| In the Most Pure Mary, full of grace, is concentrated all the power and all the will of man for receiving God. But this acceptance is the free and loving acceptance of the Cross, for the world was created by the Cross of divine love. It is also saved by the Cross—the Son is sent to the world to “take away the sins of the world”, in order to suffer out that sin, even unto death on the cross. And this Pre-eternal Counsel is fulfilled through the Cross’s power of Divine Love. That which manifests the power of the Cross in the heavens is on earth, in the sons of man, the joy of the Annunciation; for there never was nor can there ever be joy without the cross. Through the Cross of God’s love, piercing the virginal heart of creation, the most pure heart of the Ever Virgin Mother, the joy of the Annunciation now comes to the whole world. However, this joy is not a worldly joy, which seeks pleasure and flees sorrows, for its path is that of the Cross. What the Archangel asked the Virgin related to her accepting the Cross of being the Mother of God, of which she was cognizant to the depths of her heart through her prophetic chastity. She recognized the whole power of what she was being asked, and answered, Behold the handmaid of the Lord (Lk. 1:38)—how much meekness, how much courage, how much dedicated love there is in these meek words. The Annunciation was the tidings of Her Son’s cross and of the Mother of God’s standing by it. And at this immeasurable sorrow of the Cross, “through which joy shall come to all the world”, she, the Most Pure One, gave her consent to God: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. But by her, through her most pure lips, all creation uttered these words of the Cross; rejoicing in her are the whole assembly of angels and the race of man, together with all of created nature, responsively embracing and concealing within its hearing the mystery of the Annunciation of the Cross. “A bird will not feather its nest on this day,” witnesses an Orthodox Russian folk saying. |
| It was a deed of perfect justice that our nature, which was voluntarily enslaved and struck down, should again enter the struggle for victory and cast off its voluntary enslavement. Therefore, God deigned to receive our nature from us, hypostatically uniting with it in a marvellous way. But it was impossible to unite that Most High Nature,Whose purity is incomprehensible for human reason, to a sinful nature before it had been purified. Therefore, for the conception and birth of the Bestower of purity, a perfectly spotless and Most Pure Virgin was required. Today we celebrate the memory of those things that contributed, if only once, to the Incarnation. He Who is God by nature, the Co-unoriginate and Coeternal Word and Son of the Transcendent Father, becomes the Son of Man, the Son of the Ever-Virgin. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), immutable in His divinity and blameless in His humanity, He alone, as the Prophet Isaiah prophesied, P racticed no iniquity, nor deceit with His lips (Is. 53: 9). He alone was not brought forth in iniquity, nor was He conceived in sin, in contrast to what the Prophet David says concerning himself and every other man (Ps. 50/51: 5). Even in what He assumes, He is perfectly pure and has no need to be cleansed Himself. But for our sake, He accepted purification, suffering, death and resurrection, that He might transmit them to us. God is born of the spotless and Holy Virgin, or better to say, of the Most Pure and All-Holy Virgin. She is above every fleshly defilement, and even above every impure thought. Her conceiving resulted not from fleshly lust, but by the overshadowing of the Most Holy Spirit. Such desire being utterly alien to Her, it is through prayer and spiritual readiness that She declared to the angel: Behold the handmaiden of the Lord; be it unto Me according to thy word (Lk. 1:38), and that She conceived and gave birth. So, in order to render the Virgin worthy of this sublime purpose, God marked this ever-virgin Daughter now praised by us, from before the ages, and from eternity, choosing Her from out of His elect. |
| Jesus Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane teaches us that amidst temptation and sorrows, prayer gives us great and holy comfort and fortifies our readiness to meet and endure sufferings and death. The Lord also showed by His own example before His sufferings and death the might of prayer that comforts and strengthens. At the same time, He suggests it to the sorrowing Apostles: Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. At around midnight the betrayer comes to the garden along with a multitude of armed men sent by the high priests and elders. The Lord Himself goes to them and greets them with the words: “It is I”. Thus did He let them know who He is, and they are knocked to the ground by it. Then He humbly allows the betrayer to kiss Him, and the soldiers to take Him to suffering and death (cf. Mt. 26:36–56; Mk. 14:32–46; Lk. 12:38–53). Thus, He shows through His earthly life the continuation of His divine omnipotence and authority over the laws of nature with a word: “It is I who have thrown the betrayer and the people to the ground, having legions of angels in my power, but having come to give