Prologue in Sermons: May 11

An Example of Patience and Humility

May 11

(From the Paterikon.) 

 

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When someone unjustly offends us, insults us, or slanders us, we usually lose control of ourselves and think only of how to take revenge on our enemy, and our anger knows no end. But this is not how we should act. In such circumstances we must always keep before us the image of the suffering Savior, Who from the Cross forgave His enemies, and arm ourselves with patience and humility. Then the Lord will reveal our innocence, our enemies themselves will ask our forgiveness, and our dishonor will be turned into glory for us.

One monk asked one of the fathers: “How does the devil bring afflictions upon the saints?”

The elder answered him:

“There was a certain father named Nikon, who lived ascetically on Mount Sinai. One day a certain man came to an Egyptian who had a grown daughter, and since there was no one in the house besides her, he fell into sin with her. Afterwards he sternly said to her: ‘See that you tell everyone that it was not I who sinned with you, but Abba Nikon.’

Homily One on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 in the Ćelije Monastery, transcribed from a recording.)

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Behold what unusual witnesses (the Lord) brings forth before us, before the face of the human race, concerning His Resurrection. Whom? Harlots! … Behold the Samaritan woman, who had changed six husbands, and the Lord made even her an Apostle and a witness of His Divine power, of His Resurrection.

Today you heard the Holy Gospel. The Savior, weary from the journey, comes to the well, and the Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Between them there unfolds a divine and wondrous conversation. The Savior reveals to the Samaritan woman the mystery of His coming into the world, the mystery of the Living Water. Around us, everything among men is dead. The Samaritan woman was astonished:

“What kind of water is this? Give me this water, Lord, so that I may no longer thirst, so that I may no longer come to this well.”

“I speak to you about the water of Eternal Life, living water… which flows into Eternal Life.”

And rightly did He say:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, and from within him rivers of living water shall flow,” and carry him into Eternal Life.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her: Give Me a drink” (John 4:7).

The words of the Savior to the Samaritan woman who came to the well for water should not be understood literally, but as a parable. This is evident, first, because the Lord usually spoke to the people in parables, in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy: “I will open My mouth in parables” (Matt. 13:35); and second, because He almost always turned ordinary events and experiences of daily life into opportunities to teach heavenly truths. For example, He turned the sowing of seeds in a field into a lesson about the sowing of the Word of God in human hearts, and so on. These words mean: “Woman, I thirst for your repentance and salvation, because I came to call sinners to repentance (cf. Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32) and to save them. I thirst for your eternal blessedness, for which I created you.” Or more briefly: “I deeply desire to save you; repent and follow Me.” 

“Jesus said to her: Give Me a drink.” A simple event — the arrival of a woman to draw water — the Lord used as an occasion to teach about the grace of the Holy Spirit. I too will follow my Lord. Since in this church today there are probably many who often go to draw intoxicating drink from the places that in our city continue to multiply because of human greed for money, I intend today, for the glory of God, to use this circumstance — that is, the drunkenness of the residents and visitors of this city — as an opportunity to teach about avoiding greed for wine and awakening within ourselves a thirst for the grace of God and for our salvation.

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.