Homily Four for the Eighth Sunday of Matthew - The Blessing of Christ (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

Homily for the Eighth Sunday of Matthew

The Blessing of Christ

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves of bread, which Christ blessed and distributed, is well known, with the result that five thousand people were fed, not including the women and children. The Evangelist Matthew writes: "Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them" (Matthew 14:18). The result of God's blessing is the multiplication of loaves and fishes.

The blessing of Christ is His energy with which He benefits the world. During His Ascension, Christ ascended to heaven and blessed His Disciples present, as the Evangelist Luke writes: "Through His hands He blessed them, and when he had blessed him, he separated from them and was taken up to heaven" (Luk. 24:50-51). He left us His blessing, that is, His grace and energy, for this reason the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Ephesus: "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

Homilies on the Great Litany of the Divine Liturgy - Clergy and Laity (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 Homilies on the Great Litany of the Divine Liturgy

Clergy and Laity

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

We are interpreting in these eucharistic sermons, during the Summer Sundays, the petitions we address to God at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy, every Mystery and Sacred Service. Today we will look at the petition we are called to address to God for all the members of the Church. The Priest exhorts us: "For our Archbishop, the Honorable Presbyters and those who minister in Christ, all the Clergy and the people, let us pray to the Lord", that is, let us pray for the Archbishop, namely, the Metropolitan of this region - and mention his name - for the Presbyters and Deacons, for all the Clergy and the laity of the Sacred Metropolis.

Homilies on the Holy Mysteries - The Mystery of the Priesthood (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Mystery of the Priesthood

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The mystery of the Priesthood, my beloved brethren, is the sacred ceremony through which special Grace is transmitted to some people to become Clergy in the Church, who are the ministers of the people for their salvation.

The Priesthood is divided into three degrees, that is, there is the Bishop who is in the type and place of Christ, there is the Presbyter, who is sent by the Bishops, as the Apostles were sent by Christ, and there is the Deacon, who helps the Bishops and the Presbyters in the performance of the Mysteries. All these three degrees have a special mission and special work within the Church. According to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite and others after him, such as Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Niketas Stethatos and Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, the work of the Deacon is to help people purify their hearts from the passions, the work of the Presbyter is to help people illumine their nous, and the work of the Bishop, along with the above, is to lead people to deification.

On Vain Disputations and Questionings in the Church of Christ (St. Daniel the Stylite)

In chapter 90 of the Life of Saint Daniel the Stylite, we read:

 

Through the Devil's working a tumult once arose in the most holy churches, for tares had sprung up from vain disputations and questionings, so that some of the monks, who were renowned for good living, through their simple-mindedness and through their failure to consider the matter with precision, left the most Holy Church and separated themselves from the holy fellowship and liturgy. 

 

These mischief-makers came to the holy man and tried to confound him with similar arguments, but he who kept the foundation of the holy faith unmovable and unshakable answered them saying:

 

Saint Varnava Nastic's Homily on the Episcopal Office (Spoken at his Ordination as Bishop of Khvostansky)

 

By Saint Varnava Nastic, Bishop of Khvostansky

(Delivered on August 19, 1947)

Dear brothers and sisters!

The height of honor, according to Christ's measure, is given to people in accordance with the height of their readiness for sacrifice. Those who give little will receive little honor. The one who sacrifices much will receive much honor. Those who accept the greatest honor among men make the greatest sacrifice through this. For Christ, according to His own words, first had to go through Golgotha in order to enter later into His glory. And how can people avoid this criterion when the immortal God Himself obeyed it? Those who flee from sacrifice are also fleeing from the only honor under this sun that is of God, for which it is useful to fight. When our Lord Jesus Christ sent His apostles into the world, He established sacrifice as a program and a way of their life. And only by their readiness for the apostolic sacrifice did the Galilean fishermen receive the apostolic honor. This is the standard set at the foundation of Christ's Church, has invariably remained the main one at all times of its history, and will remain so until the end of the age. High honor in Christ's Church means high sacrifice.

Homilies on Holiness and the Saints - The Fathers of the Church (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The Fathers of the Church

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The successors of the Holy Apostles are the Fathers of the Church, first the Apostolic Fathers who lived immediately after the Apostles, and then the Great Fathers of the Church.

