The Theotokos On Her Deathbed (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

 

The last page of the holy book has been read, the content of which from cover to cover exudes holy innocence and piety. This is the book at the sight of which even the most cruel critics, bearing the burden of biases and prejudices, silently stopped and, having read it from beginning to end, left with a softened heart and rejuvenated spirit. That book is closed, the first words of which are - "In the Jewish town of Nazareth lived the childless pious old man Joachim and his wife Anna ...".

How bright are the first pages of this story - as if illuminated by that evening's soft and quiet blush of the sunset, seeing off the sun, so that after the night it would shine with light from the east. Who would not rejoice at the happiness of these elderly people, who were visited only at their parting with the world, to add a drop of honey to their life poisoned by sorrow!

The Holy Apostles (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

 

 By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

From the divine apostles flowed rivers of living water across the whole world. Others came and drank their fill of this living water, while others did not. The apostles walked among people like gods, working miracles, healing all sicknesses and every infirmity, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. Some received them rejoicing, while others rejected them, angrily and mockingly. Those who accepted them also experienced communion with the Holy Spirit and the action of the Holy Spirit in them. And so the holy nation grew, and God’s Church spread and became established in the world. The seed grew and bore fruit. Thus was the house of truth, the cornerstone of which is our Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified by the All-Holy Spirit, spread to the four corners of the world, and its rooftop rose to the greatest heights of heaven.

The Wisdom of God (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

 By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the open squares she raises her voice; down the crowded ways she calls out, at the city gates she utters her words” (Proverbs 1:20-21).

The Wisdom of God is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, through Whom all that was created, was created. All that was created manifests its Omniscient Creator, both that which is in the field as well as that which is in the city. In a field is a pure and bright nature but in the city is man with his trades and skills. The Wisdom of God cries out and does not whisper throughout all of nature and through all beneficial trades and skills of man. She [Wisdom] covered all the fields, she filled the entire city and she is above the earth and under the earth, in the heights of the stars and in the depths of the seas. He who wants to hear her can hear her in every place; he who wants to learn from her and to be delighted by her can be taught and delighted in every place; he who wants to be corrected and built up by her can be corrected and built up by her in every place.

Homily for the Second Sunday of Great Lent (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

Three Ways That Lead Us Into the Presence of God

 

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

(Delivered in 1925)

In today’s Gospel, the paralytic arose immediately, took his bed upon his shoulders and walked past everyone. And everyone was amazed and glorified God saying: “We’ve never seen anything like this”.

Let us take a look at the marvelous powers the Lord reveals for us with this miracle:

He reads people’s hearts, discovering faith in some and malice in others.

He forgives the soul its sins and makes it healthy, purified of the source of sickness and disability.

He restores health to the sick and paralyzed body by the power of His word.

How wonderful, how dreadful and how breathtaking and life-giving is the presence of the living Lord!

Orthodoxy is a Dramatic Mystery (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Churches, shrines, chapels, icons, candles, processions, priests, bells, monasteries, travelling preachers, every day's saints, fast seasons—everything is the repetition of the same idea, namely, that Christ is the ruler of life and we are His followers. Christ must be expressed everywhere, indoors and outdoors. Many Englishmen have remarked that the Bible is read very seldom in the home in Russia and Serbia. That is true. People read the Bible more in symbols, pictures and signs, in music and prayers, than in the Book. Our religion is not a book religion, not even a learned religion. It is a dramatic mystery. The Bible contains the words, but in this dramatic mystery there is something higher and deeper than words. Slav Christianity is something greater than the Bible. Looking at an icon, a Russian mujik perceives the Bible incarnated in a saint's life-drama. Mystery of sin, mystery of atonement, mystery of heroic suffering, mystery of the daily presence of Christ among us in holy wine, in holy bread, in holy water, in holy word, in holy deed, in every sanctified substance, even in matter as in spirit, mystery of communion of sins and of virtues—all are recorded once in the Bible, and all are recorded and repeated also in our daily life—that is what we call our Slav Orthodoxy. We take the mystic outlines of the Bible and do not care about the details. In those mystic outlines we put our daily life, with its details of sins and sufferings. We conceive the Christian religion neither so juristic as the Roman Catholics, nor so scientific as the Protestants, nor even so reasonable and practical as the Anglicans, but we conceive it rather as dramatic.

From the book The Religious Spirit of the Slavs, 1916.

 

 

On Optimism and Pessimism (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The greatest happiness for a person is not health, wealth, friends and fame. The greatest happiness for a person is to have optimism. Nor is the greatest misery for a person sickness, poverty, loneliness, abandonment, injustice, any difficulty or loss. The greatest misery for a person is to be pessimistic, because while optimism is the anthem of life, pessimism is the anthem of death.

I could not call myself a Christian if I was not optimistic. And if I called myself a Christian and I was not optimistic, I would not be a sincere Christian.

