Discourse on ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners’ (Basil of Seleucia)

Discourse on ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners’ 

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent

(Mark 10:32-45)

By Basil of Seleucia (mid-5th century)

The interest of the listeners increases the anxiety of the tongue. The longing of the Church’s assembly for divine teaching increases my fear before the undertaking of speaking. Therefore, the Master, calming the fear of speech, cried out: “Blessed are those who speak into the ears of those who hear,” those who cast the seed of teaching into fertile soil and heap up good doctrines in the threshing floor of the soul. For it is worth laboring for this, hoping to reap the fruits of preaching.

And the Jews, on the one hand, avoided hearing even the prophecies, and the admonitions were also unwelcome to them, as we find written in the Prophets. For it says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” For this reason Jeremiah, seeking a reasonable excuse, put forward his youth: “I am young, and I do not know how to speak.” And Moses, when he was called to the leadership of the people, avoids the honor by accusing himself: “I am weak-voiced and slow of tongue.” The refusal of those sent exposes the disobedient character of the Jews. This race was always God-fighting, and opposed to divine benefactions. At one time they lamented the Egyptian slavery, and when they were delivered, they reviled the one who delivered them. They traversed the sea as though it were a highway; with dusty feet they journeyed upon the deep, and they attributed the benefaction to the calf. Heaven again sent down the flakes of manna, and they below blasphemed, crying out: “Our soul has become utterly dry because of this hollow bread.” A rock followed that flooded the desert with torrents, and a single strike of the rod brought forth many springs of waters. But not even this purified their ungrateful tongue, and despite this enjoyment they said: “When he struck the rock and waters flowed and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread?” Again, when they did not know the way, a cloud journeyed with them, removing ignorance and preventing the burning of the rays. A pillar of fire gave light by night, but they, dishonoring the one who honored them with miracles, said: “Let us appoint leaders and return to Egypt.” Clouds of birds were brought by the wind, preparing for them a meal as for foreign travelers. For forty years their garments, though worn, remained new, overcoming time and nature, and along with the garments, their footwear also remained new out of necessity, to endure the forty years of journeying. When they fought, the course of the elements of nature allied with them, when the sun, taught to delay, hastened the victory by lengthening the duration of the day, so as to make them victors in a single day. By lengthening its course, it shortened the time of the battle — though perhaps it also increased the duration of time — so as not to grieve those already wearied by delaying the victory. After the sun, the stream of the Jordan also stopped, and its current was restrained, yielding them a place to walk. The natural law of flow stood still, awaiting their passage. The kings heard and were troubled; the cities submitted of themselves. Jericho was encircled and cast off the circle of its wall, as if avoiding its inhabitants and hastening toward the Israelites. What was the gratitude for all these things? “Let us appoint leaders and return to Egypt.” 

Homily for the Sunday of Venerable Mary of Egypt (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

Homily for the Sunday of Venerable Mary of Egypt 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate all of you on the feast day of our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt! As Mary of Egypt said: “The word of God is living and active, and it itself teaches a man.”

Therefore, we must learn spiritual truths from the example of Holy Scripture, tuning our soul so that it becomes God-like and not defiled, so that we may acquire deeds together with understanding. That is, we must unite within ourselves active virtues and the knowledge of God, and this union is given to us as an example in Saint Mary.

Six Testimonials of Miraculous Healings Attributed to Saint Savvas of Kalymnos

Venerable Savvas of Kalymnos (1862–1948) has performed many miracles, and the testimonies that have been preserved are astonishing.

Ten years after the repose of Saint Savvas, the translation of his holy and grace-bearing relics took place. It was April 7, 1957. The translation was presided over by the ever-memorable Metropolitan Isidoros of Leros, Kalymnos, and Astypalaia, in the presence of a great multitude of people. A dense cloud of divine fragrance covered the entire area, and news of this divine sign immediately spread throughout the island. The holy relic of the Venerable one was placed in a reliquary, in the Chapel of Saint Savvas the Sanctified. From that moment, there have been many testimonies of healed people concerning the miracles of Saint Savvas of Kalymnos.

Holy Martyrs Mark the Bishop of Arethusa, Cyril the Deacon and Those With Them in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Mark, living during the reign of Constantine the Great, was stirred by great zeal and destroyed many pagan altars and temples. But when Julian the Apostate ascended the throne, he restored paganism and began to persecute Saint Mark as well as all those who had taken part in the destruction of the pagan temples. Then the Saint hid for a while, but when he learned that others were being dragged away because of him, he revealed himself and delivered himself to the deniers of the faith.

