Homily for the Sunday After Theophany (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

 

 Homily for the Sunday After Theophany

On Repentance

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

"Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17).

 

With these profound and holy words, the incarnate Word began His preaching to fallen mankind. Outwardly, such simple teaching! But one must understand it with his very life: then these short and simple words which are contained in all of the Gospel will be revealed. Just as the holy Apostle Paul, when preaching the Gospel, which he did throughout almost all the known world, said that he testified “both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

Homily on the Sunday of the Paralytic and Divine Punishment (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (Jn. 5:14).

This is the commandment the Lord gave to the paralytic whom He healed, as we heard today in the Gospels.

Beloved brethren! This commandment of the Lord has enormous importance for us. It teaches us that we are subjected to sickness and other catastrophes of this earthly life for our sins. When God delivers us from sickness or catastrophe but we return to a sinful life, we are again consigned to catastrophes that are more onerous than those which were our first punishments sent from God to bring us to our senses.

Sin is the cause of all man’s sorrows, both in time and in eternity. Sorrows are the natural consequence, the natural property of sin, just as sufferings, produced by physical illnesses, are the unavoidable property of these illnesses, and their characteristic effect. Sin in the broad sense of the word could also be called the fall of humankind, or its eternal death, and encompasses all people without exception. Some sins are the sad inheritance of whole human societies. Finally, each person has his own individual passions, his own particular sins he has committed, that belong to him exclusively. Sin, in all these various forms, serves as the beginning of all sorrows and catastrophes to which all mankind is subjected, to which human societies are subjected, and to which each person in particular is subjected.

On Conceit and Humble Mindedness: A Sermon for the Sunday of the Blind Man (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Beloved brethren! After our Lord Jesus Christ healed the man born blind — about which we have heard today in the Holy Gos­pel — He said, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind" (John 9:39). The proud sages and righteous men of the world, such as the Jewish Pharisees, could not listen to these words of the Lord indiffer­ently. Due to their self-love and high opinion of themselves they considered themselves to have been insulted. They replied to the Lord's words with a question expressing, simultaneously, their indignation, conceit, mockery, and hatred for the Lord, combined with contempt for Him. "Are we blind also?" they asked. In reply to the Pharisees' ques­tion the Lord showed them their state of soul, which was the initial reason for this question. "If ye were blind," He told them, "ye should have no sin: but now ye say, 'We see;' therefore your sin remaineth."

Homily on Palm Sunday (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily on Palm Sunday

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, the King is coming to thee, just, and a savior; he is meek and riding on an ass, and a young foal" (Zach. 9:9).

The prophet of God pronounced this prophecy over four hundred years before the event that we commemorate and celebrate today. Having completed His preaching on the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ made His triumphant entry into the royal city of Jerusalem, into the city where the true God was worshipped, a city in most ways Godly. The Lord made this entry as the King and victor, in order to finish His service by a decisive exploit: destroying death by death; removing the curse from the human race by taking this curse upon Himself. He made His entry into the royal city on the colt of an ass, "whereon yet never man sat" (Lk. 19:30), in order to restore to mankind the royal dignity which our forefather had wasted; to restore this dignity by ascending the cross. The unbroken colt was tamed beneath the wondrous Rider. The Apostles placed their garments upon the colt; great multitudes of people ran ahead to meet the Lord and walk alongside Him, shouting in their ecstasy, "Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest" (Mt. 21:9). The Lord is proclaimed King in the name of the Lord at His own beckoning—not accidentally, and not by conscious human will. In the course of four days, those same people who that day proclaimed Him King will cry, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him… We have no king but Caesar" (Jn. 19:15).

Homily for the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Orthodoxy is the true knowledge of God and reverence of God. Orthodoxy is the worship of God in Spirit and in Truth. Orthodoxy is the glorification of the true God, the knowledge of Him and worship of Him. Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by man, the true servant of God, given to him through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the glory of the Christian (cf. Jn 7:39).[1] Where there is no Spirit, there is no Orthodoxy.

There is no Orthodoxy in human teachings and philosophies; false reason reigns in them—the fruit of the fall. Orthodoxy is the teaching of the Holy Spirit given by God to man for his salvation. Where there is no Orthodoxy, there is no salvation. "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic [meaning: universal] Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly" (from the Creed of St. Athanasius[2]).

Homily for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

"The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." (John 4:23)

Beloved brethren! Today we have heard in the Gospel that the true servants of the true God worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and that God seeks, that is, He desires to have such worshippers. If God desires to have such worshippers, then it is obvious that he will receive only such worshippers and servants, and they only are pleasing to Him. This teaching was imparted to us by the Son of God Himself. We believe in the teaching of Christ! We accept the all-holy teaching of Christ with all our love! In order to follow Him carefully, let us look at what it means to worship God the Father in Spirit and in Truth.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov Resource Page

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (Feast Day - April 30)

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea (+ 1867)

 

Homily for the Sunday After Theophany (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov) 

 

Homily on the Second Coming of Christ (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily for Cheesefare Sunday (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily for the First Wednesday of Great Lent (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily One for the Third Sunday of Great Lent: On Carrying Your Cross (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily on Palm Sunday (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women: On Spiritual Deadness (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Homily for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

On Spiritual Deception (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

The Lengthy Fasts of the True and False Saints

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea (+ 1867)

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (Feast Day - April 30)

The Holy Hierarch Ignatius Brianchaninov was born Dimitri Alexandrovich Brianchaninov, on the February 15, 1807, in the province of Vologda, the son of an aristocratic landowner. Intellectually gifted, peaceful and reflective by character, from early childhood he was drawn to a life of prayer and stillness. However, his father planned a military career for Dimitri, and so, when Dimitri was fifteen years of age, his father enrolled him in the Imperial School of Military Engineers in St. Petersburg. There Dimitri excelled, even attracting the attention of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, the future Tsar Nicholas I. Nonetheless, Dimtri felt called to the monastic life (uncommon for a Russian aristocrat at that time), and he became deeply depressed at the seemingly inevitable prospect of a career as a military officer.