Myself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. I voluntarily and humbly give Myself into the hands of sinners!” According to tradition, all the faithful receive Holy Communion on this day. Archpriest G. C. Debolsky, Days of Services in the Orthodox Church, vol. 2 Hymns from the service of Holy Thursday At Thy mystical Supper, Son of God, today receive me as a communicant: for I will not speak of the Mystery to Thine enemies; I will not give Thee a kiss like Judas; but as the thief I confess Thee: Remember me Lord, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom. Sung instead of the Cherubic Hymn during the Liturgy The Glorious disciples were illumined at the Supper during the washing of the feet, but ungodly Judas was darkened by the disease of avarice, and he delivered Thee, the righteous Judge, to lawless judges. See, O lover of money, how for money’s sake he hanged himself. Flee from the greed which made him dare to do such things against his Master. O Lord, who art good towards all men, glory to Thee. |
| Long did this Divine voice call in the Church as in the desert, and apparently did not find a hearkening ear. Humankind did not have the boldness to triumphantly go forth to meet the Divinity. What would have happened to us had the heart of the blessed Virgin Mary not opened to the incomprehensible word of the incarnation, had her boundless dedication to God’s will not responded to the heavenly messenger, 2 Behold the handmaiden of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy will (Lk. 1:38)? She entrusted herself to the King’s desire without holding anything back—and the betrothal of the Divinity with the human race was fulfilled forever. From this we Christians can see how such an apparently personal event—the entry into the temple and consecration to God of a three-year-old maiden—becomes the subject of triumph throughout the Church. This venture of the yet infant bride of God constitutes the beginning of her betrothal to the Holy Spirit, and therefore, in a certain sense, the first pledge of all mankind’s betrothal to the Divinity. True, this mystery was to be deeply hidden within her for the time being, like a flower in its seed; but in order to show the perfection of its ways, Providence often precedes its essential actions with certain significant events that give us some understanding of the future. And pious tradition also tells us that the Most Holy Virgin’s entrance into the temple had already been proclaimed by those prophetic words: hearken, O daughter, and see … Now, in the days of fulfillment of the ancient beginnings and preceding signs, do you wish to see more clearly the glory of the present solemnity? Then follow the Prophet’s command. The virgins that follow after her shall be brought unto the King (Ps. XLIV:13. Do you not now see that the leading of the Most Holy Virgin to the king of Kings is the beginning of a great, solemn procession, in which all pure, chaste souls shall follow after her; that the present solemnity, by the Church’s intention, is a part and continuation of this great procession; that those who wish to participate in the present solemnity must unite themselves to it with a solemn procession, arraying themselves accordingly in the image of the great Leading Personage— the virgins that follow after her? |
| My body is defiled, my spirit is sullied, and I am all covered with sores. But as the Physician, O Christ, heal, wash, and cleanse both body and spirit with repentance, and make me, my Savior, purer than snow. Thou didst lay down Thy body and blood for all, O crucified Word: Thy body in order to renew me, Thy blood in order to wash me, and Thou didst surrender Thy spirit, O Christ, in order to bring me to the Father. Thou hast wrought salvation in the midst of the earth, O merciful Creator, that we may be saved. Thou wast voluntarily crucified on the Tree: Eden that was closed is open; things on high and below, creation and all peoples are saved and worship Thee. ( Ps.73:12 ) May the blood and water that wells from Thy side be a font for me and a draught of forgiveness, that I may be cleansed, anointed and refreshed by both as with drink and unction by Thy living words, O Word. ( Jn.19:34 ; Act.7:38 ) The Church has acquired Thy life-giving side as a chalice, from which gushes forth for us a twofold torrent of forgiveness. and knowledge as a type of the two covenants, Old and New, O our Savior. I am bereft of the bridal hall, I am bereft of the marriage and supper. My lamp has gone out for want of oil, the door has been locked while I was asleep; the supper is eaten; and I, bound hand and foot, am cast outside. ( Mt.25 ; Lk.14:7-35 ; Mt.22:1-14 ) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: To The Trinity: I confess Thee to be undivided in essence, unconfused in persons, One Triune Divinity, co-enthroned and co-reigning. I sing Thee the great song thrice sung on high. Now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Theotokion: Thou givest birth and livest a virgin life, and in both remainest a virgin by nature. He Who is born of thee renews the laws of nature, and a womb gives birth without travail. Where God wills, the order of nature is overruled; for He does whatever He wishes. Song 5 Eirmos: Out of the night watching early for Thee, enlighten me, I pray, O Lover of men, and guide even me in Thy commandments, and teach me, O Savior, to do Thy will. |