They then stripped him naked, wounded his entire body, and threw him into filthy sewers. After this, they brought him out and handed him over to small children to wound him with needles. Then they soaked his body with brine and finally smeared him with honey, in the height of summer, and hung him upside down in the sun, so that he might burn and become food for bees and wasps. All these torments the wondrous Mark endured with courage and patience, so that his torturers might not rebuild again the destroyed altars. Indeed, the steadfastness of his faith prevailed. Seeing him endure bravely and with youthful vigor, the pagans believed in Christ.

Something similar also happened in Phoenicia, again during the time of Julian. For they seized Cyril the deacon, who had also destroyed certain pagan idols, and because he boldly confessed his faith, they opened his belly, took out his entrails, and displayed them as a spectacle to those gathered. And it is said that something befell them which shows divine justice: their teeth were knocked out, and their tongues and eyes were destroyed. By the same death several virgin women also ended their lives in Ashkalon and Gaza, as well as certain clergy, whose memory is celebrated together on this day.

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Two are the points on which the Holy Hymnographer of the Church, George, especially insists in his hymnography of the Holy Bishop Mark: first, his holiness as a priest before his martyrdom, and second, his very martyrdom, which reveals the power it contains, since it is accomplished for the sake of love toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, George presents the position of Saint Mark in the Church as a “radiant lamp that illumines her fullness” (Ode 1), since “the Saint was nurtured and grew up in the faith of Christ until he reached the height of martyrdom” (Ode 1). The Saint, notes the Hymnographer, throughout all the years of his life was a preacher and guide of people toward Christ, distinguished especially for his reverence and purity of soul in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy — something that enabled him to strengthen and guide his fellow athletes toward the greatest love for Christ: to give even their lives for His sake (Ode 1).

Moreover, the preaching gift of Saint Mark was so great, says the holy poet, that his words — clearly grounded in his holy life — functioned on the one hand as a flame that dried up all the muddy rivers of the delusion of the pagans, and on the other as a spring from which flowed the streams of the knowledge of God for people (Ode 3). And George, as the mouth of the Church, goes on to explain even what might be considered the violence of his action in destroying certain pagan temples. The cause of this action, he notes, was the philanthropy of the Saint. For the far-seeing Saint perceived that the idols served by demons prevent people from finding rest and peace; they create a continual disturbance and upheaval in their mind and life.

Thus he demolishes the houses of demons in order to build in their place, chiefly through his word, the house of the true God, that is, to make people themselves “temples of the living God,” members of Christ. And this constitutes the greatest benefaction a person can offer to the world: to establish them upon the almighty God, Christ. In the words of the Hymnographer: “You shook the temples of idols, O blessed one, and you established the people who were shaken and trembling upon Christ” (Ode 6).

And then the Hymnographer focuses on the martyrdom itself, which constitutes the greatest confirmation of the Saint’s faith and love for Christ. And what does he note? That, apart from the sacrifice of the Saint — who at the hour of martyrdom “offered himself as a sacred sacrifice to the Lord” (Ode 7) — this very martyrdom, because it was carried out not with anger, wrath, or a sense of revenge against his enemies, but with what the Lord Himself showed upon the Cross, that is, with love and long-suffering even toward his persecutors, therefore it functioned as a tremendous power that humbled the arrogance of the instruments of the Evil One and exalted as victor the one considered defeated (Ode 5).

And this is an exceptional observation of the Holy Hymnographer, one that we Christians often overlook, turning instead to worldly methods in our daily relationships: at the very moment when we endure the hostility of any fellow human being and “respond” to his attack with humility and love, at that very moment we “overthrow” him, to use a beautiful scriptural expression; that is, at that moment we are victorious, because through us the omnipotence of the Cross is set in motion.

“In the anger of your enemies you set against them, as an imitator of Christ, your long-suffering, O righteous one. And by this long-suffering you humbled their arrogance and were shown to be victorious” (Ode 5).

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Prologue in Sermons: March 29

On the Veneration of Holy Icons

March 29

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father and Confessor Eustathios, Bishop of Bithynia)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Our Venerable Father and Confessor Eustathios, Bishop of Bithynia, lived in the time of the iconoclasts, that is, of those who rejected the veneration of holy icons. For his veneration of the holy icons he endured from them threats, spitting, beatings, imprisonments; he witnessed many disturbances and uprisings among his flock; he was struck with rods and clubs and, finally, was deprived of his episcopate and condemned to exile. In the latter he spent many years and was insulted, mistreated, deprived, suffering hunger, thirst, and nakedness, and in such afflictions he died. And Eustathios was not the only one who endured such torments from the iconoclasts. Not only thousands, but tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians, for the veneration of the holy icons, suffered from them the same as Eustathios.

