Sunday After Christmas: Faith and Love (Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi)

Sunday After Christmas: 
Faith and Love 

By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

Today we celebrate Saint Joseph the Betrothed, David the King, and James the Brother of God, who indeed were related to Christ, since Christ, as man, descends from them, and they belong to the choir of the forefathers. In particular, Saint Joseph the Betrothed — who was also the guardian of the Virgin and contributed so greatly to the mystery of the divine economy. These Saints “were justified by faith.”

In the days of our Lord’s presence, these faithful people were tested far more strictly than the people of the Old Testament; for while they were expecting the Messiah, they were expecting something different from what they actually saw. They did not expect to see a simple infant held by a young mother — poor, despised, without any support or human assistance. They never expected to see such paradoxical things. For, expecting the Messiah “from the root of Jesse and from the loins of David,” they anticipated a king with authority and aspirations of dominion, with material and worldly splendor. That is why, when they began to understand somewhat that Christ was the Messiah, they ran to make Him king — and He withdrew from them.

Homily on the Immaculate and Divine Nativity of Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ (St. Neophytos the Recluse)

Homily on the Immaculate and Divine Nativity of Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ 

(For the Sunday After Christmas)

By St. Neophytos the Recluse

We all know, of course, we know that this visible sun sends forth its light to the whole inhabited world, “and there is no one who can hide from its warmth,” nor from its most radiant brilliance. Yet many times its shining rays are covered by clouds and mist, or by the foliage of trees; and yet again, the breath of a wind disperses that cloudy covering and the mist, allowing the luminous rays to spread clearly throughout all creation.

But the Sun before the sun, the intelligible “Sun of Righteousness,” who was born today from the “swift cloud,” from the light-bearing, sunlike, and all-pure womb in a wondrous manner, is covered by the “form of a servant,” by infant swaddling clothes, and by the poor cave — and, according to the divine economy, by certain other things as well, which symbolize poverty and humility.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet and King David (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet and King David 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

Congratulations on the feast day of Christ's ancestor in the flesh, King David! King David is an amazing biblical figure who had an incredible thirst for God.

Remember how he says in the Psalms: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God! My soul thirsts for God, the living God: when shall I come and appear before God!” (Ps. 41:2-3).

This thirst always filled him. In his life, preserved for us in the First and Second Books of Samuel, we see a remarkable episode. King David had already been anointed king, but had not yet ascended the throne, continuing to serve the illegitimate King Saul, under whom he suffered persecution. His hometown of Bethlehem had been captured by the Philistines. And one day, King David turned to his servants: "Who will bring me water from the well that is before the gate of Bethlehem?" Three of his brave friends agreed, fought through the enemy troops, and brought him water from the well. And when they gave him the water, he said he could not drink it, for it was the blood of his friends, who were ready to lay down their lives for him. And so he offered it as a sacrifice to God.

Sunday After the Nativity of Christ: David and Joseph (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Sunday After the Nativity of Christ:
David and Joseph 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani

This feast of the two persons, David and Joseph, on the Sunday after the divine Nativity of our Savior Christ, is in a way somewhat distinctive. Indeed, if no Sunday falls between the 26th and the 31st of December, then the aforementioned feast is celebrated on the 26th of the month.

Thus the Church sets before us two very different figures: a monarch and a craftsman — David the King and Joseph the carpenter. The one lived a thousand years before Christ, and the other lived at the time of Christ.

Holy 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

When Emperor Maximian returned victorious from the war against the Ethiopians, he wished to offer sacrifices to the idols as a celebration of his victory. Letters were therefore sent everywhere urging everyone to come to Nicomedia in order to worship his gods. At that time Saint Anthimos, who was Bishop of Nicomedia, gathered the people of Christ in the church (for it was the feast of the Nativity of Christ), and he celebrated together with them and taught them the true faith. As soon as Maximian learned of this, he ordered that brushwood be piled around the church and set on fire, so that the Christians inside would be burned alive.