The word "fathers" is also known in everyday life, since it means those who give birth to children and are the head of every family. This word, conveyed in ecclesiastical life, signifies those Clergy who give birth to spiritual children in the life according to Christ and guide them to grow spiritually. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, told them that even if they have many teachers according to Christ, they do not have many fathers, because their father was the one who gave birth to them with his teaching, which was the teaching of Christ: "For though you might have ten thousand teachers in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel”(1 Cor. 4:15).

The Priesthood in the Old and New Testament

 By Grigoris Sachinoglou

The concept of the priesthood exists in the Old Testament, but has a different meaning and character from that which we receive in the New Testament. In the Old Testament period before Moses, every head of the family could offer sacrifices to God, as there are many examples of people making sacrifices, such as Noah after the flood to express his gratitude to God for his salvation (Gen. 8:20), as well as Abraham and his sons. There are also those in leadership positions, such as Melchizedek, who is presented as the King of Salem and a priest of the Most High, who offered a ritual blessing to Abraham (Gen. 14:18-20).

The institution of the priesthood is essentially established in the years of Moses, who defined the tribe of Levi as responsible for the proper observance of the religious duties of the people, while the family of Aaron and his descendants are chosen by God Himself for the performance of priestly liturgical functions. Chapter 16 of the Book of Numbers describes the process by which God chose Aaron as high priest and as leader of the tribe of Levi after his staff blossomed. Therefore, all the priests then came from the descendants of Aaron, thus making the priesthood hereditary and the descendants of Aaron hierarchically superior, since, among other things, he acquired rights to sacrifices and sacrificial meals.

The Life of the Holy Protopresbyter Elder John Kalaides (+ 2009)

By Protopresbyter George Trapezanlides

Childhood and Youthful Years

Father John Kalaides was born in Kamaroto, Serres, to pious parents Chrysostomos and Theodora on May 8, 1925, the feast day of St. John the Theologian. He thus took the name of the evangelist and beloved disciple of our Lord, John - an act that reveals the fear of God but also the love that his parents had for the Church and her Saints.

An important role in triggering his good spiritual path was the person of his mother, who was a woman with faith and love for God and His Church. Theodora wanted her children to have God in them and so she guided them in prayer and regular church attendance. This God-fearing woman was originally from Asia Minor, from Mount Olympus in Bithynia. On this mountain in the Byzantine years was born and flourished an entire monastic state similar to the spiritual height of Thebes in Egypt and the monastic state of Mount Athos, which gave the Church many saints, ascetics and martyrs. In the heyday of Iconoclasm, monasteries there were a beacon and stronghold of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. This spirituality influenced the people of the area and reached the time of his mother Theodora. Thus, when during the catastrophe in Asia Minor and they experienced the uprooting from their homeland and lost their material wealth, they managed to keep within themselves the spiritual property they knew.

How the Orthodox Christians of Goma Faced the Recent Volcanic Eruption of Mount Nyirangongo

 

Fr. Chariton with some of his parishioners in Goma.

We watched horrifying images of the Nyirangongo volcano erupting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, causing tragic devastation and the death of many people (the first eruption on 22 May 2021 killed over 30). Ten kilometers from the volcano, in the city of Goma, which suffered the most damage, is the parish of Saint Nektarios. The Orthodox priest Father Chariton Ilunga Musungayi, pastor of the church and Patriarchal Commissioner of North and South Kivu, did not leave the place of his pastoral ministry in order to support the needy, the elderly and those who could not move. We talked to him and he described the devastation with the dead, the wounded and those who lost their homes from the lava of the volcano, but also the consolation that he and his parishioners felt from the timely help of the Panagia, after the prayers that stopped the lava preventing it from causing more damage. Father Chariton describes the situation:

Things as you know them from both television and the media are terrible. We heard on Saturday night, at 5:30 in the afternoon, that the sky was red. I went out to look, I saw that the sky was red and I told my colleagues to come and see what was happening and they told me that the volcano was erupting. I went out on the street, everyone was running around, on foot or in cars, others with their animals. At that time, our faithful call us that they are leaving the city and they suggested that we leave quickly because the lava was approaching. But I had decided to stay.

