| Скачать epub pdf Zacchaeus 28 January 1990 In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. If we had heard what the Lord said to us last week in the story of the Blind man, we must by now have looked attentively both at our blindness and at what we can see, when, aware of being blind we try to look deep into our soul. At every Liturgy the Choir sings a Psalm in which one of the verses says to us, ‘The Lord gives wisdom to the blind’ – not because they are blind, but because their blindness separates them from the visible, from the tangible and allow them to go deep into the invisible, into the depth of their own soul, and deeper than their own awareness of self find themselves face to face with the living God. And today we are confronted with the story of Zacchaeus. There are two aspects in it to which I would like to attract you attention. On the one hand, Zacchaeus speaks to us of the most common, the most all-pervading sin which ruins our life: it is vanity, dependence on the judgement of people, longing for their approval, desire to be right in their eyes w h a t e v e r our conscience says, whatever the judgement of God may be. Saint John of the Ladder says that vanity is arrogance in the face of God and cowardice in the face of men. And indeed, vanity is something in us, which eats in everything we do, into every plan, into every desire, into every hope, into e v e r y t h i n g we attempt, like rust, or to use another image of the Lord, like moth destroys all that could be beautiful in our actions, eats into good and evil, but destroys all of it, leaving only very little that can stand our own judgement, the judgement of our own conscience, and the judgement of God, but also the judgement of the people who i n the e n d see us as we are, and turn away from us with sadness, or with revulsion. Vanity is not the same thing as pride; pride, as described in the spiritual writers, is a truly devilish attitude of one who says, ‘I am self-sufficient, I need neither God, nor men! Neither God’s judgement, nor men's judgement counts for me! I am my own law, and I despise all other judgement’, – how different from vanity! Vanity consists of our longing, our desire to be approved of whatever the cost – and that is the terrible thing: whatever the cost! Even at the cost of our integrity, even at the cost of our faith, of our loyalty to God, of our loyalty to others, not to be condemned, not to be judged severely. |
| Sunday of Zaccheus Last week we have entered into the several weeks on our way to the day of the Resurrection, when we are told to examine ourselves; then a time will come to think of nothing but the ways of God preparing us for salvation; and when we reach Holy Week, then we should have no thought, anything but the Lord Whose passion we will be contemplating before we enter together with Him into the glory and the joy of His Resurrection. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh 12 February 2005 Last week we have entered into the several weeks on our way to the day of the Resurrection, when we are told to examine ourselves; then a time will come to think of nothing but the ways of God preparing us for salvation; and when we reach Holy Week, then we should have no thought, anything but the Lord Whose passion we will be contemplating before we enter together with Him into the glory and the joy of His Resurrection. Last week we read the Gospel of the Blind man of Jericho; it challenges us directly; we all contend that we see; we all contend that we are not blind, and yet is not the way in which we see another form of blindness? Are we not blinded by the visible to the invisible, are we not blinded by prejudice against truth, are we not blinded by passion against reality? And so, each of us has got to ask himself whether what he sees is the reality of things, and if not, turn to God asking Him to give us an insight. And one of the things that blinds us most hopelessly is vanity that makes us accept for true all the lies we may hear or observe which boost our self-respect, which make us reject everything which is criticism or condemnation of us. Today’s Gospel is about vanity and about the way in which it can be overcome, indeed about the condition and the cost of it. Zacchaeus was a rich man, а man, known in his town, a man whom everyone would recognise; he was a man of unrighteous ways, and yet something stirred within him when he heard of Christ and he wanted to see Him. It probably was to a certain extent the desire to see the New Prophet of Israel, but this would not have been enough to prompt him to do what he did. In the crowd, because he was too small of stature, he climbs into a tree; sure, he was surrounded with laughter, with mockery and yet, he so wanted to see Christ, it mattered so much to him to see Him that he was prepared to be mocked, laughed at rather than let Him pass by. And in all this crowd through which Christ was passing Christ saw only one man: Zacchaeus, and He called him down, and He went to stay with him. |
