| Sermon on the Sunday of All Saints of America and All Saints of Russia In my sermon last week on All Saints Sunday, I explained that if on Pentecost we celebrated the sending to the Church of the Holy Spirit, then on the Sunday after we celebrate the natural and logical outcome of receiving the Holy Spirit, which is that through struggle, with God’s help, Christians can become sanctified and become holy, or saints. Today, the Sunday following All Saints Sunday, every Orthodox Church everywhere celebrates the memory of all of its national and regional saints. In Greece the memory of all saints glorified by the Greek Orthodox Church is celebrated, in Russia the Russian saints, in Cyprus, the Cypriot saints, in Romania, the Romanian saints, and so on. Today in our land we Orthodox celebrate the memory of all the saints who have shone forth in America. We remember St. Herman, the missionary monk who struggled in ascetic labors on Spruce Island in Alaska and attracted thousands of native Aleutian Americans to embrace the Orthodox Christian faith. How did he do it? He embodied and personified the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov — “Acquire the Spirit of peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” We remember St. Innocent, the first Orthodox bishop in America, who created a written alphabet for the Tlingit Aleutian Americans, much the same way centuries before Saints Cyril and Methodius created a written alphabet for our forefathers in the Slavic lands when they were evangelized. Our Holy Father Innocent wrote a classic introduction to Orthodoxy for his missionary flock called “Indication of the Way Into the Kingdom of Heaven”(1) which is read not only by potential converts but even cradle Orthodox who want to learn more about their Orthodox Christian faith. We remember the holy martyr St. Peter the Aleut, an Orthodox Christian convert who refused to allow Roman Catholic fanatics to re-baptize him, meekly declaring that he was already baptized and that he was already a Christian, as they dismembered and tortured him for his faith in Christ and the Orthodox Church. |
| On All Saints Sunday In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Today, on this the last day of June, we come to the last service in a cycle of services. That cycle began over 120 days ago at the end of February with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. That Sunday preceded the weeks of fasting of Great Lent which led up to the central event of the whole Church Year - the Resurrection of Christ. And since then we have followed the services of Bright Week and the Sundays after it to the Ascension, Pentecost and now today, the Feast of All Saints. This whole cycle of 120 days, one third of the year is like a Church Year inside the Church Year. Today's Feast is the result of all that has gone before it. The purpose of all the events in Christ's life, from His Conception to the Resurrection and the Ascension and Pentecost is to make Saints. That is the purpose of the Church, to make people holy. Today's Feast is the Feast of the identity of the Church, of Her sacred personality. For a Church that does not make Saints is not a Church, it is merely an institution which abuses the word 'Church'. What is a Saint? Firstly, we should understand that Saints are not born, they are made. We are all born potentially to become Saints. The only difference between ourselves who are not Saints and the Saints, is that they are people who are continually picking themselves up after sinning, continually repenting until they attain holiness, whereas we give up. We should also say that there are two sorts of Saints - Confessors and Martyrs. Some Martyrs led very bad lives but then, when it came to the ultimate sacrifice, they found Faith in themselves, sufficient for them to prefer to confess Christ rather than live, and so sacrificed everything for Christ. We recognise their sacrifice and honour it. However, in our time, in our land, it would seem that we are not called to be Martyrs, but Confessors. What is a Confessor, how do we recognise a Confessor? |
| On Those Bidden to the Wedding Feast: A Homily on the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost We have just heard the Lord’s parable about those bidden to the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14), a parable about how God calls people to His supper, but people – for one reason or another – refuse to respond to God’s call. Like the other parables of Jesus, it has several levels of meaning. It relates first of all to the Jewish people, to whom God from century to century sent prophets, whom they rejected, and who later rejected the Beloved Son of God, Who came to save this nation. But in a broader sense this parable speaks of many other nations. God called not only the Jewish nation, but in various periods He also called other nations, whom he wanted to make God-bearing nations, but they either did not respond to God’s call or turned out to be unworthy of this call. But a nation is not an abstract concept: a nation is all of us, each one of us. And everything that happens in a nation reflects on each one of us; and, vice versa, everything that happens to us reflects on the nation as a whole. From this follows another meaning of the parable: it is addressed to every specific person, to each one of us. We are very often incapable of responding to God’s call. Sunday comes around, and either out of laziness and negligence, or out of coldness and hardness of heart, we do not want to go to church, putting off going to church until the next Sunday. We reject God’s call when, coming to the Divine Liturgy, we do not commune of the Holy Mysteries, likewise out of laziness and negligence, or because we have not prepared for Communion, not having read the required rule. But preparation for receiving Christ’s Holy Mysteries is not simply a matter of reading prayers. We need to prepare for participation in the Lord’s Trapeza our entire lives. The Apostle Paul says: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). And preparation for receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ lies precisely in each one of us having this mind. This is the “wedding garment” of which the parable speaks. The Lord calls each one of us, but we should not simply respond to this call and come to the wedding feast in just any old way. We need to spend our whole lives in fulfilling Christ’s commandments, in good deeds, in prayer and repentance preparing for Communion. |
