When the Saints Sinned They Did Not Suffer Melancholy and Depression (Metr. Athanasios of Limassol)

 

By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

 

You see, the Saints, even when they sinned, had the strength to rise again with a certain simplicity and with a healthy attitude.  

 

If they sinned, they repented from the bottom of their hearts and to the point of death, but they did not suffer from melancholy and depression.  

 

Third Homily for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women (St. Luke of Simferopol)

St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on May 13, 1951)

The Myrrhbearing women have now been honored with great honor, for the Holy Church honors their memory on the third Sunday of Pascha.

How did they deserve such an honor, why does the Holy Church glorify them? Because they shine for all of you, women, as a holy and unattainable example of what all women should be.

The Holy Church honors the holy Myrrhbearing women with great honor for their unspeakable love for Christ, for they completely gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus.

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Idle Talk (5)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

"Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of idle talk."

 

Saint Ephraim prays about this, as the holy prophet David says in his psalm: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps. 140:3).

And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that for every idle word we will give an answer at the Last Judgment (Matt. 12:36). Think about how serious it is, how hard it is: to give an answer for each and every single idle word.

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Lust for Power (4)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

"Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of lust for power."

What is the spirit of lust for power? This is the desire to excel, to rule over others, to take first place. This striving to excel destroyed the archangel - the head of all angels - and made him Satan, that cast him out of heaven. This desire to dominate ruined Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who envied the glory of Moses when he led the people of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan; they wanted to overthrow him and usurp power, and the Lord punished them with a terrible execution: the earth opened up and swallowed them up with all their families.

An Interpretation of the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: On Idleness (2)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

"Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of idleness."

This is how Saint Ephraim the Syrian begins his great prayer. Why does he begin with a request to be delivered from idleness, as if there were no more grievous vices than idleness?

Saint Ephraim speaks of idleness because he knows better than us what is more important, what is more disastrous, what vice is stronger, more dangerous, and, if we talk about idleness, he begins his prayer with a prayer not to give the spirit of idleness, which means that idleness is a very dangerous vice.

Sin: An Existential, Not a Legal Issue

 

By Fr. Kyrillos Kostopoulos

 "Herein lies the essence of sin: in our lack of trust in and the absolute love for God the Creator; and in our total attachment to the ego."

In society today, in particular, the notion of sin has been deliberately distorted. This is because we dwell on the superficial meaning of the word ("failure", "missing the mark") and miss the more profound meaning.

For the Orthodox Church and its theology, sin is not a legal issue. It is not merely a transgression, but is rather disobedience to the eternal will of God.

Third Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

Why, listeners, was the prayer of the Pharisee not pleasing to God, despite the fact that he was, it seems, a righteous man? And why, on the contrary, was the publican's prayer pleasing to God, although he was a well-known sinner?

God does not listen to sinners, He only listens to the righteous. Why, then, did the Pharisee, good in his prayer, deserve condemnation, while the sinful publican received justification?

The Pharisee deserved condemnation by his prayer because, while praying, he recognized himself as righteous, and the publican was justified by his prayer because he recognized himself as a sinner.

The Parable of the Plucked Chicken (St. George Karslides)

St. George Karslides said the following parable:

 

One time someone went and confessed to a spiritual father and he gave a penance for him to take a chicken and come and find him.

On the way he would pluck the chicken until he took out all the feathers.

Indeed, this is what he did.

The Police Officer, the Demon and the Handprint of Saint Iakovos of Evia

 

 By Elder Gabriel,
Abbot of the Monastery of the Venerable David in Evia

(Excerpt from a Homily)

The miracles of Saint Iakovos take place every day! They are innumerable.

A characteristic one took place in Cyprus. Police officer Andreas Voskou, the spiritual child of Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, had a pimple on his forehead, which was collecting pus. With doctors and drugs, he could not find a cure. Reading the book of Fr. Iakovos, he begged him - he had not met him while he was alive - and he said to him "Elder Iakovos, as when you lived you ran with the Holy Head [of Venerable David] and offered your blessing to the faithful, so come to me with the Holy head and bless me".

Saint Iakovos Tsalikes and the Suicidal Teenager

 

A priest narrated the following related to Saint Iakovos Tsalikes and a suicidal teenager:

One day a young boy came to confession and was in despair for a recurring sin he was committing, and the temptation got him to the point of finding a gun and wanting to commit suicide.