| Reading the Gospel’s stories about the resurrection of the dead, we ask ourselves, what is the meaning of these stories and why the Evangelists decided to report them to us? “I am the resurrection and the life”, the Lord Jesus Christ says approaching the coffin of Lazarus who was dead for already four days. These words were addressed to Martha who said to the Saviour that she believed in the resurrection of Lazarus at the last day. And we all believe too that the universal resurrection will happen and all the dead whenever they lived on the earth will be brought to a new life by the power of God. And the testimonies to this are the cases of raising to a temporal life described in the Gospel. There is nothing impossible for God. For Him there is no death, for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Lk. 20:38), We all are alive for God: people who live on this earth or lived on it before, or those who are to come to this world, for they have not been born as yet – all are present in the Divine Providence and all live in God. Here on earth, each of us is given a certain portion of time so that in the course of our earthly life we could come to God, to unite with Him spiritually and physically through participation in the church Sacraments and through a life according to the gospel commandments. Indeed, one thing is unthinkable without the other. And as St. James put it, “faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26), and any religious practice, if it does not involve good works, does not benefit a person. In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ declared to the world that He is the source of life, but at the same time, the Gospel shows us that salvation is not given automatically or magically. And the very participation in church Sacraments, partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ does not yet guarantee a person’s salvation in the eternal life. The Lord expects us to bring fruit of a virtuous life, to verify our life with the gospel commandments, to do as He commands, to give our life to others and to proclaim Him Crucified and Raised not only in word but also in deed for the salvation of people. |
| Their podvigs were different, but their confession of the faith was the same. Here are some words from the epistle of the holy apostle and martyr Paul, which are read on his commemoration day: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35, 38-9). Where did the holy apostle and the holy martyrs find such boldness and brave witness to the Truth? From the personal experience of their lives and faith. And they took the first step of life in the Church when they accepted with their whole hearts the truth that all people are in sin and under the power of sin, and thus the freedom from sin that makes man perfect, wondrous, pious, meek and a friend of God is brought to pass through the fulfillment of the words of the Holy Gospel. Which words? The ones that the Lord Savior, the seer of and participant in our salvation, pronounced to His disciples not long before His suffering on the cross. Some of these words are written in the Gospel according to Luke about certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others (Lk. 18:9). Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. That is how the Savior begins his homily to His disciples. Many people, in the days of our Savior’s earthly life and in our days as well, loved going to the temple, and now to church, but out of these multitudes the Savior defines two groups, examples of two different ways of spiritual life. One of them was righteous—the Pharisee. Now, after twenty centuries, the very word, “Pharisee”, has inalienably, we could even say firmly, a negative connotation, and the word has become a synonym for insincerity, pretentiousness, and hypocrisy. But in those times the Pharisees were the only members of the God-chosen people who were close to the simple folk, for they themselves came from the people. They fulfilled the entire Law, even more than necessary, and confessed, “the law for the people, and not the people for the law.” |
| The Possessed Gadarene Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) Now the man out of whom the demons were departed besought Him that he might be with Him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and tell what great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him (Lk. 8:38-39). So, brothers and sisters, ends today’s Gospel reading where, as you heard, the Lord tells the healed man to reveal the mystery of his healing before all the Gadarene people. And this is what he did. The Gospel does not tell us how he related what had happened to him; but according to the meaning of the Gospel narrative, we can fully imagine what he must have said and what he most likely did say. Here is what he must have said: You Gadarenes have known me from my childhood. I was born among you and grew up among you, in your Gadarene land, a land of transgression. You have seen what happened. You lived not according to the Law which God revealed to you, but according to your lawlessness. In your desire