| Sermon on the 28th Sunday after Pentecost, Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. On those who were called to the Wedding Feast In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Dear brothers and sisters, two weeks before the feast of the Nativity of Christ, our Holy Orthodox Church reminds us that the feast is approaching and prepares us to greet it worthily. On this first preparatory week before the feast, the Church remembers the saints who lived before the Birth of Christ—the Old Testament prophets and all the pious people who with faith awaited the coming of the Savior, which is why this week is called the week of the forefathers. By this remembrance the Church takes us mentally to Old Testament times, to the times that led up to the appearance of the God-promised Redeemer; and in order to encourage us to morally purify ourselves, it sets before us a whole host of great forefathers who shone by their God-pleasing life. All the forefathers lived by hope in the Redeemer Who would come, and they continually expressed their faith in Him. But while a small number of pious people awaited the coming of Christ the Savior on earth and accepted Him, a large portion of the God-chosen people of Israel did not accept Christ the Savior, rejected God’s voice and care for their salvation, and deprived themselves of eternal blessed life, about which we read today in the Holy Gospels. The Holy Evangelist Luke tells how the Lord Jesus Christ reclined at a feast given by one the chiefs of the Pharisees, and how one of the others sitting there said, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God (Lk. 14:15)! The Lord offered to him and to all those present at the meal the following parable in reply: A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper (Lk. 14:16–24). |
| The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers A Foretaste of Christmas On the second Sunday before Nativity, the Gospel reading leaves off its progression based on Pentecost and aligns itself with the approaching Nativity. This is a sign for us; a message of urgency regarding what is about to happen. Worries, distractions, and cares must now be set aside for the sake of not missing out on the greatest of the Father’s gifts to us, which is His Son in human flesh. Every other mystical and sacred gift is secondary to the Incarnation. Source: St. Lawrence Orthodox Church On the second Sunday before Nativity, the Gospel reading leaves off its progression based on Pentecost and aligns itself with the approaching Nativity. This is a sign for us; a message of urgency regarding what is about to happen. Worries, distractions, and cares must now be set aside for the sake of not missing out on the greatest of the Father’s gifts to us, which is His Son in human flesh. Every other mystical and sacred gift is secondary to the Incarnation. We have been preparing for the feast by fasting. And now that we have moved past the midpoint of the fast, the pace quickens in anticipation of Christ’s birth. We commemorate the Holy Forefathers who were part of mankind’s preparation for the Messiah. Without them, there would be no God-man, no Christ, for prophecy foretold His birth from their lineage. Therefore their flesh, their prophecies, and their piety prepared the way for the coming of Christ. Without the Incarnation, there is no salvation as we know it, there is no Cross, there is no Resurrection, there is no partaking in the divine energies of God and no deification. Even paradise and immortality submit to the mystical superiority of the Incarnation. For both paradise and immortality were given to man before the fall. Without the Incarnation, Paradise and eternal life only result in being perfectly and eternally joined to God as His servants. But when the Father gives His Son to redeem mankind, you and me, redeemed from the curse of the Fall wherein God commanded that “surely you will die,” and His Son deifies human flesh and makes it a communicant with the Holy Trinity through Himself, the second Person of the Trinity, no longer are we called to be servants in His Kingdom, but adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. |
