The Triodion as a Guide to Psychosomatic Purification

 

The Triodion as a Guide to Psychosomatic Purification

By Heracles Rerakis, 
Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The Triodion constitutes a spiritual period that grounds us in our truth. It reminds us of the purpose of our life and of its limits. It shows us the vanity of our aims, pursuits, and priorities. It brings us back to our existential reality. It leads us onto the path that we may have lost.

It is a period that we experience every year in order to remind us of the role of time in our lives, as well as of a crucial issue that we usually forget: the way of returning to the starting point from which we set out.

The Triodion of the Church teaches and forms us once again, through Worship, Prayer, Fasting, Self-control, Purification, Love, and all the Virtues, in the manner of our life and of our saving communion with God and with our fellow human being.

The Fourth Century as the “Golden” Age of the Church (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Fourth Century as the “Golden” Age of the Church 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Lecture to the Educators of the city of Nafpaktos on January 30, 2013,
and to the Assembly of Clergy of the Sacred Metropolis of Kifisia on February 14, 2013)

I thank you for responding to my invitation to attend this event today, which I established here many years ago, from the very first year of my arrival in Nafpaktos. Each year I develop various topics related to the life, teaching, and work of the Three Hierarchs, and I attempt to touch upon aspects that go somewhat beyond what is commonplace and customary. The subject of today’s lecture is: “The fourth century (in which the Three Hierarchs lived) as the ‘golden’ age of the Church.”

The fourth century has been characterized by many theologians and students of Church history as the “golden age of the Church.” This is due to many factors.

First, the organization of ecclesiastical life after the end of the persecutions and the issuance of the Edict of Milan.

Second, the encounter between major theological and religious currents — namely Jewish thought, Christian revelation, Gnostic teaching, and Greek philosophy.

Third, the formulation of dogmas and ecclesiastical life because of the many heresies and schismatic situations observed during that period.

Fourth, the appearance of great Fathers in the Church, among whom were the Three Hierarchs.

All of these will be examined in greater detail below, so that we may better understand the great treasure that has been handed down to us and our duty to preserve it for future generations.

Miracles 13-17 of Saint Arsenios of Paros

By Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos

Miracle 13

A certain Greek compatriot had come to Paros and visited the Monastery of the Transfiguration, not out of piety, but out of curiosity. Upon arriving in the monastery courtyard, he saw above the entrance door, at a window, a young nun, comely in appearance, watering basil. Being irreverent and driven by passion, he was immediately wounded by desire. At first he sought out the abbess of the monastery, who referred him to Father Arsenios. Presenting himself in a most arrogant manner, he demanded that they give him that nun; otherwise, he threatened to cause great harm to the monastery.

The Saint admonished him with gentleness and meekness, in the sweetest and most courteous manner. But the young man became enraged and angrily threatened both the Saint and, as he departed like one beside himself, declared that he would return to take the nun by force. Then the Saint said calmly: “Cease, my child, your threats and repent, otherwise you will remain immobile and deranged.”

Indeed, after three days he became paralyzed and insane, and, being carried by four men, he was taken to the asylum for the incurable, where the wretched man died miserably. The Saint then advised the nuns henceforth not to place flowers at the windows and not to lean out of them whenever strangers were present.

Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Holy Martyrs Cyrus and John lived in the time of Diocletian the emperor. Cyrus was from Alexandria, while John was from Edessa. Because of the persecution that prevailed at that time and was destroying the Christians, Cyrus went to Arabia, to a coastal place, became a monk, and lived there. John, who arrived in Jerusalem, heard about the miracles of Saint Cyrus (for he healed every disease and illness). He went to Alexandria and, from there, according to what was rumored about the Saint concerning his place of residence, he reached the place where he was living and dwelt with him.

When a certain woman named Athanasia, together with her three daughters — Theodote, Theoktiste, and Eudoxia — was arrested for their faith in Christ and was about to be brought before the tribunal, Saints Cyrus and John feared that something might happen which is natural to occur, especially to women, namely that they might be frightened by the magnitude of the tortures of martyrdom. For this reason they went to the place where they were being held, encouraged them, and prepared them for the martyrdoms. Since they themselves were also arrested and confessed our Lord Jesus Christ as the true God, they were subjected to many punishments, and in the end their heads were cut off, together with the women we have mentioned.

Prologue in Sermons: January 31

On Compassion for the Unfortunate

January 31

(A Discourse of Saint Antiochus on Suffering for a Friend)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

We all know that we ought to have compassion for the unfortunate and help them; but, unfortunately, not all of us know what true compassion consists in, or how we should act toward those in distress, so that from our compassion toward them there may arise both real benefit for them, glory to God, and the salvation of our own souls. In what, then, should true compassion for the unfortunate consist, and in what manner should our help to them be manifested? Let us learn this from one of the Holy Fathers, who gives all of us in this matter a good and saving lesson.

