"Every Day We Should Celebrate the Exaltation of our Cross" (St. Ephraim of Katounakia)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Ephraim of Katounakia said: “I came here to Mount Athos on September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross. The day on which I was born again. Every day we should celebrate the exaltation of our cross. When we take up the cross, we die and are born again. The taking up of the cross is death and resurrection” (From the book by Fr. Spyridon Vasilakos, Come, O Light..., Thesvitis Publications, p. 75).

The great Elder, Venerable Ephraim of Katounakia, celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross in a particular way. Why? Because it was the day on which he entered Mount Athos: “I came to Mount Athos on the Feast of the Cross, September 1933,” he would constantly repeat. Yet he did not celebrate it merely as an event of simple remembrance that changed even the course of his life — from a man living in the world he became a monk — but as an event that left its mark on his inner spiritual life. The holy Elder, with his great, completely luminous eyes that reflected the light of Heaven which he lived in his heart and throughout his entire being, felt, upon entering the Holy Mountain as a young man, the mystical significance of this sanctified place — the grace that permeates it like an inner current of life. It was then, he confessed, that "I was born again.” The person who is baptized in the holy font of the Church is born again spiritually, as is the person who finds the true path of repentance, in which he bathes himself with his tears. God gave the young Evangelos, the man who would later become Ephraim, the grace to understand that being a monk means a person who struggles in repentance. He understood that he had received the power of repentance from the “womb” of the Church, the holy font, and for this reason, many years later, he would seek it out in his village and venerate it with many tears, and that this repentance is the work of every Christian, and all the more so of the “model” of Christians, the Orthodox monk.

Holy Prophet Jonah in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Presbyter Georgios Zaravelas, 
Theologian, MA in Historical Theology–Liturgics at the 

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

The Prophet Jonah, who is commemorated today, is the central figure of the Old Testament book bearing his name. He is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets and one of the most important figures of the Old Testament. The significance of Jonah's person is also demonstrated by the place he occupies in the hymnography of the Orthodox Church, with the sixth ode of the canons being the principal point of reference. By studying some of these troparia, we observe how the Church understands the prophet and his activity, how it connects him with the teaching of the New Testament and with God's plan for the salvation of man.

The heirmos of the sixth ode of the canon of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross, whose Apodosis coincides with his commemoration, presents the prophet as a prefiguration of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Lord. Jonah, according to Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, “when he stretched out his hands in the form of a Cross within the belly of the sea monster […] clearly prefigured the Passion of Christ, which became salvation for all people.” The biblical text does not testify to his standing in the form of a cross within the belly of the sea monster; it is reasonable, however, that during his prayer he assumed the posture of the Cross, stretching out his hands and asking for the mercy of God. Here, therefore, even if only as a prefiguration, we see the saving power and energy of the Cross. The hymnographer clearly points out the symbolism of Jonah's posture as a prefiguration of the Lord's Passion on the Cross: just as Christ suffered while fastened to the Cross, so Jonah suffers within the carcass of the sea monster with his hands extended in the form of a cross.

Holy Ethno-Hieromartyr Platon Aivazidis (+ 1921)

The Holy Ethno-Hieromartyr Platon Aivazidis (Aivazis or Aivazoglou) was born in 1852 on Patmos to Nikolaos, who was from Chios, and Maria. He studied at the Patmiada School and, at the age of fifteen, became a novice at the Sacred Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, where two of his uncles were monks. He remained there until the age of twenty-five. He then went to Constantinople, where he attended the Great School of the Nation and the Theological School of Halki, becoming acquainted there with the student Germanos Karavangelis. At the same time, he served as a Deacon in the Sacred Metropolises of Kastoria (1883–1888) and Lemnos (1888–1894).

In Lemnos, he was ordained a Priest and appointed Protosyngellos (that is, second in rank) by Metropolitan Athanasios Kaporalis. In 1899, Metropolitan Athanasios was transferred to Kastoria and took Protosyngellos Platon with him. Only a year later, he was transferred again, this time to Samos, and Metropolitan Germanos took his place, but he kept Platon close to him. During the period up to 1908, essentially throughout the entire period of the Macedonian Struggle, he faithfully served Karavangelis. He remained in the city as his representative during his extensive tours, cared for the restoration of women and children who had suffered, and saw to the proper functioning of institutions. The two of them together conducted the funeral and memorial services at the grave of Pavlos Melas.