| Pentecost 8th Sunday after Pascha Explanation and Typicon This first Christian sermon was simple and brief, but since the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of the Holy Apostle Peter, his words penetrated the hearts of the hearers and won over their obstinacy. " Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, " Men and brethren, what shall we do? " (Acts 2:37) . " Repent " , the Holy Apostle Peter answered them, " and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ " and you will not only be forgiven; but you shall also " receive the gift of the Holy Spirit " . For the promise of the Holy Spirit is given " Then those who gladly received his word " that is of the Apostle Peter immediately repented, believed, and were baptized (Acts 2:41) , and the new Church has grown from 120 (Acts 1:15) to 3000 men. admin 14 June 2008 Source: St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Dallas Texas Explanation of the Feast: On the tenth day after the Ascension of Jesus Christ during the Jewish feast of Pentecost, at the third hour, but according to our reckoning at nine o’clock in the morning, when people usually go to the temple both for offering up a sacrifice and prayer all the disciples were assembled in Jerusalem, in the upper room (Acts 1:13) , which was “on Mount Zion”, “and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,” (as though from an unusually strong wind) .” Actually there was no wind rustling, but the noise was similar as if it were from the strength of a wind, but without the wind.” This noise “filled the whole house where they were sitting”, – not only of the apostles, but, according to the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, even other believers in Christ (Acts 1:16) . In that instant in the middle of the house in the air appeared many tongues as of fire, being carried above the heads of the disciples, dropped down and rested on them. They were not really fiery tongues, but were “as if As fast as the Divine Fire flared up in the souls of the believers, they were filled with holy ecstasy and in reply to the gift of Heaven have lifted up to Heaven a word of praise and thanksgiving to the Great God for the benefactions to the human race. And they all “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”: each of these gifted ones began to speak in whatever language even if the other language was unknown to him, in the language of a country where he never lived or a language which he never studied; the knowledge of this language for him was exclusively a gift of the Holy Spirit; and the power of the Holy Spirit first of all was found out by their ability in languages, because this ability first of all was necessary for the apostles, so that they could preach the Gospel message all over the world. |
| Sermon on Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost During the Last Supper our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that separation was near, that He was to ascend to His God and to His Father as He would repeat again to the women who came to the grave. And when their hearts were filled with sorrow at the thought that they will not see Him again, He said, “Your hearts are full with sorrow and yet, you should rejoice for Me that I am returning to My Father. But I will not,” he added, “leave you orphan, I will send you the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, whom I will send to you and who will teach you all things.” And so do we here now while we are still in the light of the Ascension. 22 May 1988 In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. During the Last Supper our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that separation was near, that He was to ascend to His God and to His Father as He would repeat again to the women who came to the grave. And when their hearts were filled with sorrow at the thought that they will not see Him again, He said, “Your hearts are full with sorrow and yet, you should rejoice for Me that I am returning to My Father. But I will not,” he added, “leave you orphan, I will send you the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, whom I will send to you and who will teach you all things.” And so do we here now while we are still in the light of the Ascension. St. Paul grieved about the necessity of living in the world and in the flesh. He said, “To me life is Christ and death would be a gain, a blessing, because as long as we are in the flesh, we are separated from Christ.” And yet, this separation is not total, we are not separated irremediably, we are not separated desperately from Christ if we only long for Him, if we only love Him, if as St. Paul longed to die to be inseparably forever with Him because according to the promise the Holy Spirit has come on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit whom we call the Comforter by word, which in ancient languages has a much wider meaning. It means the one who consoles, the one who gives strength, the one who brings joy. His presence indeed can console us from our separation from Christ because the Holy Spirit if we only live according to the Gospel, if we become not only in word or in imagination but in all truth, in action and in thought, in our heart and in our being disciples of Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We become His temples and He speaks to us either in unutterable groaning or with that wonderful clarity that allows us to call ‘Father’ the God of Heaven because in Christ and by the power of the Spirit we have become the children of the Living God. |
| Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe visits the Memorial Church of St Job and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Brussels Source: ROCOR Photo: orthodox-europe.org His Grace Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe visited the Memorial Church of St Job and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, both in the capital of Belgium, on the weekend of the principal feast day of St John the Wonderworker of Shanghai, Brussels and San Francisco, and the Sunday of All Local Saints. Though intending to arrive on Friday, flight cancellations meant that the bishop was able to arrive in Brussels only on Saturday morning. This did not prevent him, however, from meeting with members of the parish Association and clergy of the Memorial Church in the afternoon, before serving the All-Night Vigil in the church, co-served by Archpriest Leonide Grilikhes