At Jacob's Well Christ Encountered the Whole Fallen World (Monk Moses the Athonite)

By Monk Moses the Athonite

In today’s Gospel passage from the Evangelist John the Theologian, we heard in our churches about the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman beside a well…

This meeting is of especially great importance not only for the suffering woman. Christ meets the whole fallen world, even the world of today. He does not quarrel with, reject, or drive anyone away. He wishes to communicate with everyone, even the most downtrodden. Christ Himself said that He came chiefly for sinners. It is enough that they receive Him, that they open the leaves of their closed hearts to Him. He does not ask for much. A little water. Something very small, in order to become the occasion for an exit from the cage of our self-imprisonment.

At first the Samaritan woman is rather cautious. She is bound by mistaken opinions, fanatical ideas, long-standing prejudices, and therefore trapped, ensnared, blocked, and suspicious. According to her tradition, she is unable to give water to a Jew, to an enemy. Christ in truth is not greatly thirsty for water. He thirsts for the liberation of His afflicted interlocutor. The conversation begins to become fascinating and revelatory.

Nominal Christians: A Homily on the Epistle Reading for the Fifth Sunday After Pascha

By Presbyter Nikolaos Gonidakis,
Priest of the Holy Church of the Prophet Elijah, Nees Pagases, Volos

Today our Holy Church presents to us the unceasing and rapid spread of the gospel, according to the Apostolic reading (Acts 11:19–30), my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.

A sorrowful event, the death by stoning of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, became the occasion for the faithful to break the bonds that had confined the teaching of Christ to Judea and for its universal journey to begin.

After this murder took place, the persecution of the first believers “flared up,” with the result that they decided to leave Jerusalem and spread beyond their limited boundaries.

Thus the joyful message now reached Phoenicia, present-day Lebanon, a coastal region, the island of Cyprus, and Antioch, a historic city of the Middle East.

At first, they preached only to the Jews. But upon entering Antioch, some from Cyprus and Cyrene began speaking also to the Greeks of the region, with the result that many of them rejected idols and joined the Christian community.

Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This is Simon, who was also called Nathanael and who served as the bridegroom at the wedding to which Christ was invited with His disciples in Cana, where He also changed the water into wine. Therefore the bridegroom, after abandoning the wedding and the wine, followed the Friend and Wonderworker and Bridegroom-Leader, and he was present with the Apostles in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues. And after being filled with this Spirit and traveling through almost the whole earth, he set ablaze all the deceit of polytheism. He went throughout all Mauritania and Africa and preached Christ. Afterwards he arrived in Britain, and after enlightening many with the word of the gospel, he was crucified by the unbelievers, and reaching the end of his life he was buried there. And because he was possessed by burning zeal for the almighty God, he received as his surname the manner of his life.”

Mother, Mother Panagia, Mother Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It may be that ecclesiastically the feast of Mother’s Day points to the Reception of the Lord in the Temple, yet the occasion of the second Sunday of May from a secular standpoint should not be overlooked either — it gives one the opportunity once again to speak about one of the holiest persons that exist in the world. Besides, this is a common practice of the Church, by which a secular event receives from her theology a depth that otherwise no one could ever have imagined. Therefore, this particular day brings forward the MOTHER, the person before whom everyone bows down — regardless of origin, gender, education, social standing, or age. “Mother,” cries the little child; “mother,” the young man; and “mother,” the old man; “mother,” you hear in every place — ah, what a sweet name! as the poet says. And truly: thousands of poems, songs, literary works, paintings, and sculptures throughout the world have as their subject this unique person, before whom one stands with awe and boundless respect. Why? Because obviously no one stands closer than the Mother to that which reveals the mystery of life!

Prologue in Sermons: May 10

Answer to Simple Folk on the Question: What Must One Do to Be Saved?

May 10

(A Word on Spiritual Benefit)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Many ask: “What must we do to be saved?” How should this question be answered? It seems that one may answer in two ways. One may answer at length, on the basis of Scripture, for the Savior Himself said: “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life” (John 5:39). But one may also answer briefly, because not all are capable of fully grasping the essence of the teaching that leads to salvation, and not all, by their condition and upbringing, are able to understand the Scriptures. Here, for example, is a model of a brief and simple teaching on salvation, taken from the Prologue, from a word on spiritual benefit.

The Martyrdom of the Saints as Life in Christ and the Overcoming of Death (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Martyrdom of the Saints as Life in Christ and the Overcoming of Death 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Transcribed sermon delivered on the feast of Saint Christopher, in Agrinio, on 9 May 2024)

Your Eminence Metropolitan Damaskenos of the Sacred Metropolis of Aetolia and Acarnania, beloved holy Hierarchs in Christ, honorable Presbyterate, Diaconate of Christ, most honorable civil authorities, blessed and chosen people of the Lord.