for riches and comfort you engaged in a sinful trade, a trade which was not blessed by God. You raised pigs. You had whole herds of them, and yet according to the Law, they are unclean animals. God punished you and gave you over to the power of the devil. And by the incomprehensible Providence of God, all this demonic power lodged in me alone—I bore your punishment. I was changed from a human being into a beast. I couldn’t live in houses—I lived in a desert place, in a cave where the dead were buried. You bound me with chains, and I broke them. There wasn’t just one devil within me but a whole legion of devils; as you saw in reality when He Who healed me permitted the demons to enter your herd of pigs, which threw itself from the precipice into the lake and drowned. Yes, now you can truly imagine why I caused so much evil and trouble. There was a terrible power in me. The devils took possession of all my human passions and brought them to a monstrous state. That is why I hated you so savagely, why I wanted to torment you, destroy you. |
| The sacrament of Holy Communion, instituted by the Lord before His sufferings and death, according to His commandment, “this do in remembrance of Me,” from the very earliest times up to the present has been celebrated without interruption on myriad holy altar tables of the Universal Church. At the supper the Lord definitively foretold to His disciples that one of them would betray Him, and he would be the very one to whom He would give a piece of bread after He had dipped it; having dipped it, He gave it to Judas Iscariot. When Judas took the bread the devil entered him. At that moment the betrayer departed from Christ and His Church. It was already night (cf. Jn. 13:1–30). After stopping the Apostles’ argument over who would be first among them, which should not have been a question of lordship and possession, but of the greater being as the lesser, and the chief being as the servant; and after foretelling the Apostles’ general temptation, and Peter’s thrice denial of Him, and His appearance to them in Galilee after the resurrection, the Lord went with them to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (cf. Lk. 22:24-28; Mt. 26:30:35). Here His sufferings began: first in soul and then in body. Beginning His sufferings, the Lord said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray yonder.” Then taking with Him Peter, James and John, who had also witnessed the glory of His transfiguration, He began to sorrow and languish. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me (Mt. 26:38), said the God-Man to His disciples. Going a little farther to a rock, He bowed His head and knees and prayed until He sweat blood, as a man who feels the cup of suffering but gives himself over completely to the Father’s will. An angel appeared from heaven to Jesus Christ and strengthened Him. During His prayer, the Lord came thrice to His disciples and said, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. But the disciples were not able to keep vigil in prayer with the Lord, for their eyes were heavy. |
| True, there may be objective circumstances that prevent us from going to church. But not all that seems to be an obstacle to us is such in the eyes of God. In this respect the following fragment of the Life of the Holy Righteous Juliana of Murom (+1604, feast: January 2) is significant: “Once there was a winter so severe that the ground was cracking with frost. So, Juliana did not go to church for some time and prayed to God at home. One day a local priest came to the church early in the morning and heard a voice from an icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, saying: ‘Go and ask merciful Juliana why she has stopped attending church? Although her home prayer is pleasing to God, Church prayer is still more pleasing to Him.’” 4 For a person who is determined to follow the divine path his presence at Church services becomes even a greater need than physical food. But this need is felt most keenly by saints. Thus, St. John of Kronstadt acknowledged: “I am extinguished, die spiritually when I don’t serve at church for a whole week; and I am rekindled, enlivened in soul and heart when I serve...” 5 Nevertheless, even today in every Orthodox parish church one is likely to meet at least one old parishioner who, like Anna the Prophetess from the Gospel (Lk. 2:36-38), almost never leaves the church, albeit the environment is not favorable at all. Her relatives as well as Orthodox brothers and sisters reproach her, try to convince her to restrain her fervent ardor, but the old woman, despite her age and illnesses, still tries to attend her beloved Liturgy nearly crawling “on all fours”. And in conclusion let me give you an amazing example of invincible love for the Divine Liturgy that a contemporary Greek woman-ascetic had. “God-loving Keti [Eriketti Patera: 1921-2003; a friend of St. Paisios the Athonite ] did not want to miss any Vespers or Liturgy. She wished to go to a service every day, so she tried to find churches where the Liturgy was celebrated on weekdays as well. She slept very little and walked great distances, which would take her many hours, in order not to miss the Divine Liturgy… |
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