| Photo: kznprihod.ru The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (9:1-38) We hear about a blind man that the Lord was walking past along with His disciples. And an interesting question was put to the Lord Jesus. His disciples asked “Rabbi (teacher), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” That is a really fascinating question. When bad things happen in our life, or when we see tragedies, we are often inclined to think that someone must have done something wrong to deserve the bad thing that happened to them. This is one of the reasons that I love some of the stories of the saints such as the story of St. Athanasius of Mt. Athos. He was this holy man who loved God and all the people and he died during a construction accident while the dome of his church was being built. What is all the more interesting is that God prepared him for this event by speaking to him beforehand. Another example is St. Artemius who was killed by a lightning strike at the age of 12. Many people believed at that time that this must have been God’s judgment on the boy, but in later years they found his body perfectly incorrupt and whole and many miracles were worked by his body after his physical death. And before we say that such things are not possible according to the Scriptures we should read 2 Kings 13 and see what the body of a saint is capable of doing. When something bad happens, we often assume that God caused it to happen in order to punish the person or group. But often that is not the case at all. So we see that the disciples ask a question that is part of our nature to ask. And we see that it is ok to ask questions. You should feel comfortable asking questions but you should be careful about assuming the answers. The disciples want to know if and why God punished this man with his blindness. I have found that this is often the way that people deal with troubles and difficult circumstances of life. They will say things like “I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve this.” But the remarkable answer that we see in the lives of these saints we just mentioned and in the words of the Lord Jesus is that sometimes these things happen in order for God to show His marvelous works through them. |
| Coming to Faith in Christ as Savior A Teaching on the Samaritan Woman for the Fifth Week of Pascha Metropolitan John (Wendland) Photo: orthodoxword.files.wordpress.com Christ is Risen! For three weeks from the day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Church is unable to tear itself away from events directly connected with the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first week passes in the joyous exaltation of the Resurrection itself, the second in recollection of how the holy apostle Thomas came to believe, and the third in how the righteous Joseph and Nikodemos served Christ the Savior and how the Myrrhbearing Women went to the Tomb of the Resurrected Christ, seeing first an angel and then the Risen Lord Himself. The feast of Pascha continues, but in the following weeks, other events that occurred before the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ are remembered in our Church services along with the glorification of the Resurrection of Christ. These are the miraculous healing of the paralytic and the man born blind, and as on this present Sunday, the turning of the Samaritan Woman to faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior. What is the connection between the Resurrection of Christ and these events? Both in the Resurrection and in these events, it is the power of God that acts. And there is another, special connection between them, which we will examine closer. We typically refer to the Resurrection of Christ as the feast of Pascha. And what does the word “pascha” mean? This word means “crossing over.” Christ is risen and has translated us from death to life, and from Earth to Heaven. Thus we sing in the first Irmos of the Paschal Canon: “For from death to life, and from earth to heaven hath Christ God brought us…” Pascha means a passing over in many ways: from death to life, from destruction to salvation, and also in an earthly sense—from disease to health. The last is seen in the examples of the paralytic and the man born blind. The first man lay, unable to stand up, for thirty-eight years, but, by the word of Christ, he arose, walked, and carried his bed (Jn. 5:1-15). |
| Photo: southcoastpostacute.com Ephesians 2:4-10; Luke 16:19-31 A few days ago, seven Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt as they were going on a pilgrimage to a monastery. A week ago, eleven Jews were killed as they worshiped in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Houses of worship of whatever kind are increasingly targets for violence and vandalism. Many of the perpetrators of such terrible deeds are motivated by distorted religious beliefs that lead them to think that God wants them to hate, kill, and assault people of other faiths or ethnic identities. Nothing, of course, could be more contrary to the way of Christ, for how we treat other people is how we treat Him. Whether we are finding the healing of our souls through sharing in His life is shown by how we treat others, regardless of who they are or what they believe. Each person we encounter bears His image. Today’s gospel reading describes a man who found the meaning and purpose of life in rich food and expensive clothes. He was so absorbed in gratifying his self-centered desires that he had become blind to the humanity of poor Lazarus, a miserable beggar who wanted only crumbs and whose only comfort was when dogs licked his open sores. There could be no greater contrast than the difference in life circumstances between these two men. After their deaths, their situations were reversed. The rich man had spent his life rejecting the teachings of Moses and the prophets about the necessity of showing mercy to the poor. As such, he had done his best to turn away from God and weaken himself spiritually. In life, he had made himself unable to recognize even the basic humanity of Lazarus as one who bore God’s image. Consequently, after his death he was blind to the glory of God and perceived the divine majesty as only a burning flame that tormented him. When the rich man asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them of the consequences of living such a life, the great patriarch responded, “‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” |
