Prologue in Sermons: December 18

Not Everyone Can Be a Christian Teacher

December 18
 
(A Word from the 'Pandok'* on Eloquence)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Especially in recent times, very many people—some out of self-interest, some out of ignorance, some out of spiritual pride—take upon themselves the role of church teachers, and the fruits of this are exceedingly bitter. Such uncalled teachers for the most part distort the dogmas of the faith, interpret the word of God senselessly, twist the lives of the saints beyond recognition, and by doing so, mortally sin themselves and draw others into mortal sins as well. What should be said to such people? This: before teaching others, let them listen to whether every one of us can be a teacher, and whether everyone by his teaching can bring benefit to others.

Saint Dionysios of Zakynthos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The month of December is illumined by the commemoration of great and wonderworking saints, both of earlier times — such as Saints Nicholas and Spyridon — and of more recent times, such as today’s Saint Dionysios. The faithful of our Church experience the memory of these saints, endowed with the great gift of wonderworking, as a profound consolation, because above all, by virtue of their boldness before the Lord, they are able to intervene in their lives, offering solutions to their dead ends and healing ailments that are often incurable.

To avoid any misunderstanding, all our saints are wonderworkers, since they possess the power of prayer that activates our Triune God, who in any case is the “One who wills mercy.” And if some saints do not have the reputation of being great wonderworkers — such as, for example, certain great teachers of our Church — it is because they were granted by God the gift of healing the thoughts of people and preserving them from the corruption of heretics. This, perhaps, constitutes the greatest gift of God: right faith in God and, consequently, the true image of the Church are the greatest gifts of God to humanity. For what miracle, for example, of bodily healing could be accomplished, and what meaning would it have, outside the true Church of Christ? Therefore, the miracle of right faith is presupposed before the miracle of healing bodily illnesses.

Holy Prophet Daniel as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

The Prophet Daniel is one of the four great Prophets. He lived at the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century B.C. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, was of royal lineage, and was born in Upper Beth-horon. He was taken captive to Babylon when he was about sixteen years old, and there he grew up and was educated. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, renamed him Belteshazzar and distinguished him among the children of the Hebrews, just as he also singled out three other youths — Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael — whom he kept at the imperial court and had educated. Indeed, because they excelled in their studies, he granted them high positions in the State.

When Nebuchadnezzar, out of arrogance, constructed a golden image of himself and demanded that all his subjects worship it, Daniel was absent on a mission. Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael refused to worship it, because they had learned to worship and serve only the true God of their Fathers and not lifeless idols; according to the word of God in the Old Testament: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” For this reason “they were cast into the burning fiery furnace.” Yet, instead of being burned, they were refreshed as by dew, for the Son and Word of God, “the Angel of Great Counsel,” descended into the furnace and transformed the fire into coolness.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azarias and Misael (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azaris and Misael 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all once again on our community's feast day, the feast day of the Prophet Daniel and the three youths Ananias, Azarias, and Misael! May the Lord, through their prayers, grant us courage and wisdom, and give us the ability to always remain faithful to our Creator even among atheists, unbelievers, and godless people. It's no wonder that the early Christians, wherever they gathered, always had two icons in the catacombs: the Prophet Daniel with his hands raised amidst lions, and the three youths in a fiery furnace. Because for them, this was the most relevant subject; they lived in the lions' mouths, not figuratively, but literally. They could be thrown to the lions at any time. We sometimes lack this state of mind and this attitude toward this world. Many people desire to make peace with this world. The sense that atheism is the fires of hell, already burning, has been lost. And the youths remembered well that the iniquities of this world are the beginning of hell, literally. As Honoratus of Arles, a fourth-century saint, said: "There are two hells, the upper and the lower, and the upper, which is earth, is the worse."

Prologue in Sermons: December 17

For Those Who Break Fasts

December 17
 
(Holy Prophet Daniel and the Holy Three Youths Ananias, Azaris and Misael)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Today’s lovers of ease and indulgence rebel against no ordinance of the Church so fiercely as against the ordinance of fasting. “What is the point of fasting?” they cry. “Without nourishing food, health is lost, the mind is darkened, we cannot pray, we become irritable because of it,” and so on. They cry out in this way, and in their opinion it turns out as though fasting were truly an evil, and that breaking it is in no way blameworthy, but even necessary. In reality, however, they are gravely mistaken; for fasting not only does not harm health, but restores it; not only does it not darken the mind, but enlightens it.