The World War 2 Miracle That Made Saint Gregory the Theologian the Patron Saint of Delvinaki in Ioannina

It was dawning on January 25, 1944, during the period of the German occupation. The village was asleep, though not without anxiety. The occupiers, enraged by the Resistance which they saw constantly growing stronger, were roaming towns and villages, carrying out searches and arrests of suspects, and spreading death without mercy. Delvinaki too was awaiting its turn… And it was that morning, at daybreak on January 25, when the news arrived that set the village on alert:

“Germans! The Germans are coming!”

Within a few minutes all the villagers gathered in the central square. There, near the large plane tree of the village opposite the community office, was a café where the resistance groups had brought munitions — arms, hand grenades, and whatever else they had in order to strike the enemy. They had intended to hide them in a safer place, but they did not have time. And now? Now that the Germans would soon arrive there? What were they to do?

The Holy Three Hierarchs in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint John of Euchaita is not only the one who received, by the grace of God, the appearance of the Holy Three Hierarchs in order to resolve the disagreement among the scholars of Constantinople about which of the three was the greatest, but also the one who was inspired to write “canons and troparia and encomia,” according to the Synaxarion. Indeed, today’s hymnography is, first of all, an encomium by the Saint of Euchaita praising the spiritual stature of all three Hierarchs, who were, among other things, “other angels in the flesh,” “gods by participation, because within them lived and spoke the only true God by nature,” “correctors of morals and stewards of souls, the common saviors of all, those who showed us models both of deeds and of words, the educators of life,” as well as “the great luminaries, the unshakable towers of the Church,” “those who received wisdom from God, like three other apostles of Christ.” There is no form of praise that the Holy Hymnographer does not employ in order to express, first, what he experienced visionarily and theoptically — namely, the presence of the Saints in his life — and second, their immense theological contribution to the life of the Church.

January: Day 30: Teaching 2: Commemoration of the Holy Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom

January: Day 30: Teaching 2:
Commemoration of the Holy Three Hierarchs: 
Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom
 
(On Mutual Love and Unanimity in Faith)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. “In the eleventh century, during the reign of the Christ-loving Emperor Alexios Komnenos, there arose a great dispute in Constantinople among the most learned lovers of wisdom,” writes Saint Dimitri of Rostov in his Lives of the Saints, in the account of the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs, whose memory is celebrated today. Some exalted Saint Basil the Great as a teacher lofty in speech, firm in character, and strict toward those who sinned. Others, however, placed above him Saint John Chrysostom, who, with his extraordinary eloquence, was distinguished by gentleness of heart toward sinners. And finally, others considered Gregory the Theologian higher than both, as the most eloquent in word and one who deeply understood the dogmas of the faith.

Indeed, it was difficult to decide which of these three great hierarchs should be considered greater than the others: each of them was great in his own way. The disputes among those arguing about the greatness of the three hierarchs were heated and eventually led many of them to division: some were called Basilites, others Gregorians, and still others Johannites, and they regarded one another as bitter enemies. This quarrel among the faithful over these very hierarchs was offensive to the memory of the Saints and grievous to their holy souls.

Prologue in Sermons: January 30

Against Lies and Slander

January 30

(The Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom on Lies and Slander)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

 

We all know that lying and slander are evil; but, unfortunately, we know little of the fact that the worst thing about this evil is that we pay little or no attention to lying and slander. “What is so serious about it,” we say, “if I lied? Nowadays almost everyone lies; what harm is there in it?” Thus we speak, but we should not speak so; for to lie and to slander truly is a calamity, and a great calamity.

“I beseech you, brethren,” says the universal teacher, “cease lying and slandering. Lying is the first sin and the craft of the devil, for he was the first to lie to Adam and led the whole human race into destruction. Let others make nothing of lying, neither repent of it nor abandon it. They will not escape punishment, for the Prophet says: 'You shall destroy all them that speak lies' (Ps. 5:7). And it will be even worse for those who join lying with slander. Slander destroys great households; one person slandered, and because of him others also weep and wail — his children, his neighbors, his friends. But slanderers themselves also come to a bad end for this. The Lord neither accepts their prayers, nor receives their offerings; their lamps are extinguished, and the wrath of God rests upon them, as David also says: 'The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks proud things.' Slanderers,” concludes Saint John Chrysostom, “are worse than thieves and robbers.”