I tried for a long time to persuade him with love and patience to remove the temptation of despair from himself, but in vain.

Then I suggested that he go to the Monastery [of Venerable David the Elder in Evia] to rest for a few days, if he had a blessing from the Elder [the Abbot of the Monastery, Elder Iakovos], since it was a feast day.

The Patristic Basis of Theology (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

It is very significant that Saint Maximus the Confessor at the beginning of his theological struggle spoke about hesychast and neptic issues. He began, that is, with the texts that speak about love and more generally the texts that speak about the healing of man. The second phase of his struggle he was concerned with transmitting the terminology of the Cappadocian Fathers regarding the Trinitarian God in the Person of Christ. And the third phase of his theological struggle he was concerned with the topic about how every nature has its own will, that is, it was against monothelitism in Christ.

Saint Moses the Ethiopian, the Black Saint With the Pure White Heart

"The sting of sin, has completely blackened my heart, 

therefore with the tears of repentance, 

make it completely white Father, 

through your intercessions." 

 

(Matins Canon to St. Moses the Ethiopian, Ode 1)

The beloved abba of the Gerontikon, Venerable Moses the Ethiopian, is a unique example of deep repentance who is a counterpart to Venerable Mary of Egypt. Today he could be seen as a hero-figure for many, who admire men that are physically strong and are the "bad boys" of society, while at the same time intimidating people with robberies and threats. He was a gang leader that eventually emerged to be one of our greatest Saints. How did this happen? He came into contact with some sanctified ascetics living in the Egyptian desert, which changed his heart and opened his eyes. God gave him a unique opportunity to orient himself where the true light of His presence is. Moses repented!

Saint Photios the Great Against the Augustinian Doctrine of Original Sin

 

 

 

Theodore of Mopsuestia (ca. 350-428) wrote a book titled Against the Defenders of Original Sin which Saint Photios the Great read and reviewed in his Bibliotheca (177). It is often said that Theodore was the only eastern bishop who not only spoke about but also against Original Sin as formulated in the West, but with this review we see that Saint Photios does as well.  The chief defender of the doctrine of Original Sin, according to Theodore, was someone named "Aram", which scholars today mostly agree refers to Saint Jerome. However, Saint Jerome defended the doctrine of Original Sin primarily as a reaction to the extremes of Pelagianism, following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine. In actual fact, it was Saint Augustine who formulated the doctrine of Original Sin, also as a reaction to the extremes of Pelagianism, which is why Fr. George Florovsky writes of this book, "Theodore wrote against St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin." Saint Photios was clearly unaware of both Saint Augustine's and Saint Jerome's defense of this doctrine, which he views as an obvious heresy foreign to the teachings of the Church and an extreme reaction against Pelagianism. Seeing that he praises Saint Augustine elsewhere in his writings, one wonders what he would have said about him if he knew that it was he who formulated this heresy. For pointing out the errors of these anonymous defenders of Original Sin, which were primarily Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, Theodore of Mopsuestia is praised by Saint Photios, however Theodore also takes a wrong turn at points and falls into Nestorianism and Origenism and Pelagianism, which Saint Photios also discerned and condemned. Further, Theodore clearly embellished some points about Jerome in particular to make him look worse and supplement his argument. Unfortunately, everything we know of Theodore of Mopsuestia's book Against the Defenders of Original Sin comes from this review of Saint Photios and some fragments that alone have come down to us. Below is the excerpt of Saint Photios's review dealing with this book against Original Sin, to show how he condemned without hesitation this "new" false doctrine as something foreign to the Church.

Homily for Cheesefare Sunday (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homily for Cheesefare Sunday

 

The Theater and Actors of Hypocrisy

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting." (Matt. 6:16)

When the Lord came into the world, He found a perverted spiritual condition. All the worship of fallen man had been transformed into a public spectacle. It was moving in the periphery. Hypocrisy was everywhere. People were anthropocentric even on their path to God. Fasting, prayer, righteousness were the means of projection. Instead of worshiping God, man worshiped himself. He was trying to reach God through his ego. He did not know that deification comes through the blessedness of humility, through the complete disappearance, or rather through the transformation of the ego. This truly horrific situation is vividly and graphically described in today's Gospel passage. The Lord, healing this morbid spiritual condition that was demonic, moved it from the periphery to the depths. Everything must be done "in secret". We will seek today to study a little both hypocrisy and hypocrites.

