Holy 42 Martyrs of Amorium in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These saints were the foremost men of the city of Amorium. When, during the reign of Theophilos, Amorium was captured by the Hagarenes, they were taken captive by them, because they were generals and commanders and members of the foremost class among the Romans. Yet they did not betray their faith in Christ — neither out of cowardice, nor out of love for this present life, nor out of softness, nor because of their long-lasting suffering. For the vigor of their souls was not weakened by their bodily injuries and their imprisonment; rather, having drawn up against the enemies with manly resolve and bravery of soul, and refusing to stoop to deny their faith in Christ, they gladly accepted the cutting off of their heads.

Just as a person rejoices when he has invested in this world in his new and indeed precious clothes, in the same way the Church also celebrates today, we are told by the Hymnographer of the saints, Saint Joseph, because she has clothed herself in the new garment of the blood of the new prize-winning martyrs. “The Church today celebrates mystically, having put on a new garment, like purple and fine linen, the blood of the new prize-winning martyrs” (doxastikon of Vespers). And this means, as is known, that martyrdom for our Church constitutes her glory and her boast, since in this way she stands precisely upon the footsteps of the first Martyr, the founder of the faith, Jesus Christ.

Prologue in Sermons: March 6

It Is Unreasonable to Become Attached to Earthly Things

March 6*

(A Parable of Venerable Barlaam Concerning This Temporal Life)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In order to impress His teaching more deeply upon the hearts of His listeners, Jesus Christ often presented it in parables — that is, in comparisons or riddles. For the same reason the Holy Fathers also at times taught by means of parables, and several of these have been preserved down to our time. With the latter, from time to time, I intend to acquaint you, and by way of example I now present one of them.

A certain man, says the Venerable Barlaam, encountered a terrible, raging beast that was ready to tear him to pieces. Fleeing from the fury of the animal, this man fell into a deep pit, and while falling, fortunately managed to grasp the branches of a large tree that was growing in the pit. Having seized the branches firmly and found some support for his feet, the man considered himself already safe. But suddenly, looking down, he saw two mice that were constantly gnawing at the root of the tree, and still lower, a dreadful serpent with its mouth wide open, preparing to devour him. Turning his eyes away from this terrifying sight, he saw an asp coming out of the rock, very close to him. Surrounded on every side by dangers, the man naturally lifted his eyes upward and there, on the top of the tree, he saw a very small quantity of honey.

Saint Nikolai Velimirovich as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Nikolai, Bishop of Ochrid, was born on 23 December 1880 in the village of Lelić in Serbia to pious parents. He learned his first letters at the Monastery of Ćelije and afterwards entered the Clerical School of Saint Sava in Belgrade. Later, with a scholarship from the Church, he continued his studies in Switzerland, Germany, and England, and subsequently was elected professor at the Clerical School of Saint Sava.

During the First World War he supported the suffering and the poor. After the end of the war he was elected Bishop of Žhicha in 1919, and two years later he was transferred to Ochrid. He frequently visited Mount Athos and stayed mainly at the Sacred Monastery of Saint Panteleimon. There he met Saint Silouan, whose holiness he immediately recognized and made known. He also met Saint Sophrony, whom he ordained a deacon.

March: Day 5: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Conon the Gardener

March: Day 5: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyr Conon the Gardener
 
(Lessons From His Life: 
a. All Of Us Must Labor; 
b. We Must Be Simple-Hearted; and 
c. How To Imitate The Martyrs?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Martyr Conon the Gardener. Saint Conon was from Nazareth of Galilee and lived and labored in Pamphylia, working as a gardener. In character he was simple, not a learned man, but he feared God and kept His commandments.

During the persecution of Christians under Decius, the governor Publius ordered that he be seized and compelled him to offer sacrifice to idols. And when Conon remained firm in his confession, nails were driven into his feet and he was forced to run. The Holy Martyr grew weak, fell to his knees, and after praying, surrendered his spirit to God.

Venerable Mark the Ascetic and Wonderworker: A Most Eminent Ascetical Writer

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Mark was industrious in all things: he devoted himself also to the study of the divine Scriptures and reached the highest degree of ascetic practice and virtue. Proof of both is, on the one hand, the discourses he composed, which are filled with every kind of teaching and benefit, and on the other hand the working of miracles that was given to him by the Savior Christ. Of these it is absolutely necessary to recount one:

When the Venerable one was in the courtyard of his hermitage and, in prayer, was keeping watch over himself, a hyena came near him, bringing with it its blind little cub. With humble bearing it therefore begged the Saint to have pity on it and to heal the blindness of its child. And he, after spitting upon the wounded eyes and praying, made them healthy.

