniki as its Archbishop, and reposed in 1360.

However, in those years the fullness of the Church was disturbed by the heretic Barlaam of Calabria and other like-minded heretics, and the so-called “Hesychast controversies,” as they remained in history, arose.

Homily on the Ark and the Flood (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

On the Ark and the Flood

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

(Delivered on the 14th Day of Great Lent - Thursday)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today during the service, we heard about the Great Flood. We heard God's command to bring two of every creature into the Ark, except for the unclean animals, of which seven were to be brought. Seven of each unclean creature were to be brought so that after the Flood, man would be able to eat meat and could then thank God by offering a sacrifice. By the Lord's will, this is what happened. Imagine: the Ark stands on a high mountain, and entire crowds of living creatures are approaching it, pairs of two. A pair of elephants, a pair of dinosaurs, a pair of snakes crawling, a pair of wolves walking, seven cows and their bulls together, seven sheep. All of them walked without human intervention; Noah merely carried food for these animals. Thus, the Lord called people to repentance for the last time; there could be no better sermon than the movement of these enormous animals. Imagine: crowds of living creatures are led together by invisible Guardian Angels into Noah's Ark.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

On the Commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

The word "martyr" is translated from Greek as "witness" (Greek: μάρτυς, Latin: martyr – witness). Today is the feast day of the forty martyrs to the defeat of death by the death of Christ. The day when a Christian is killed for Christ is not a day of mourning or tragedy for us; it is a day of joy and happiness. Because this man went out to do battle with the prince of darkness, Lucifer, and he fought and defeated him. Isn't that joy? For us, the feast day of the forty martyrs of Sebaste is a day of great triumph and victory over the enemy. The enemy always intimidates and blackmails people with death. The slogan of terrorists is always: "If you don't heed our demands, we will kill you!"

This is precisely how the enemy of the human race exercises power over people. Scripture says that the devil has the power of death. He intimidates and blackmails people with the help of death, but the martyrs manifest in themselves the power of the Resurrection. Death is conquered by the death of Christ, and there will be a resurrection of the body. Therefore, we have nothing to fear, since not only the soul will be freed, but also the body — from the slavery of corruption and decay. Therefore, for us, the holy martyrs are an example of amazing courage and victory. The Martyrs of Sebaste, whom we remember today, are truly martyrs, for whom the words of King David were fulfilled: "We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into freedom" (Ps. 65:11).