Who Is Saint Sava of Serbia? (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

SAINT SAVA is the spiritual revivalist of the Serbian people.

SAINT SAVA is the founder of the national Church of the Serbian people, its first archbishop and organizer.

SAINT SAVA is the strengthener of the Orthodox faith in the Serbian people. He eradicated and rejected Western and other heresies from the Serbian people and established his people in Eastern Orthodoxy. Thus, he most powerfully influenced the determination of the historical destiny of the Serbian people.

"Behold, How a Righteous Man Dies!"

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

A devout elder lay on his death bed. His friends gathered around him and mourned him. With that, the elder laughed three times. The monks asked him: "What are you laughing at?" The elder replied: "I laughed the first time, because all of you are afraid of death; the second time, for none of you are prepared for death; the third time, because I am going from labor to rest." 

King Herod's Slaughter of the Innocent Infants (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Herod, seeing himself ridiculed by the Magi, was very angry, and sent to have all the infants two years old and under slaughtered in Bethlehem and its surrounding borders, based on the time he learned from the Magi. The Magi from the East did not actually fool Herod. They did not promise him anything. For it is said in the Gospel: They, having heard the king, went. But the tyrant Herod was accustomed to having his will fulfilled by everyone. Therefore he considered it a mockery that the Magi did not return to Jerusalem to inform him of the Divine Child.

The Symbolism of the Three Gifts of the Magi

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

They who fell before the stars and and worshiped them with fear and terror, now with great joy fall to the earth and worship the living Lord, who has come to earth in order to free them from slavery to the stars and faith in blind fate.

And, having discovered their treasure, they brought him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

They brought him three kinds of gifts, to thereby symbolize unconsciously, the Holy and Life-giving Trinity, in whose name the Child Jesus comes to the people.

Unexpected Misfortunes and the Providence of God

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

When an unexpected misfortune happens to us who are innocent, we should not immediately grieve but rather we should try to see in this the Providence of God, Who, through that misfortune, is preparing something new and beneficial for us. One day, unexpected news came to Blessed Theophanes, the abbot of Docheiariou (Aug. 19), that the Turks had seized his sister's son, forced him to embrace Islam and took him to Constantinople. Theophanes immediately traveled to Constantinople and, with the help of God, succeeded to find his nephew and to secretly bring him out of Constantinople and brought him to his monastery on Mount Athos. There, he again, received his nephew into the Christian faith and, after that, also tonsured him a monk. However, the brethren began to complain against their abbot and his nephew for fear of the Turks, for they were afraid that the Turks would find out and come and destroy the monastery. Not knowing what to do, Saint Theophanes took his nephew and, with him, secretly withdrew not only from Docheiariou but also from the Holy Mountain and came to Beroea. The later activities of Theophanes in Beroea and in Naousa proved how much that misfortune was beneficial to the Church. That which Theophanes could never succeed to achieve on the Holy Mountain, he achieved in these other places to which he had fled from that misfortune. Namely: he founded two new monasteries, where, in time, many monks were saved and where countless men found comfort for themselves. In addition to this, his holy relics among the Christian people became a source of healing for the strengthening of faith among many unbelievers and those of little faith. Thus, God wisely directs the destiny of men through unexpected misfortunes, which momentarily seem to men that they are going to their final destruction.

Pentecost: The Gospel of the Descent of the Holy Spirit

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

When seed is sown, the power of warmth and light must descend upon it to make it grow.

When a tree is planted, the power of the wind must come in order to make it strong.

When a householder builds his house, he has recourse to the power of prayer, in order to sanctify it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has sown a most select seed in the field of this world. The power of the Holy Spirit had to descend in order to warm and sanctify that seed, so that it would grow and prosper.

God the Son planted the tree of life in the overgrown field of death. The mighty wind of God the Holy Spirit had to sweep through, in order to strengthen the tree of life.

The Message of the Gospel for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are" (Jn. 17:11).

Christ's prayer is not only for the apostles - although it is firstly for them - but is also for all those who have and will come to faith in Christ through their word. This prayer, then, was also for the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, that we commemorate today. "Keep them!" - the Lord prayed to His Father. And the Father kept them from the errors of Arius, and inspired, illumined and strengthened them by the Holy Spirit to defend and confirm the Orthodox faith. This prayer is for all of us who are baptized in the apostolic Church and who have from the apostles and their successors, come to know the saving name of Christ the Savior.

A Hymn to the City of Constantinople (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

HYMN OF PRAISE:

THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Constantinople, wondrous city near the Bosphorus blue,

With your glory, whose glory can be measured?

You were an awesome battleground of spiritual warriors,

Blasphemous heretics and saints of God.

As through a sieve you sifted throughout the centuries long

And declared apostates and servants of God.

By many sins you are soiled, and by filth of sinners,

You are consecrated with the abundance of the blood of martyrs.

Who could enumerate the spiritual heroes,

And all heavenly visions and your mysteries, all?

