Holy Martyr Agapios and His Seven Companions in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These Saints lived during the time of Diocletian. And Agapios was from the city of Gaza, Timolaos from Pontus, the two Dionysioses from Tripolis of Phoenicia, Romulus was a subdeacon of the Church in Diospolis, and Plesios and the two Alexanders were from Egypt. All of them, after first binding their souls with longing for Christ, then put their hands into chains and came before Urbanus, the governor of Caesarea, confessing that they were Christians. Then he, since he could neither bend them by threats nor by flatteries, nor indeed remove them from the faith of Christ, ordered their heads to be cut off with the sword.

It is logical: Saint Joseph the Hymnographer takes as the basis of his divine inspiration for the seven martyrs — the first of whom is Saint Agapios — precisely the name of Agapios. In almost every troparion of the Service which he composed for them, he emphasizes that the motive of their martyrdom and of their struggle in general was their fervent love for the Lord. For example:

“You have been wounded by love, of the Master of all, O most admirable Martyr Agapios, and you desired beforehand to die for Him” (Ode 1).

“Having greatly desired Christ, O Agapios, you courageously imitated His sufferings” (Ode 4).

Prologue in Sermons: March 15

The Chosen Servants of God Sometimes Also Bear Upon Themselves Special Signs of God’s Mercy Toward Them

March 15

(A Word about Sergius the clairvoyant hermit.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The beloved servants of God, who are appointed by the Lord for higher service in His Church, sometimes bear within themselves not only special spiritual signs of His mercies toward them, but also — visible to some — particular tokens indicating their future great service. This we shall demonstrate by the following example.

In the Prologue, on the fifteenth day of March, in the church reading, it is written:

“Monk George the Armenian related: ‘Abba Gregory, the abbot of the Lavra of Pharan, many times asked me to bring him to Sergius the hermit, who lived not far from the Dead Sea. I fulfilled his wish and once brought him to the elder, who received him very kindly, brought water and washed his feet, conversed with him the whole day about the salvation of the soul, and only on the next day dismissed him.

Orthodox Theology and Hesychasm, According to Father John Romanides

Prologue 

 

The feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, on the Second Sunday of the Fast, reminds us of the great value of Holy Hesychasm as the foundation of Orthodox theology, which differs clearly from Western scholastic theology — the latter having created many problems in the West through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, German idealism, Existentialism, and so on.

Holy Hesychasm is not a theology of the past, but rather the very Orthodox theology itself, which continues to inspire and produce saints even today. Specifically, all the saints who in recent years have been added by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church’s calendar are Hesychasts, in the full sense of the term as analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas.

And of course, it is impossible for us to participate in the worship of the Church, to honor Saint Gregory Palamas, to chant the sacred troparia inspired by Holy Hesychasm, and to honor the modern saints, while at the same time speaking of transcending the teaching of the Holy Fathers, and naturally, of transcending Holy Hesychasm itself.

Father John Romanides admitted, to his credit, that when he wrote his dissertation on “Original Sin,” he was unaware of certain aspects of the topic, including Holy Hesychasm. That is why in his later studies he supplemented this gap, as is evident in the preface of the second edition (Domos publications) of his study on “Original Sin.” In all the works of Father John Romanides, it is clear that his teaching was inspired by the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Fathers of the Church; it was in the same atmosphere as the teaching of the Orthodox Church.

Venerable Benedict of Nursia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The focus of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, as he seeks to glorify and highlight Venerable Benedict, is the Venerable one’s withdrawal from the world due to his fervent love for the Lord, but also his return to the world with pure love, through his prayers and healing miracles. In other words, the Hymnographer emphasizes Benedict’s ascetic life from childhood: his ascetic struggles, his tears, his chastity, which were fruits of his love for the Lord, and his healing presence in the world, both for his monastic disciples and for ordinary people who approached him.

Already in the first sticheron of Vespers, we hear:

“Out of true faith and love for God, Father, from infancy you renounced the world, Venerable one, and joyfully followed Christ crucified. And having mortified your flesh with many ascetic struggles, you received abundantly the grace of healings, so that you could cure various diseases and expel the spirits of wickedness.”

Pan-Orthodox Problems (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pan-Orthodox Problems

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The articles that are written about the unity of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which in recent years has been undermined by various actions, show that a problem exists in pan-Orthodox relations at the level of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches. Meetings and dialogues are held between the Orthodox Church and other confessions and religions, but dialogues among the Orthodox Churches themselves are not taking place. One must be affected by shortsightedness not to understand this and that this is serious.