Homily on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women: On Spiritual Deadness (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

The Gospels have told us today[1] about the exploits of the holy women who followed the God-Man during His earthly wanderings. They witnessed His sufferings and were present at his burial. The burial took place on Friday evening. While the Jews’ wrath was pouring out like the fiery lava of Aetna not only upon the Lord, but upon all of those close to Him; while the Holy Apostles were forced to hide or observe the extraordinary events only from a distance; while only John, the beloved disciple who leaned upon the breast of the Lord, feared nothing and remained always near the Lord, the secret disciple, Joseph of Arimathea, who had always concealed his heart’s allegiance due to persecution from the Sanhedrin, suddenly disregards all the obstacles, hesitations, and anxiety that had bound and worried him until then, and he appears before cold, cruel Pilate to beg the body of the One who was shamefully executed. He receives the Lord’s body and buries it with reverence and honor.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

The Lord said to His Apostles about the evil spirits, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting" (Mk. 9:29). Here is a new aspect of fasting! Fasting is acceptable to God when it is preceded by the great virtue of mercy; fasting prepares a reward in heaven when it is foreign to hypocrisy and vainglory; fasting works when it is joined with another great virtue—prayer. How does it work? It not only tames the passions in the human body, but it enters into battle with the spirits of evil, and conquers them.

How can fasting, which is actually a bodily podvig [ascetical labor], work or cooperate with prayer in a war against spirits? Why do the bodiless spirits submit to the power that fasting has over them?

Homily for the First Wednesday of Great Lent (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

"Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites." (Mt. 6:16)

Beloved brethren! Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who commanded us to forgive our neighbors all their sins before we enter the podvig of fasting, also asked us to vigilantly preserve the fast itself free from hypocrisy. As a worm born within a fruit consumes what is inside, leaving only the outer covering, so does hypocrisy annihilate the whole essence of virtue. Hypocrisy is born of vainglory (cf. Mt. 6:1, 2, 5, 16). Vainglory is the vain desire and search for temporary human praise. Vainglory comes from a deep ignorance of God, or a deep forgetfulness of God, of eternity and heavenly glory. That is why in its blindness it insatiably strives to acquire earthly, temporary glory. It imagines this glory, as it also imagines earthly life, to be an eternal, inalienable possession. Vainglory, which seeks not the virtue itself but only praise for the virtue, labors diligently only that it might exhibit a mask of virtue before human eyes. Thus the hypocrite stands before humanity dressed in an outer garment of extreme deception: virtue—the essence of which he does not have at all—is seen on his exterior, while in his soul can be seen self-satisfaction and pomposity, because he first of all deceived and deluded in himself. He takes a sick delight in the vainglory that is killing him and in the misleading of his neighbor, and sickly and detrimentally delights in his successful hypocrisy. Along with all of this, he makes himself alien to God, for "every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 16:5).

Homily for Cheesefare Sunday (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Beloved brethren! We have already reached the very gates of the holy fast! They are even now about to open before us! Already, according to the typicon of the Holy Church, we hear the instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ read to us today in the Holy Gospels about the correct way to begin the podvig of fasting.

Homily on the Second Coming of Christ (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

"The Son of man shall come in His glory." (Mt. 25:31)

Beloved brethren! Not long ago, we beheld our Lord Jesus Christ born in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in the cradle, having taken upon Himself with His humanity all human weakness other than sin. Not long ago, we beheld Him persecuted by Herod, fleeing from the murderer’s sword to Egypt, returning to Judea, not daring to remain there, moving to Nazareth—a poor and unimportant town in inglorious Galilee, receiving baptism on the level of those who needed baptism, preaching repentance and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. We beheld this not long ago, and we are preparing ourselves for a new, utterly astounding sight. In order to become worthy of this sight to the extent possible for humans, we intend to pre-purify our spiritual eyes — our mind and heart — through the podvig of fasting. We intend to refine through the podvig of fasting our own flesh, so that this veil which covers our spiritual nature would not be excessively thick and impenetrable, not prevent us from beholding with the required purity, faith, and contrition our Savior Who is crucified for us, Who has destroyed on the cross the wall of division between us and God (cf. Eph. 2:14). And a terrifying, most formidable sight also awaits us: the second coming to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can behold the first coming in pious remembrance, while the second coming has been represented to us by the Word of God in a picture of graphic eloquence and power. This picture can salvifically shake our souls with fear of God, arouse us from our deep negligence over our eternal lot, as from a lethargic sleep brought upon us by our fleshly life. "The Son of man shall come in His glory."

Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

In today's Gospel, the prayer of the publican is shown drawing God’s mercy to him. This prayer consisted of the following words: "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Lk. 18:13). It is worthy of our attention that God heard such a short prayer, and that it was pronounced in the temple, during the common worship services, during the reading and chanting of psalms and other prayers. This prayer is commended in the Gospels; it is set forth as an example of prayer, and it becomes our sacred duty to piously contemplate it.

Why didn't the publican choose some majestic and moving psalm by which to pour out his heart before God, but instead had recourse to such a brief prayer? Why did he repeat only it during the entire service? Our answer is according to that of the holy Fathers. When true repentance begins to shudder in the soul, when humility and contrition of spirit arises there because one’s eyes have been opened to the soul’s sinfulness, then loquacity becomes unbearable, impossible. Concentrating within itself, turning all its attention upon its disastrous condition, the soul begins to call out to God through some form of short, concise prayer.