| The Joy of Christ’s Resurrection Should Accompany Us All Our Lives Time flows irrepressibly, like a runaway river, constantly placing man in new situations. We recognize that we are powerless over time. It seems that we only just celebrated the Nativity of Christ, the Theophany, and the Meeting of the Lord. Now here we are on the threshold of Great Lent. A Sermon Delivered After Vespers on Forgiveness Sunday In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. My beloved fathers, brothers, and sisters, we have just heard a prayer offered by the Holy Church to our Lord and Savior, that He might strengthen us during the forthcoming Great Lent. Time flows irrepressibly, like a runaway river, constantly placing man in new situations. We recognize that we are powerless over time. It seems that we only just celebrated the Nativity of Christ, the Theophany, and the Meeting of the Lord. Now here we are on the threshold of Great Lent. Our conscious tells us that the time we have been granted by the Lord ought to be filled worthily, proper to the dignity of a human being as the image of God. The very fact that we are now present in church and have the opportunity to enter Great Lent is a great mercy of God to us, because there are some who are no longer with us, whose lives have been cut short; they now ask our prayers. We have no power over time. All we can do is thank God for granting us this time and for being patient with us. We are approaching the fast. We did not reach it immediately: the Holy Church, in its care for us, gradually prepared us for this struggle over the course of many weeks, placing before our mind’s eye various vivid situations and images from the Gospel, thus inviting us to compare ourselves with the people about whom we have heard. One of them was the blind Bartimaeus who, sitting by the roadside, could only hear about the Lord, but was unable to see Him with his earthly eyes. An enormous crowd of people surrounded the Lord at that time. This unfortunate blind man demonstrated that he had spiritual vision, that he had that which those near Christ did not have. He began to cry out: Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. The Lord heard him and healed him (Mark 10:46-52) |
| Venerable Simeon the New Theologian Commemorated on March 12 Photo: Days.Pravoslavie.Ru Saint Simeon the New Theologian was born in the year 949 in the city of Galatea (Paphlagonia), and he was educated at Constantinople. His father prepared him for a career at court, and for a certain while the youth occupied a high position at the imperial court. When he was fourteen, he met the renowned Elder Simeon the Pious at the Studion Monastery, who would be a major influence in his spiritual development. He remained in the world for several years preparing himself for the monastic life under the Elder’s guidance, and finally entered the monastery at the age of twenty-seven. Saint Simeon the Pious recommended to the young man the writings of Saint Mark the Ascetic (March 5) and other spiritual writers. He read these books attentively and tried to put into practice what he read. Three points made by Saint Mark in his work “On the Spiritual Law” (see Vol. I of the English PHILOKALIA) particularly impressed him. First, you should listen to your conscience and do what it tells you if you wish your soul to be healed (PHILOKALIA, p. 115). Second, only by fulfilling the commandments can one obtain the activity of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, one who prays only with the body and without spiritual knowledge is like the blind man who cried out, “Son of David, have mercy upon me (Luke 18:38) (PHILOKALIA, p. 111). When the blind man received his sight, however, he called Christ the Son of God (John 9:38). Saint Simeon was wounded with a love for spiritual beauty, and tried to acquire it. In addition to the Rule given him by his Elder, his conscience told him to add a few more Psalms and prostrations, and to repeat constantly, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me.” Naturally, he heeded his conscience. Durint the day, he cared for the needs of people living in the palace of Patricius. At night, his prayers grew longer and he remained praying until midnight. Once, as he was praying in this way, a most brilliant divine radiance descended upon him and filled the room. He saw nothing but light all around him, and he was not even aware of the ground beneath his feet. |
| Womanmartyr Thomais of Alexandria Commemorated on April 13 The Holy martyr Thomais was born into a Christian family in the city of Alexandria. She was raised in piety, and loved to read spiritual books. When she was fifteen, the girl married a fisherman, who was also a Christian. The young couple lived in the house of her husband’s family, where Saint Thomais was loved for her mild and gentle disposition, and for other good traits. Saint Thomais’ father-in-law, at the prompting of the devil, was captivated by her beauty. One night, when his son went out fishing, he attempted to lead his daughter-in-law into sin. Horrified, Saint Thomais admonished the senseless old man, reminding him of the Last Judgment and the penalty for sin. Infuriated by her steadfastness, he seized a sword and threatened to cut off her head. Saint Thomais answered resolutely, “Even if you cut me to pieces, I shall not stray from the commandments of