1955 Encyclical of Saint Luke of Crimea (To Encourage Priests To Always Preach the Gospel Even Though They May Not Be Theologically Educated)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea

 

(1955 Encyclical) 

To Encourage Priests To Always Preach the Gospel 

Even Though They May Not Be Theologically Educated

 

If the priest seeks for the grace of God, if the mind and heart of the priest are filled with the words of God, then his mouth will speak from the heart.

The Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart of the priest, He will preach through the humble mouth of the priest…

There are so many subjects for sermons in Holy Scripture that one can easily find them if one reads them. But few read them…

Remember, brethren, also Saint Seraphim of Sarov, who read the whole of the New Testament every week.

But some do have a hard time preaching… What about them?

Athanasios Diakos, Papaflessas and the Taking Up Of Arms

By Archimandrite Vasilios Bakoyiannis

These two (among others) Clergymen took up arms and went to battle on behalf of the faith and homeland. From an ecclesiastical perspective, did they do the right thing?

Saint Luke of Simferopol needed as a doctor, to dedicate some time (around 1930) to do surgeries for pyogenic infections, temporarily leaving aside the Priesthood. However, during this time he made a great discovery in medical science. His name was discussed (under Stalin!) throughout the Soviet Union. On the radio, in newspapers and in magazines the Priest Luke was praised! The Christians boasted!

Homily Four on the Sacred Liturgical Books of the Orthodox Church: "The Euchologion" (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Sacred Liturgical Books of the Orthodox Church:
The Euchologion

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

One of the liturgical books that is necessary for the Clergy, namely Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, is the so-called Euchologion. The word Euchologion consists of two separate words εὐχή (euchi) and λόγο (logo), that is, "a collection of prayers". These are prayers associated with the worship and the Mysteries of the Church. It is a codex of sacred rites and sacred ceremonies.

The oldest surviving Euchologion is the so-called Euchologion of Serapion, from the fourth century AD, but then various other prayers and sacred rites were added, as the worship of the Church increased, which is why this liturgical book is a timeless "heap", as it has been described, since in the beginning it included the Divine Liturgy and some basic sacred ceremonies and in the process various other services were added. Today in use there is the Great Euchologion and the Small Euchologion, which is also called Hagiasmatarion.

Homily Three on the Sacred Liturgical Books of the Orthodox Church: "The Hieratikon" (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

The Sacred Liturgical Books of the Orthodox Church:
The Hieratikon

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

One of the most important books for use in the worship of the Church is the so-called Hieratikon, which is always on the Holy Altar, next to the Sacred Gospel, because it is necessary for the priest who performs the Divine Liturgies. From the Hieratikon came the Archieratikon, which concerns the Bishops, and the Diakonikon, which concerns the Deacons.

It seems that the name Hieratikon was received from a publication of this book by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in 1895, when it was formerly called a small booklet (leaflet) which was considered incomplete. This is the reason why some Priests call the Hieratikon "the leaflet" (fylladion). The new edition was approved by the Patriarchal Synod.

Why A Certain Priest Refused To Read A Newspaper

Father Gabriel Frangoulis (1868-1943) was a simple priest from Patras, Greece who in many ways personified an ideal image of a parish priest. Before becoming a hieromonk he was a farmer with the name Philip. During the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, he was the pastor in the village of Agios Ilias. While serving there, he became very much involved in politics and excited about the national restoration of the Greek people and nation. Every day he would run to Myrtia Railway Station to buy a newspaper, and would absorb the news of the victorious advance of the Greek army into Macedonia and Epirus, feeling boastful with national pride. And when he read about the Bulgarian advance into Thessaloniki and the threat posed for the city, he would become inflamed and feel like he was going to burst. "Oh, if I was only there right now, I would crush some of them," he would say to himself. But when he internally realized what he was saying, he felt disturbed in his soul, and he heard a loud voice rebuke him: "Shame on you, Gabriel! What are you saying, as a clergyman! From now on, you will never read a newspaper again."

Strictness and Economy with Regard to Ordinations of Those Outside the Orthodox Church

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlassiou

An important subject that recurs from time to time in our discussions is how the ‘clergy’ of schismatic and heretical groups should be received when they come into the Orthodox Church. This is, of course, connected with the Apostolic Tradition and the Apostolic Succession. However, since there are many detailed circumstances, on each occasion there is an investigation of the specific case and of the preconditions under which the clerical ‘ordinations’ took place.