The Heart is at Fault

 

By Demetrios Panagopoulos (1916-1982),
Preacher

In the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Publican beat his breast and not his head, as if he was saying: "My heart is at fault."

It is wrong, therefore, what many say: "My head is to blame."

Your head is not to blame. Your heart is to blame!

God does not dwell in people's brains, but in their hearts. However, when Christ does not dwell in the heart, the devil will dwell there, and will make the brains of people dizzy, and then people will do what they do.

 

 

On the Dangerous Vice of Pride (St. Varnava Nastic)

 

 

“In this article, one can sense ... the humble spirit and modesty that adorned the ancient spiritual giants of old Egypt, Sinai and the Holy Mountain. As if the author were outside of time and space. Not a single temptation of the twentieth century touched him and failed to separate him from the holy people of the early Christian centuries,"- this is how St. Nikolai Velimirovich reacted to the article "Something About Pride", written by the then student of the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, Vojislav Nastic, who today the Serbian Orthodox Church honors as Saint Varnava, Bishop of Khvostansky, commemorated on the 12th of November. Below is a translation of the article on Pride he wrote as a student of theology:

 

One Who Condemns Others is Like a Murderer (St. Theophan the Recluse)

By St. Theophan the Recluse

"But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless" (Matt. 12:7). Thus, in order to be saved from the sin of condemnation, we must obtain a merciful heart. A merciful heart not only does not condemn a seeming infringement of the law, but neither will it condemn an obvious one. Instead of judgment it feels pity, and would sooner weep than reproach. Truly the sin of condemnation is the fruit of an unmerciful, malicious heart that takes delight in debasing its neighbor, in blackening its neighbor’s name, in trampling his honor underfoot. This is a murderous affair, and is done in the spirit of the one who is a murderer from the beginning [Jn. 8:44]. Here there occurs much slander as well, which comes from the same source — for that is what the devil is, a slanderer, spreading slanderousness everywhere. Hurry to arouse pity in yourself every time the evil urge to condemn comes over you. Then turn in prayer to the Lord with a compassionate heart, that He might have mercy upon all of us, not only upon the one whom we wanted to condemn, but upon us as well — perhaps even more so upon us — and the evil urge will die.

From Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, June 17.

Homily on Theft (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke of Simferopol

For many years I have been preaching the gospel of Christ to many different people, and now I am preaching to you, my beloved flock. I tried my best to teach you the highest Christian virtues. I really wanted you to understand the law of Christ well and apply it in your life. I have untiredly called you to Christian perfection, because the Lord asks us, "Be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).

I have always operated in this manner. The holy apostle Paul, the bearer of the Holy Spirit, who had the mind of Christ and had acquired the highest wisdom, before which mine is very weak, did likewise. Listen to what he says: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to infants in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

"The Prodigal Son is the Perfect Example of the Repentant Sinner" (St. Justin Popovich)

By St. Justin Popovich

Only the gospel of Christ fully knows the mystery of sin and the problem of sin and everything which hides within it. The prodigal son of the Gospel is the perfect example of the repentant sinner. The Gospel shows us that man, through his free will, can share his life with Earth and with Heaven, with Satan and with God, with Paradise and with Hell. Sin gradually strips man of everything divine in him, paralyzes his every divine inclination and desire, until it finally throws him into the bosom of Satan. And then man reaches the plight of grazing the swine of his master, the Devil. The swine are passions, which are always greedy and gluttonous. In such a life, the unfortunate man is nothing more than insane.

The Saint Who Lied to Save His Brother’s Murderer

By Metropolitan Dionysios of Servia and Kozani

Saint Dionysios was born in Zakynthos in 1547, of parents who were distinguished on the island for their high social standing and sound financial position. At an early age, the Saint of God left all this behind, social status and wealth, and entered the Monastery of our Panagia the Joy of All, which is in Strofadia, two small vine-covered islands in the Ionian Sea, to the south of Zakynthos.