When the Bishop learned of this, he hastened to baptize the catechumens; then he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and communed all the Christians with the divine and immaculate Mysteries. Thus, from the burning brushwood, all were consumed and brought to their end. Saint Anthimos, however, was preserved by the grace of God, so that after benefiting others as well and leading them to Christ through Holy Baptism, he might, after many sufferings, depart to Him and enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven.

Prologue in Sermons: December 28

To the Monks About Obedience

December 28
 
(A Saying from the Paterikon of John the Kolovos)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

One day, Venerable John the Kolovos came to his mentor, nicknamed the Thebean because of his place of residence. The Thebean, seeing John, took a dry tree, planted it in the ground, and said to his disciple, "Here is your obedience: water this tree every day until it bears fruit." John fulfilled his teacher's will and watered the tree the elder had planted for two years. In the third year, it came to life and bore fruit. Then the elder picked this fruit, brought it to the church, and said to the brethren, "Come and partake of this fruit of obedience." 

Having recounted this incident from the lives of the Venerable Fathers Paul of Thebes and John the Kolovos, I ask you, brethren, tell me: why did Venerable Paul pick the fruit from the tree he had once planted, bring it to the church, and show it to the brethren? What was the purpose of this act?

My Holy Christmas in Aivali (Photios Kontoglou)

“The Nativity,” Oil on canvas, 1936. 

“Mural of the Peribleptos Monastery in Mystras. Copied by hand by Photios Kontoglou, after being freed from soot and salts, in the year of salvation 1936, in the month of August.”

By Photios Kontoglou

When I was very young, I spent the holidays with my family on a storm-beaten mountain, at Agia Paraskevi.

Most of the hours I would go and sit inside the small, fragrant little church — not only during the services, but also at times when no one else was inside except me. I would read the ancient hymns and would find myself in a state that I cannot convey to another. Above all, the iambic canon “He saved the people” (Έσωσε λαόν) made me feel as though I were in the first days of creation, just as primeval as the nature that surrounded me: the gigantic rock hanging over the little church, the sea, the wild trees and grasses, the clean stones, the small deserted islets visible out on the open water, the icy north wind that blew and made everything appear crystal clear, the lambs bleating, the shepherds clothed in sheepskins, the stars shining at night like frozen dewdrops.

2011 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

Pastoral Encyclical

Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Christmas 2011

A Message of Optimism, Hope, and Freedom

This year again we celebrate the Birth of Christ within the wonderful atmosphere of our illuminated holy churches, within the radiant setting created by the astonishing and heavenly troparia that we chanted at the service of Matins and by the exquisite Apolytikion of Christmas, as well as within the compunctionate and radiant Divine Liturgy of the feast of Christmas. Everything appears beautiful and spreads a calm within our souls; everything is festive, and we sense peace from the presence of the Grace of the Triune God within the church.

Homily for Christmas (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for Christmas 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

Today we celebrate a wondrous day, as the prophets of old foretold. A small child has been born — the eternal Son, the Angel of the Great Counsel of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Mighty God, the Ruler, the Prince of the world, who was given for reconciliation between God and man, and the Father of the future Universe, with whom begins the great healing of all mankind. This is a flame overflowing with beauty and power, seething with life and strength, filled with love, mercy, and justice. This is but a faint shadow of the eternal existence of God the Son, who, like the eternal sun, is born from the essence of the sun's infinity. The sun begets the sun, God the Father in eternity begets the Son, the flame bursts forth from the flame and yet remains within this infinite flame. No one can withstand this secret flame, that Trinity of Light, the image of which we bear in our arms. We were all initiated into this Triune Light during baptism, but none can withstand even the approach of this infinite Light. The greatest fiery, flaming spirits — the seraphim — tremble at this Light, and when they approach God, they cover their faces with their wings in terror, lest they burst into flame and be consumed by the endless flame of Almighty God. They cry out in terror and sing with thunderous voices: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Your glory."