In an article published under the title "Apostolic Tradition and Apostolic Succession in the Mystery of the Church," I have already touched on this serious issue, from the perspective of Orthodox theology and ecclesiology.

However, in my search for more information on this subject, I found three texts that put in perspective how the Church throughout the ages has dealt with the ordinations of schismatics and heretics, and how the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church receives such ‘members of the clergy’ who come to her.

An Exemplary Priest, Hieromonk Gerasimos Koutloumousianosketiotes (+ 1991)

By Monk Moses the Athonite

Known as George Stogias in the world, he was born on 26 May 1892 in the village of Plikati on Mount Gramos, at an altitude of 1200 meters, with towering aromatic fir trees and pine trees, many water springs and beautiful forests. In 1908 he went to the Hermitage of Saint Gerasimos the New at the Sacred Skete of Saint Panteleimon-Koutloumousiou [Mount Athos] to learn iconography. His elder was the first subordinate to Elder Hadji-Georgis (+ 1886) and the virtuous Abramios (+ 1915) with his revered brotherhood, who were all from Northern Epirus. There he was tonsured a monk on 9 February 1912, which was the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

A Theophany Story for All Enthusiasts for Perfection

By St. John Climacus

(Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 4:31)

I should be quite unjust to all enthusiasts for perfection if I were to bury in the tomb of silence the achievement and reward of Macedonius, the first of the deacons there.* This man, so consecrated to the Lord, just before the feast of the Holy Theophany, actually two days before it, once asked the pastor for permission to go to Alexandria for a certain personal need of his, promising to return from the city as soon as possible for the approaching festival and the preparation for it. But the devil, the hater of good, hindered the archdeacon, and though released by the abbot, he did not return to the monastery for the holy feast at the time appointed by the superior. On his returning a day late, the pastor deposed him from the diaconate and put him in the rank of the lowest novices. But that good deacon of patience and archdeacon of endurance accepted the father’s decision as calmly as if another had been punished and not himself.

Saint Lawrence of Rome as a Model Deacon (St. Ambrose of Milan)

By St. Ambrose of Milan

(On the Duties of the Clergy)

Book 1, Chapter 41:

And let us not pass by St. Lawrence, who, seeing Sixtus his bishop led to martyrdom, began to weep, not at his sufferings but at the fact that he himself was to remain behind. With these words he began to address him: "Where, father, are you going without your son? Where, holy priest, are you hastening without your deacon? Never were you wont to offer sacrifice without an attendant. What are you displeased at in me, my father? Have you found me unworthy? Prove, then, whether you have chosen a fitting servant. To him to whom you have entrusted the consecration of the Savior's blood, to whom you have granted fellowship in partaking of the Sacraments, to him do you refuse a part in your death? Beware lest your good judgment be endangered, while your fortitude receives its praise. The rejection of a pupil is the loss of the teacher; or how is it that noble and illustrious men gain the victory in the contests of their scholars rather than in their own? Abraham offered his son, Peter sent Stephen on before him! Father, show forth your courage in your son. Offer me whom you have trained, that you, confident in your choice of me, may reach the crown in worthy company."

Christ Came to Pass Through All the Ranks of the Priesthood

The following is taken from the Saying of the Desert Fathers.

A certain elder who counseled against fornication said the following:

“Be like a man who passes through a street of taverns, and who smells the odor of boiling meats, or the whiff of something which is being roasted; he who wishes enters into one of them and eats, and he who does not wish to do so smells the meats as he passes by and then goes on. Drive away then from yourself the fetid smell of evil thoughts, and stand up and pray, saying, ‘O Son of God, help me.’ The same thing is also to be said about other thoughts, for we are not the roots of the thoughts, but are those who strive against them.”

Saint Gennadios I, Patriarch of Constantinople (+ 471)

St. Gennadios of Constantinople (Feast Day - Gr. November 17; Slav. August 31)

Verses

Gennadios found the crown of Eden,

Appearing noetically in the noble arena.

The divine Gennadios was first ordained a Presbyter in the Church of Constantinople, and in the year 458 succeeded Anatolios as Archbishop of Constantinople. From the beginning of his episcopate Gennadios proved his zeal for the Christian faith and the maintenance of discipline. For example, Patriarch Gennadios would not ordain anyone unless they knew the Psalter by heart.