Of course, this did not arise simply from the autocephaly in Ukraine, which was granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, just as it has granted it in the past to nine other Orthodox Churches, but from internal undermining of centuries directed against the First-Throne Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate. When one reads the proceedings of the pan-Orthodox meetings, committees, and so forth — at least of the last 150 years — they will understand this very well. There the internal competition becomes clearly visible through the mentality of various social and political associations. Partisan mentalities are created, groupings, hidden internal rivalries, with the ultimate aim of showing who has the power to influence pan-Orthodox affairs, through the undermining of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Prologue in Sermons: March 14

On Patience

March 14

(A Word of our Venerable Father Palladios on the Spiritual Struggle.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord says: “In your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19), and in another place: “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22). From these words of the Savior it is revealed that the path to heaven is a sorrowful path and must be passed with patience. But here is the question: will there be a reward for patience? Is there any meaning in enduring? And what is the purpose of enduring to the end?

Our Venerable Father Palladios of Galatia once instructed the brethren who had gathered to him as follows:

“Let us struggle so that we may enjoy great blessings unto the ages. Look at the martyrs, look at the ascetics, how they endured to the end and how courageously they struggled, and how for this they were crowned by the Lord. How can one not always marvel at their constant patience? It seems to have been beyond human strength! Some had their eyes gouged out, others had their hands and feet cut off; others were burned by fire; some were drowned in the seas; others received death in rivers; some were deprived of life as criminals; others were given to be torn apart by wild beasts. And all this they endured while glorifying God. And the more the devil armed himself against them, the more they by their courage put him to shame. And their hope — that God would reward them for their sufferings — was not in vain. Their sufferings were not forgotten by God, but were praised in Heaven and glorified on earth. And the Source of miracles, God, gave them authority to open the eyes of the blind, to cleanse lepers, to cast out demons, and to heal diseases. He opened to them the heavenly doors and led them into eternal life and into the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is eternal rejoicing.”

Homily for the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas 

By St. Sergius Mechev

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

I spoke to you yesterday and today about the fact that the Holy Church now sets before us the example of Gregory Palamas in connection with the course of the Great Fast, and today at the Liturgy I spoke about, according to the teaching of Gregory Palamas, what life is and what death is, and what kinds of deaths there are: the death of the body and the death of the soul.

Here is what Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, writes to a certain pious old woman:

“Know, pious mother, or rather let the maidens who have chosen to live according to God learn through you, that the soul also has a death, although it is immortal by nature (Philokalia, III, 3). … For just as the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. And this is chiefly death — the death of the soul. It was this death that God indicated when, giving the commandment in Paradise, He said to Adam: ‘In the day that you eat of the forbidden tree, you shall surely die’ (Gen. 2:17). For then his soul died, having through transgression been separated from God, while in body he continued to live from that hour on for nine hundred and thirty years” (Philokalia III, 4).

In what does true death consist?

Homily for the Second Sunday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Second Sunday Evening of Great Lent 

By St. Sergius Mechev

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

Repentance is above all reconciliation with oneself, and through this reconciliation with God and with people. About this I have already spoken to you, and now I want to give an example of external repentance — such repentance when outwardly there is real repentance, but inwardly it is a repentance that does not bear the knowledge of one’s sin and the striving, through the endurance of sorrows, to cleanse oneself from this sin.

In the times of the ancient Church there lived a certain steward (oikonomos), by the name of Theophilos. He lived in holiness, managed the church property righteously, and was loved by everyone for his kindness. To everyone he was a consolation in sorrow. When the bishop died, the people began to ask Theophilos to occupy the episcopal throne, but Theophilos refused. “I know my sins and therefore am unworthy of this rank; I cannot be a bishop,” he said, shedding tears and falling at the feet of the Metropolitan who wished to consecrate him as bishop. For a long time he lay at the feet of the hierarch, weeping and asking that the burden not be laid upon him. The Metropolitan gave him three days to think everything over well. After three days the same thing happened again: Theophilos stubbornly refused the episcopal rank. Then the Metropolitan appointed another bishop for the citizens, and Theophilos again remained steward. Here, it would seem, is an example of true repentance. A man recognizes his sins and refuses the episcopal rank in reconciliation with God and with men.

Venerable Ypomoni in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It is admirable the case of the little princess, later empress and afterwards mother of an emperor, who became a nun, Helen Dragas and later Ypomoni. For certainly it is not easy for one to leave honors and glories, even in a period of decline, in order to shut oneself in a monastery, living as a “common” mortal, performing even the most difficult and “lowly” obediences. This shows a particular humility, which constitutes the prerequisite for one to receive richly the grace of God.

What is even more wonderful, however, is that not only did she become a nun, but she also reached such measures of holiness that our Church recognized them, so as to proclaim also her sanctity. The miracles, for example, that have been recorded from her interventions, earlier and more recent, are many, like the case of that taxi driver who, on this very day only a few years ago, while transporting to Loutraki from Athens a simple nun and revealing his problem – skin cancer – received her blessing, which immediately functioned as a healing from his illness. And when after a small stop he looked for her, she had disappeared; no one had seen her, wherever he asked around where he had stopped, and he recognized her a little later in the medical office that he visited, because the physician had set up her holy icon.