and Priest Vassili Orekhoff, upon whom the Bishop bestowed the nabedrennik; and the prayer was accompanied by beautiful singing from the Memorial Parish choir. At the Polyelei of matins, the Magnification was sung for all the saints of Belgium. On Sunday morning, Vladyka Irenei was greeted at the door of the Resurrection Church, where he headed the Divine Liturgy for the Sunday of All Local Saints, co-served by Archpriest Stefan Weerts. During the Little Entrance of the Liturgy, His Grace bestowed the Jewelled Cross upon Fr Stefan, a Synodal award granted for his many years of diligent and faithful service to the Church Abroad, the Diocese, and multiple parishes. During his homily, Vladyka called to mind the special focus of this Sunday in the Church Abroad: ‘On this third Sunday after Holy Pentecost,’ he said, ‘we keep the memory of our local saints. We bear witness that the universal activity of the Holy Spirit also takes place at the most local level. We walk, here, today, on ground that has been walked upon by saints of God. Holiness is not some dream of far-off realities, an idea obtainable only by those in some other place or time. |
| On Spiritual Paralysis: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost The Gospel reading of last Sunday told us how the Gadarenes went out to meet Jesus and how they asked Him to “depart out of their coasts.” And this happened because all of them were infected with one sin, the passion for profit, the love of money. This was an insatiable thirst for wealth, more and more of it. And wealth came to them through large herds of swine which were grazing in their pastures. But according to Jewish Law, they had no right to keep them. In this was their sin, and they lived in sin, to satisfy only this passion, this idol of getting rich. And this passion seemed to unite them all. See how the Gospel says: “And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus and…besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts” (Mt. 8:34). Yet not all inhabitants of this town were bad people. Undoubtedly, among them were those who wanted to see Jesus, who wanted to listen to His teaching, and maybe were ready to believe in Him. Salvation was so close, so very close. But this idol, this passion for profit enslaved them; and instead of asking the Lord to remain in their town, they asked Him to go away. They were already deprived of their freedom of will; through sin they were enslaved, a spiritual paralysis possessed them. The Gospel continues, “And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the paralytic; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mt. 9:1-2). There is physical paralysis, but there is also spiritual paralysis. Being paralyzed physically we want to do something, but either our hand or our foot does not move. But being spiritually paralyzed even to think is difficult, and we don’t want to do anything — we lose heart. There is a desire to fulfill a commandment of Christ, and yet we cannot; something is interfering, something is holding us back. And instead of Christ abiding in our heart — there is a storm, and Christ goes away. |
| Sermon on the Widow of Nain (21st Sunday after Pentecost 2015) Source: Hermitage of the Holy Cross October 25, 2015 The Gospel reading for this Sunday, the story of the widow of Nain , is very brief; yet like every passage of Holy Scripture, it contains many layers of meaning, each of them true, none of them superseding nor contradicting one another, but all blending into a chorus of divine truth that even contains within itself everything that we need to know about the Kingdom of God and our life on this sinful earth. Christ, the Giver of Life, comes to the gates of the city of Nain, and there meets a funeral procession. Our Lord approaches us and our broken world, and immediately and above all He meets with death and profound sorrow. He meets the corpse, not of one gray-haired and full of years, but of a young man, a youth with his life tragically cut short before it had even really begun. And He meets a mother, totally alone, with no husband and no child but the dead boy only. He meets a widowed humanity, with its hope for the future now lying dead on a bier and about to be cast once more into the cold earth from whence it had been taken so many centuries ago in Eden , in a Paradise that this widowed humanity can no longer remember, nor even see any reason to believe exists. The Holy Fathers tell us that the widow in today’s Gospel is the soul, cut off from her husband, the Word of God. The son of the widow is the mind, slain by sin and being carried out from the city, which is the Heavenly Jerusalem, the land of the living. The bier is the body which is our tomb, living in death before our death. There are many spiritual lessons here, there are many important truths which the Holy Spirit has spoken to us by the mouth of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. Yet above all, let us look today at weeping of the widow. St. Isaac the Syrian , when asked what work a monk should occupy himself with when secluded in his cell, replied that there is only one task that can possibly occupy a monk who is truly seeking his salvation: to weep constantly for his soul, slain by sin. To look honestly at ourselves, to not only acknowledge but to truly and vividly see and to weep over the sin, death and corruption that is within us, is the chief task in life not only for the monk but for every Christian. But Adam and Eve hid their nakedness in the Garden with fig leaves and they hid from the voice of God, and we, their sons and daughters, have occupied ourselves with nothing else from that time on. |
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