the Lord.” Overcome with passion, the old man cut Saint Thomais in two with the sword. The saint received the crown of martyrdom in the year 476. Divine punishment overtook the murderer. He became blind and could not find the door in order to escape. In the morning, the companions of the saint’s husband came to the door. They saw the body of the saint, and the blind old man covered with blood. The murderer confessed his evil deed and asked to be taken to the judge for punishment. He was beheaded for his crime. At this time, Saint Daniel of Skete (June 7) happened to be in Alexandria. He told the monks of the Oktodekadian monastery (at the eighteenth mile on the road leading west from Alexandria) to bring the body of the martyr to the monastery and bury her in the cemetery with the departed fathers. Some of the monks were scandalized because he wanted to bury a woman’s body with the monks. Saint Daniel replied, “She is a mother to me and to you, because she died for her chastity.” After the funeral Saint Daniel returned to his own skete. Soon one of the young monks began to complain to him that he was tormented by fleshly passions. Saint Daniel ordered him to go and pray at the grave of the holy martyr Thomais. The monk did the bidding of the Elder. While he prayed at the grave, he fell into a light sleep. Saint Thomais appeared to him and said, “Father, accept my blessing and go in peace.” |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Feasts Sunday of the Man Born Blind 24 May 2006 Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh At the end of today's reading, words stand that we pass by very often. The blind man says to Christ, " And who is the Son of God? " and Christ answers, " You have seen Him and He is ... The Holy Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan Woman 19 May 2006 admin The Holy Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan Woman, her sons Victor (named Photinus) and Joses; and her sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva, Kyriake; Nero's daughter Domnina; and the ... Radonitsa, or Day of Rejoicing. Commemoration of the Dead. 01 May 2006 admin On this day, the Tuesday of St. Thomas week, according to the order instituted by our Holy Fathers, we call to remembrance, in Paschal joy, all those who have died from the beginning of the ages in ... St Thomas Sunday 29 April 2006 admin Every day during the week of Easter, called Bright Week by the Church, the paschal services are celebrated in all their splendor. The Easter baptismal procession is repeated daily. The royal gates of ... Christ is risen! 22 April 2006 Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann My belief in Christ does not come from the opportunity given to me to participate since earliest childhood in the paschal celebration. Rather, Pascha is made possible, that unique night fills with ... Christ is risen! 22 April 2006 When Christ first rose from the tomb and appeared to His disciples and the myrrh-bearing women, He greeted them with the word " Rejoice! " . And then later when He appeared to the ... Holy Week 20 April 2006 Orthodox Wiki Holy Week.For the Orthodox Christian, Holy Week is the week from the conclusion of Great Lent on the Saturday of Lazarus to the celebration of the Great and Holy Pascha, the Resurrection of Our Lord ... Pascha is approaching. How to decorate eggs. 19 April 2006 Natalya Volkova Pascha is approaching. In Orthodox tradition we decorate eggs on Holy Thursday and then go to church to have them blessed on Holy Saturday. There are many methods to paint eggs, we'll draw some ... |
| An Orthodox Look at Nostradamus By Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) The Word of God gives us very precise warnings about self-proclaimed prophets and spiritual deceivers. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Mt. 7:15). We have to follow the Lord’s injunction: Take heed that no man deceive you (Mt. 24:4). In order to do this one must be guided closely by Scripture and the teachings of the Holy Fathers. These words of the Apostle Paul are very applicable to our times: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3–4). That is what the writings of M. Nostradamus and other false prophets are—fables. Peter Bruegel the Elder, The Blind Leading the Blind. True prophets are chosen by the Lord, while false ones are chosen by the devil, who plays upon their pride and unquenchable thirst for self-affirmation. From the time that the Lord God began to call His chosen ones to prophetic service, satan has not ceased to find false prophets to carry out his dark aims. Biblical prophets were the lips of God. The Hebrew word, nabi and the Greek prophetes mean herald, or messenger, who speaks the word of God and reveals truth inaccessible to natural human reason. A very important personal quality of a prophet is the holiness of his life. The Holy Spirit, Who reveals the future, fills only pure vessels with Himself. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:21). In Holy Scripture, a prophet is often called a “man of God” (1 Kings 2:27; 3 Kings 13:1; 3 Kings 20:28; 2 Kings 25:7). An unalterable sign of a true prophet is absolute purity of faith and teaching. The heralds of God’s will were those through whom the Lord always enjoined His people to turn away from all false teachings and return to the true path. Prophets were preservers of piety and divinely revealed religion. They were called in Hebrew zophim—guardians (Jer. 6:17; Is. 56:10), who were obligated to warn their people about threatening spiritual and moral danger. |
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