Holy Apostle Kodratos at Magnesia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

For your athletic struggles, O Kodratos, and your preaching,
You receive many prizes in the heavens.
On the twenty-first, Kodratos found a crown through his struggles.

1. Saint Kodratos was a wise and highly learned man. He too was one of the disciples of Christ, one of His Seventy Apostles, and, having been enriched by the fiery grace of the Holy Spirit, he was ordained Bishop of the Athenians. He converted many pagans to the true faith of Christ, while those regarded by the Greeks as wise men, who took great pride in their wisdom, he silenced and put to shame by the grace of God and by the power of his words. For this reason he was punished by the persecutors of the Christians with stones, with fire, and with many other tortures, and was driven from his province and his flock. He departed for the city of Magnesia, where there too he dispelled the darkness of delusion through his teachings. And afterward, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, called Aelius, in the year 117, he received the crown of martyrdom. His holy relic is in Magnesia of Asia Minor and, like a spring, heals every illness in all those who approach it with the faith of Christ.

2. The Holy Hymnographer Joseph directs our attention to three things from the magnificent life of the Holy Apostle Kodratos: the power of his teaching, his miracles both while he was alive and after his martyrdom, and the purity of his soul. It is understandable that all three are most intimately connected with one another, since purity of soul is the prerequisite for the presence of Christ in the existence of a believer: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” He Himself said, so that, illumined by this presence, he may preach His gospel with power and perform miracles, both while living and after his repose, radiating the all-powerful energy of the Triune God. Indeed, it is striking how much Saint Joseph, “dazzled” by the luminous personality of the Apostle, emphasizes the radiance of the light of Christ within the sanctified existence of His Apostle. Not once or twice, but countless times, at Vespers and at Matins, he points to this reality, as though the Apostle were truly a luminous pillar rising from the earth to reach heaven, and yet also the reverse: being completely radiant in heaven, he becomes an instrument of Christ, so that through his prayers he may illumine the darkness of the people who remain on earth.

“You became completely radiant with the splendors of the heavenly gifts,” he says, for example, already at the beginning of Vespers, “and you appeared in the world, O Kodratos, as a sun offering joyful rays of the divine preaching to all.” 

“With your divine teachings you illumined many, for you became a minister of the Light of Christ, which illumined the ends of the earth, O Hierarch Kodratos, with His divine radiances” (Ode 3). 

“Illumining those darkened by delusion with the lamps of your words, you burned up every deception like dry brushwood” (Ode 4). 

And what was the cause of his luminous presence? The fact that he became a dwelling place of God Himself. “The most pure God found your pure soul to be a dwelling place of His glory, and through you He therefore purifies souls defiled by terrible transgressions” (Ode 4).

What was it that Saint Kodratos did that caused the holy Triune God to look upon him with such favor? Or, in other words: what did the Apostle do in order to preserve his soul pure? The Holy Hymnographer tells us repeatedly: “You walked, O glorious Apostle, along the straight path of the commandments of Christ; therefore you saved those who had gone astray from the difficult paths of impiety and unbelief. Therefore we, the faithful, glorify you as a man who is free from error, and as a guide and mediator of our reconciliation with God” (Vespers, Aposticha). The interpretive word of the hymnographer, Saint Joseph, concerning Saint Kodratos is perfectly clear and stands wholly within the tradition of the Lord, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church: no one can find God outside the path of His commandments. With His help, the believer places himself, even by force, where the will of God indicates that he should be, with the result that he becomes attuned to Him, since God “hides within His commandments.” Having God within his being, literally becoming a dwelling place of the Almighty, on the one hand he himself lives his salvation, and on the other he offers the world this salvation that he lives, that is, Jesus Christ.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 21

 

The Month of September

The 21st Day

22. The More the Lord Rewards a Person for His Labor, the More That Person Should Labor

(From the Life of Saint Dimitri of Rostov)

When, brethren, we find ourselves in a lowly condition and suffer want, then, in most cases, we labor diligently and strive with all our strength to rise above our circumstances or escape from poverty. But when this happens, or when the Lord simply blesses us with good fortune, then laziness also appears in us, and we are no longer the diligent workers that we were when we were in a lowly condition and suffering want. Should it be this way? No. If the Lord has blessed you with good fortune, then all the more should you show your gratitude to Him through greater labor. Show that you value His great mercies, and then, surely, the Lord will bless you even more and reward you with even greater mercies, and will grant you even greater happiness. The Saints deeply reflected upon this truth and always acted according to it. For our instruction, let us learn from one of them.