First of all, I would like to express my warmest thanks to your Eminence, your shepherd and our beloved brother in Christ, Damaskenos, who invited me to come to this city on the day when its patron saint, Saint Christopher, is celebrated. It is in this city that, as Your Eminence mentioned both yesterday and today, I grew up and laid the foundations for my later development in ecclesiastical life and, of course, in my theological formation.

I give thanks to God because in this city, besides completing my secondary studies, I came to know the then-Protosyngellos, Archimandrite Kallinikos Poulos, who, when he was elected Metropolitan of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia, invited me to join him, and I remained with him for fifteen years. Now he is a Saint of our Church, and to him I owe very much — indeed, the whole ecclesiastical and theological life which God counted me worthy to live within the Church.

Holy Great Martyr Christopher in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It has often been said that the study of the lives of the saints is among the most important readings for the spiritual growth of Christians. And this is because their life is the embodiment of the Gospel, the practical confirmation of what the word of God bears witness to. What we see in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself — within Whom His word was the expression of His life and His life was the commentary on His word — in the same way, to a certain degree, we also see in our saints. And especially in those moments when they offer even their very life as a sacrifice for the love of God. From this point of view, the heroic struggles of the saints, the martyrdoms they endured, and the manner in which they faced them become for the faithful a means by which they receive the grace of God. That is, the very grace which strengthened the saints in their martyrdoms, the grace that enabled them to endure and transcend their sufferings, this same grace is poured also into the faithful when with faith and love they come into contact with what the martyrs suffered for the sake of the Lord. And this means that a Christian who does not study the lives of our saints deprives himself of a special grace that the Lord offers to the world. This truth is already pointed out by the Holy Hymnographer in the very first sticheron of Vespers: “Come, let us honor the struggles of Christopher, through whom there gushes forth to us the everlasting grace of Christ the Giver of life.” Therefore his statement is not an exaggeration when he says that “Your memorial, O martyr, gives forth fragrance mightily, like spring roses, through the much-enduring sufferings of your struggles” (Sticheron of Vespers).

Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (St. Basil the Great)

 

The full English translation of St. Basil the Great's Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah by Nikolai A. Lipatov (published by Edition Cicero in 2001, 441 pages) is a scholarly translation that can be accessed through Academia.edu (see here). The translator has also argued on the genuine authenticity of the authorship of St. Basil for this commentary (see here), which was doubted in the West for centuries.

“…As for the Scriptural passages about which you enquire, we were much surprised that an explanation was requested from us, the unlearned, and about such expressions which properly should be elucidated only by men inspired by God. Such interpretations have already been produced by them, and above all - the detailed interpretation by the Great and divine Basil. So, when you take the book of his commentary on Isaiah, you will learn the things about which you enquire. Otherwise their consideration, which requires a whole treatise, would go beyond the limits of a letter."

St. Theodore of Studion, from the Letter to Hegoumenos Auxentios

May: Day 9: Teaching 2: Translation of the Honorable Relics of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker

May: Day 9: Teaching 2:
Translation of the Honorable Relics of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
 
(On Mercy Toward the Poor)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. From the great host of God’s holy servants glorified by the Church, Saint Nicholas enjoys a special love among the Russian people. Many churches have been built in his honor throughout Holy Rus’; his memory is celebrated twice a year, on December 6 and May 9, and besides this, throughout the year, together with the apostles, he is commemorated in the church services every Thursday. His very name is dear to the Orthodox Russian people and therefore is often found in Christian families — not only in the humble hut, but even upon the royal throne. Which of his many virtues attracts Orthodox Christians to him? Knowing that we turn to God and His saints for help in our spiritual and bodily needs, and especially often direct our prayers to those saints who showed many works of mercy toward the suffering, we must acknowledge that the outstanding virtue of Saint Nicholas was “his mercy toward the needy.” The Holy Church, in her hymns, glorifies him as the feeder of the hungry, the excellent guide of those storm-tossed at sea, and the swift helper of all who are in troubles and sorrows. And indeed, the whole life of Saint Nicholas presents an unbroken series of benefactions rendered by him to suffering humanity. But not only during his life — even after death he did not cease to do good to those who turn to him with prayers. His very tomb became a source of healings for those suffering in soul and body. The many wonderworking icons of him found in different places throughout our vast homeland are nothing other than visible and indestructible memorials of his mercy toward the Christian race. In this respect Saint Nicholas appears as the good and faithful servant of our Lord, fulfilling one of the chief commandments of the Master and Lord concerning mercy toward one’s neighbors.