First Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

 

 

 By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"I believe, Lord, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

One father brought to Jesus Christ his sick son, possessed by a dumb spirit. The long and difficult suffering of the demoniac, even the disciples of Christ, whom he asked, could not cast out the demon from him, therefore the poor father became confused and alarmed, and he began to ask on his behalf with timidity and with some doubt, as if afraid Jesus Christ would not help. If you can do anything, he said to Jesus Christ, have pity on us, help us. When Jesus Christ said to him: "If you can believe a little, everything is possible for him who believes," he cried out with tears: "I believe, Lord, help my unbelief." That was enough, and the Lord helped the sick person right there.

On Those Who Say "I Believe, Therefore I Am Not Afraid"

 

By Archimandrite Vasilios Bakoyiannis

Many say: "I believe in Christ, therefore I am not afraid of the coronavirus, that is why I do not wear a mask in the church." So those who support the opposite, are they unbelievers? Perhaps they are more faithful! Who knows?

The proclamation, "I believe, therefore I am not afraid," can hide pride, and (it can) be a sign of an unhealthy spirituality. The strange thing is that this ("I believe, therefore I am not afraid") can also be heard from a Christian, who lives in sin, with extramarital "relationships". In fact, he accuses to be an unbeliever (!) the Priest (!) of his parish, because the Priest observes the guidance of the government relevant to the coronavirus!

14 Attributes of True Faith (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

 

By St. Nektarios of Aegina

True faith has the following attributes:

1) It informs the believer secretly of the truth of his faith.

2) It directs his steps in the path of truth.

3) It fills him with hope that is eternal, undiminishable, pure from every fear and every regret and has in it the fullness of bliss.

4) It fills him with warm and active love for God and his neighbor.

Contesting for the Faith: The Holy Forefathers of Christ (Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi)

By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

The apolytikion for the feast of the Holy Forefathers, says: "You [i.e. Christ] justified the forefathers in faith, and through them betrothed Yourself, in advance, to the Church taken from out of the Gentiles." These words, if you look at them carefully, are full of profound meaning. The Forefathers were justified, as being the foundation of the Church and as making manifest the cause of the relationship between God and us.

Who were the forefathers of God? Gentiles, of course. Everybody was a gentile then. After the fall, people lost their way and followed their own path. From these, God chose a few and called upon them to believe in Him and to follow Him. And they were convinced. Through faith they accepted the call from God and became His friends, so that, when God was revealed, it could be said of Him: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

Is God Out of Date? (A Homily by St. Varnava Nastic)

By St. Varnava (Nastic), Bishop of Hvosno

Dear brothers and sisters!

Is God out of date? This is the question that I want to put before you today. The answer to it determines the answers to many other questions that concerns human souls. For if God is out of date, then faith in God is also out of date. Then the Church of God became obsolete as the stronghold of this faith.

Peasant Faith: Three True Stories of the Power of Simplicity

Saint Paisios the Athonite (+ 1994) spoke of a simple monk with child-like faith. He wrote: "A simple but holy man, when he once had to take care of a poor sick person, went down to the seashore to the Church of the Ascension and lifted up his arms and prayed: 'My Holy Ascension, give me a little fish for my sick charge.' And - O the miracle! — a fish came into his hands! He cooked it and thanked God and Holy Ascension." Not understanding the theological term "Ascension", which refers to the ascent of Christ into heaven forty days after His resurrection, this simple-minded monk believed he was invoking the intercessions of a female Saint named "Ascension". This story teaches us that a natural simplicity with deep faith becomes sanctification in a natural way.

A Homily on the Healing of the Paralytic

Holy Metropolis of Serbia and Kozani

Second Sunday of the Fast

(Saint Gregory Palamas)

Mark 2:1-12

By Fr. A.K.G.

The period of Great Lent, my brethren, is an ecclesiastical period of intense spiritual struggle, in which the Church very wisely raises us up step by step up the steps of the ladder to our spiritual perfection and our preparation for the great and holy days of the Passion and the Resurrection of our Lord. This Sunday, the second of the Fast, the Church has appointed to be read from the Gospel the healing of the paralytic of Capernaum, seeking through it to teach us that Christ is the only one who can redeem us from sin and its consequences.

The Three Hierarchs: Towers of Faith

By Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria

January, the month of the Holy Fathers. It begins with the figure of Basil the Great and ends with the joint celebration of the three greatest luminaries of the Three-sunned Divinity: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.

They are the strongholds of piety and the writing tablet of the Holy Spirit. They are the fragrant blossoms of Paradise, and the breasts from which gushed forth the milk of salvation, according to the expression of the sacred hymnographer.1

They are the foremost of the chorus of the Holy Fathers and Teachers, who with the illumination of the Holy Spirit expressed in their time and continue to express until today with their words which are timeless, the experience of divine truth.