Saint Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov, made it a rule of his life to act in such a way that whenever the Lord raised him to a higher position, he would labor all the more. And just as he resolved to act, so he actually acted. When he was made an archimandrite, it is written in his Life that he “increased his labor in proportion to his rank, knowing what is written: ‘To whom much has been given, from him much will be required’” (Luke 12:48). Dimitri also edited the Lives of the Saints, concerned himself with the good order of the monastery, and with the salvation of the brethren entrusted to his care. “No less,” it is further written, “did he assist in other spiritual matters that were greatly beneficial to the Holy Church, by word, counsel, discernment, and deed.”

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 

On the Different Crosses in the Life of Those Who Are Being Saved

St. Cleopa of Sihastria
 

“For the preaching of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Beloved faithful,

Our Savior Jesus Christ says in the Holy Gospel: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Today we shall speak about the different crosses through which we may be saved on earth. We remind you that we Christians honor the Cross of Christ in two ways: the material, visible cross, which we honor, kiss, and carry, and the spiritual cross, which is suffering endured for the sake of doing good.

If we read the Holy and Divine Scriptures attentively, we see that the sign of the material Cross was symbolically manifested from the earliest times. Thus, we see that the Patriarch Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph with his hands in the form of the Cross (Genesis 48:13–16).

The sign of the visible Cross was prefigured by Moses holding up his hands in prayer in the form of a cross during the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:11–12).

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

 

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

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

On the Sunday before the Exaltation and on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church directs our attention to the meaning of the Cross of the Lord, as well as to those crosses that each of us must bear, whether we desire it or not.

In the Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church reveals to us the meaning of the Christian struggle: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

Taking up our own cross, denying ourselves in our sinful and defiled state, and following after the Lord — these are the foundations of the Christian struggle that the Church reveals to us today and in which she considers it necessary to strengthen us once again on this day following the feast.

Holy Great Martyr Eustathios and His Family in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Eustathios the Great Martyr was a military commander in the city of Rome, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. He was called Plakidas, and his wife was Tatiana. He was very wealthy and, although a pagan, he gave alms to the poor with great joy. Once, when he had gone out hunting, a deer appeared to him, which he began to pursue. Just as he was about to catch it, he saw the honorable Cross of Christ between its antlers, while from the antlers came a voice saying: ‘O Plakidas, why are you pursuing Me? I am Christ.’ After this astonishing event, he believed in Christ and was baptized, and then the warfare against him by the man-slaying devil began: he lost his wealth, saw his wife taken captive, his children were carried away by wild beasts, and he himself found himself in great poverty. God, however, permitted him to find his wife and children again, and also allowed the emperor to seek him out and restore him to his former office. After all these things, the time of his martyrdom came. For he was compelled to sacrifice to the idols, something he immediately refused to do; and for this reason he was thrown into a bronze bull heated by fire, by which martyrdom he also brought his life to an end.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 20

The Month of September

The 20th Day

21. Why the Lord Permits the Godly to Suffer in This Age

(From the Life of the Holy Great Martyr Eustathios Plakidas)

Many people, when they see a person suffering whom they consider to be a sinner, ordinarily say, “He deserves it!” But when they see a godly person suffering, they are perplexed, troubled, and think: “He has done nothing to anyone except good; he lived righteously. Why, then, does God punish him? Does God really not see his sufferings? And why does He not deliver him from them?” What should we say to these many people concerning such thoughts of theirs? 

 

First of all, we should say that when they see even someone whom they consider a sinner suffering, they must never fall into the sin of judgment and say, “He deserves it!” The life of every person and the dispositions of his heart are known by God alone. And when they see a righteous person suffering, even then they should not be troubled and say, “Why is he suffering?” We say this to the many who judge the misfortunes of the righteous and sinners, so that they may know that with God everything is not arranged according to their reasoning, but everything is arranged wisely, and everything, including the sufferings sent to the righteous, serves for their salvation and blessedness.