What does this mean, that the iconoclasts treated the holy icons with such hostility? Could it be that they were right in rejecting them? No, brethren, they were not right, and this we shall now prove to them.

The Theotokos in the Orthodox Tradition and in the Worship of Great Lent (2 of 2)

By Panagiotis S. Martinis

In our first article, which bore the title “The Theotokos in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition,” we referred to the person and the role of the Theotokos in the mystery of salvation, as these are expressed by the sacred writers of Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church, on the occasion of the feast of the Annunciation (March 25).

In the article that follows, we shall refer to the honor rendered to the Theotokos during the period of Great Lent, on the occasion of the Service of the Akathist Hymn.

B. THE THEOTOKOS IN THE WORSHIP OF GREAT LENT

During the period of the Triodion and especially of Great Lent, the Theotokos is particularly honored. Already with the beginning of the Triodion we invoke her help, chanting: “Guide me in the paths of salvation, O Theotokos… by your intercessions deliver me from every impurity.”

Byzantium and the Panagia (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Byzantium and the Panagia

Homily of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Mani, Chrysostomos III

Delivered during the Fourth Salutations (5 April 2019) at Saint Demetrios of Mystras

We find ourselves, by the honorable invitation and blessing of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Monemvasia and Sparta, Eustathios, in Mystras, the capital of the Byzantine Despotate during the 14th and 15th centuries, just a few kilometers east of the historic city of Sparta.

And although Mystras is called a “dead city” because it is no longer inhabited, nevertheless it is a living city of the wonders of God.

It is, of course, connected with the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade (1204), after which it became a most important spiritual center of the late Byzantine period. Many rulers — the Kantakouzenoi and the Palaiologoi — governed and were active in the Despotate. Many scholars, artists, and spiritual men also left their mark.

Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Metropolitan of Larissa (+ 1510)

For Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Metropolitan of Larissa and founder of the Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapafsas in Meteora, no hagiographical texts, services, synaxaria, or life have been preserved, nor is any date of the celebration of his memory recorded anywhere. Therefore, we do not have detailed information about his life and activity.

He is depicted in a fresco of 1627 in the left aisle of the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries in Trikala, where, in chronological order from left to right, seven “holy archbishops of Larissa” are portrayed:

Saint Thomas of Goriani (1264–1273), Saint Cyprian the Wonderworker (Oct. 1318), Saint Anthony the Most Learned and New Theologian (June 1340 – March 21, 1362), Saint Bessarion the Former (in 1489–90 he was transferred from the Bishopric of Demetrias to the Metropolis of Larissa), Saint Dionysios the Merciful, Saint Mark the Hesychast (1499 – late 1526 or early 1527), and Saint Bessarion of the Savior (this refers to the well-known Metropolitan Bessarion II, founder and builder of the Monastery of the Savior of the Great Gates, known as the Monastery of Dousikou, who served as archbishop in Larissa from March 1527 to September 13, 1540).

Venerable Hilarion the New in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“Having given to the earth his earthly flesh, Hilarion dwelt in the blessed land of the blessed” (Verses of the Synaxarion).

Venerable Hilarion served as abbot of the Monastery of Pelekete in Trigleia and was distinguished for his ascetic ethos, his love of God, his gift of almsgiving, and his spiritual struggles. For this reason, God granted him the gift of foresight. The Saint reposed in peace in the year 754.

We do not have many details from the life of Saint Hilarion the New, beyond the fact that he was abbot of the Monastery of Pelekete, a monastery whose foundation dates to the eighth century and whose name is related to its location upon a steep rock. The actual name of the monastery is that of Saint John the Theologian, which is situated near present-day Trigleia, in medieval Bithynia. The monastery, whose ruins from the Byzantine period are preserved even today, was, according to historians, a center of the Orthodox who struggled against the heresy of the iconoclasts; for this reason the monks suffered many tortures from their iconoclast persecutors, to the point that many of them became martyrs for their faith. Saint Joseph the Hymnographer therefore quite naturally emphasizes also the persecutions that the Venerable Martyr and Abbot Hilarion suffered from these heretics: “Precious was your death before God, most sacred Father,” he notes, “for you honored His Icon and endured, being afflicted, the persecutions of the tyrants; thus you were shown to be a martyr” (Ode 8).