After some days, the hyena brought him the fleece of a large ram as a gift for the healing, but the Venerable one did not wish to receive it before the beast promised that from then on it would never again attack the sheep of poor people. But if he was so beloved by irrational nature, much more did he have love toward human beings, because of our common nature, which requires that we show very great compassion toward one another.

March: Day 5: Teaching 3: Venerable Mark the Athenian

March: Day 5: Teaching 3:
Venerable Mark the Athenian*
 
(On the Paths of Life — the Broad One Leading to Hell and the Narrow One Leading to Eternal Life)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Venerable Mark the Athenian, whose memory is celebrated today, was a wondrous ascetic. He labored in the Libyan desert, on Mount Trache. He himself told the following about his life to the holy elder Serapion, whom God sent to him on the last day of his life:

“For ninety-five years I have lived in this desert and have seen neither man, nor beast, nor bird, nor any other living creature. The first thirty years were especially difficult for me: I had no clothing and suffered both from cold and from heat; sometimes I satisfied my hunger with earth and my thirst with sea water; the lonely and deserted place filled me with sorrow and anguish. More than once my thoughts carried me back to the world, with all its comforts and pleasures.

But most of all I suffered from demons: neither by day nor by night did they give me peace, threatening to kill me, to drown me in the sea, or to tear me to pieces. After thirty years I was granted a great mercy from God: my flesh changed, and hair grew over my body which protected me from cold and heat; food began to be sent to me, and angels began to visit me.”

Prologue in Sermons: March 5

Against Those Who Love to Move from Place to Place

March 5

(From the homilies of Saint John Chrysostom on those who say that it is impossible to be saved in the world.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

“One is well off where one is not,” says a popular proverb, reproaching those who are dissatisfied with their situation. Sadly, nothing is so widespread among us as this dissatisfaction. It seems to us that if only we changed our place, we would become incomparably happier; if our way of life were altered as we wish, we would become far better — more God-fearing, more holy.

But is this really so? Would we truly change for the better if our dreams came true? Would we really become more God-fearing and holier? Hardly. Let Saint John Chrysostom speak to us about this.

“Place will not save us,” he says, “if we do not do the will of God. Neither an honorable rank nor a holy place brings any benefit to the one who does not keep the commandments of God. What rank could be higher than that with which Adam was honored before his fall? And what place is better than Paradise, from which he was expelled?

Homily for the First Sunday of Great Lent - The Triumph of Orthodoxy (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the First Sunday of Great Lent 

The Triumph of Orthodoxy 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

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

The Holy Church, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, allows us — all those who have passed through the first week in repentance, in the awareness of our kinship with the first man Adam, in the consciousness that in each of us is the image of the ineffable Glory of God, though covered with the sores of sins, and in the penitential cry to the Lord: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me” — to approach now the great joy, for today is a day of joy, a day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

It is not without reason, not by chance, that this week begins with such a day.

If we, the faithful, were all the time in the state of the first Adam, weeping, repenting, and crying out: “Lord, have mercy on me, the fallen one,” — together with him in a state almost of despair, and then only with distant hope that someday “the Seed of the Woman will crush the serpent’s head” — then we would still be in the Old Covenant. But we are already in the New.

The Holy Church arranges the Triumph of Orthodoxy in the second week to remind us that we already have this promise fulfilled, that we are already in the New Covenant, that we, though covered with the sores of sins like the first man, have had the Savior on earth, and not only was He here, but He also left us His Body — the Church — and we, glorifying Him, celebrating His coming, confess Him in Orthodoxy.

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

Homily for the First Sunday Evening of Great Lent

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev 

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

The Holy Abba Isaiah was asked: “What is repentance?” He answered: “There are two paths. One is the path of life, the other is the path of death. He who walks on one does not step on the other. But the one who walks on both has not yet been accounted for on either — neither on the one that leads to the Kingdom, nor on the one that descends into hades.”

Indeed, in our life, my dear ones, there are two paths. One is the path of sin, of death; the other is the path of life. And we are all sinners, walking sometimes on one, sometimes on the other path. Yet we must correct our life and strive to walk more and more on the path of life, so that we may fulfill our covenant with God. Yesterday I said that God makes a covenant with all. When we served the Liturgy today, and the priest pronounced the words of the Secret Supper: “Take, eat" and "drink of it all of you,” this means that God’s covenant with man is given for all, but on the other hand — each must individually, personally enter into this covenant with God. Without this condition, the covenant of God with man is not fulfilled.