Homily One on the Holy Foremost Apostles Peter and Paul (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on June 29/July 12, 1952)

The Holy Church honors the memory of the holy foremost apostles Peter and Paul as highly as any other of the holy apostles, although they are all great before God.

What does this mean? This means that God Himself placed them above the other apostles. The Lord Himself glorified the Holy Apostle Peter so much as no other apostle, for you heard in the current Gospel reading that our Lord Jesus Christ once asked His disciples who His people thought He was. And the disciples answered Him: “Some call you John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matt. 16:14). “And who do you think I am?” our Lord Jesus Christ asked. And then the Apostle Peter answered Him on behalf of everyone: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Then Jesus answered and said to him: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonas, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” God Himself revealed to him that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Homily Two for the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (Elder George Kapsanis)

 By Archimandrite George Kapsanis

We celebrated with spiritual joy the memory of the two foremost Apostles of our Christ, the holy glorious and all-praised Peter and Paul. Their contribution to the Church of Christ, to humanity, is so great that one must have a Chrysostomic mouth in order to be able to praise them worthily.

You are aware, after all, that Saint Chrysostom also wrote famous discourses praising Saint Paul the Apostle, for whom he had and nurtured the greatest admiration, and whose disciple and follower and perfect imitator was this holy Father of our Church.

Homily on the Feast of the Holy Foremost Apostles Peter and Paul (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

 

 By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"Pray to God for us, holy and foremost apostles Peter and Paul, as we diligently resort to you, quick helpers and intercessors for our souls."

We all have a habit on our name day to mainly pray to the Saint whose name we bear: the one named with the name of the Apostle Peter prays to him, with the name of Saint Nicholas prays to Saint Nicholas. Why such a habit? Because this Saint, whose name we bear, is our special helper, our special intercessor. After all, the fathers give the name of a famous Saint precisely so that this Saint would especially help us, so that they would especially pray for us, so that they would be our guardian angel in life. That is why we call him our Angel, and his day is called the day of our Angel.

René-Nicolas Ehni, Well-Known and Controversial French Author and Playright Who Converted to Greek Orthodoxy, Has Reposed

René-Nicolas Ehni was born on 29 April 1935, in Rixheim of the Alsace region of France, into a Jewish working class family. He lived as a child and teenager in Eschentzwiller, his schooling taking him to Colmar (in Saint-André) and Mulhouse (at the Lycée Lambert). The languages he spoke were Alsatian and he later learned French, German, and Greek.

His first vocation was to become an actor. He went to Paris, passed the entrance examination for the conservatory on rue Blanche in 1953, and started a small career acting in Paris theater before spending nearly three years in war in Algeria for his military service.

Homilies on the Great Litany of the Divine Liturgy - The Sacred Temple (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 Homilies on the Great Litany of the Divine Liturgy

The Sacred Church

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

During the Great Litany, as the prayer to God is called at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy, after the petition for peace, we also pray for the Sacred Temple in which the Divine Eucharist is celebrated. "For this holy house and those who enter it with faith, reverence and the fear of God, let us pray to the Lord", that is, let us pray for this Holy Temple and for those who entered it with faith, reverence and fear of God.

The Sacred Temple is the place where the members of the Church gather to pray to God and to perform the Sacred Mysteries, especially the great Mystery of the Divine Eucharist. It is called a Temple because God dwells there, in the sense that in this space the energy of God is manifested.