The angels of God often swooped down upon you,

And men, as angels, to heaven were raised.

The Mother of God, many times, within you appeared,

To deliver those in danger, the sick to heal.

The flock of wonderful saints, over you, hover

And the prayers of your children, to the Most High, bear.

O, how many saints were your children!

As many as there are lilies next to lilies and saints next to saints!

History and calendar, in red, you wrote,

By your effort even the great Symbol [The Creed] was written.

And about you, in such a way, this could be said:

Among the many cities, a red letter you are.

With Holy Faith, you enlightened the universe

From paganism and heresies, the world you healed.

Tortured much, but not slain, you have not yet passed.

That is why we all celebrate you! Confessor, that you are!

Throughout the earth and in the heavens, your glory echoes;

Everyone baptized, a great gratitude owes you.

The Seven Phrases Christ Spoke on the Cross (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

You want to know the meaning of those seven phrases uttered by Christ on the cross. Aren’t they clear?

The first phrase: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk. 23:34). With these words, Christ showed His mercy to His executioners, whose malice didn’t abate even when He was suffering on the cross. Besides this, the words He cried aloud from the top of the rock of Golgotha represent a proven but never well-understood truth: that those who do evil never know what they’re doing. By killing the Righteous One, in reality they’re killing themselves and, at the same time, are actually glorifying Him. As they’re trampling all over God’s law, they don’t see the millstone which is descending invisibly that will crush them. As they’re mocking God, they don’t see that their faces have become transformed into the snouts of wild beasts. Imbued as they are with evil, they never know what they’re doing.

Homily on the Entry of the Lord Into Jerusalem (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

Homily on the Entry of the Lord Into Jerusalem

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

One of the most miraculous details of our Savior’s life was foreseen by the Prophet Zacharias through the dark glass of time, and described thus:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, the King is coming to thee, just, and a Saviour; he is meek and riding on an ass, and a young foal And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him." (Zach. 9:9).

The Preeminent Spiritual Wisdom (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

It is said about Pericles that he was a man of almost perfect human beauty but that his head was oblong and resembled a squash, so that he incurred being ridiculed when he appeared bareheaded in public. In order to conceal the defect of this great man of his people, Greek sculptors always portrayed him with a helmet on his head. When some, among the pagans, knew how to conceal the defects of their friends, how much more, therefore, are we as Christians obligated to do the same? "Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:10), commands the apostle to those who cling to Christ. How can we say that we adhere to the meek and All-pure Christ, if we daily poison the air with tales about the sins and shortcomings of others? To conceal your own virtue and the shortcomings of others, this is the preeminent spiritual wisdom.

From Prologue, April 9.

Saint Nikolai Velimirovich, the Serbian Chrysostom (+ 1956)

St. Nikolai Velimirovich (Feast Day - March 5)

Saint Nikolai of Zhicha, “the Serbian Chrysostom,” was born in Lelich in western Serbia on January 4, 1881. His parents were Dragomir and Katherine Velimirovich, who lived on a farm where they raised a large family. His pious mother was a major influence on his spiritual development, teaching him by word and especially by example. As a small child, Nikolai often walked three miles to the Chelije Monastery with his mother to attend services there.

Sickly as a child, Nikolai was not physically strong as an adult. He failed his physical requirements when he applied to the military academy, but his excellent academic qualifications allowed him to enter the Saint Sava Seminary in Belgrade, even before he finished preparatory school.

After graduating from the seminary in 1905, he earned doctoral degrees from the University of Berne in 1908, and from King’s College, Oxford in 1909. When he returned home, he fell ill with dysentery. Vowing to serve God for the rest of his life if he recovered, he was tonsured at the Rakovica Monastery on December 20, 1909 and was also ordained to the holy priesthood.

Why Orthodox Christians Fast (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

(Excerpt from his Homily on Cheesefare Sunday)

By fasting, a man lifts his soul above its earthly prison and penetrates through the darkness of animal life to the light of God’s Kingdom, to his own true homeland.

Fasting makes a man strong, decisive and courageous before both men and demons.

Fasting also makes a man generous, meek, merciful and obedient.

By fasting, Moses was made worthy to receive the Commandments from God’s hands.

31 Homilies on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

HOMILY 1

About prophetic visions

"The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos" (Isaiah 1:1).

He who has understanding can know the one and true God. He, who is without understanding, let him listen to the one who understands and the one who understands and the other [who listens] will be saved. It is possible to clearly know God from created nature and still more clearly, from the inspired men of God and most clearly from the Lord Christ. The inspired men of God before Christ were the prophets. Among the first was Isaiah, the son of Amos. The Spirit of God opened his sight and he saw that which other men did not see. That is why he called his message to his people "a vision" [or apparition]. How the prophets saw the heavenly mysteries and the mysteries of future events cannot be described: that can only be experienced by those to whom God gives that gift.