FORGIVENESS SUNDAY Let us all make haste to humble the flesh by abstinence, as we set out upon the God-given course of the holy Fast; and with prayer and tears let us seek our Lord and Savior. Laying aside all memories of evil, let us cry aloud, “We have sinned against You, Christ our King; save us Like the people of Nineveh in days of old, and in Your compassion make us sharers in Your
Consider well, my soul: do you fast? Do not despise your neighbor. Do you abstain from food? Do not condemn your brother. (Fourth Troparion of the Praises, Matins of Meatfare Sunday) IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT THE DAY before Lent begins (Cheesefare, or Forgiveness, Sunday) we hear this lesson from St. Paul’s Epistle: Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats;
Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life: let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink, let us clothe the naked, let us welcome strangers, let us visit those in prison and the sick. Then the Judge of all the earth will say even to us, “Come, O blessed of My Father; inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.” (Doxastikon of the Lity, Vespers of Meatfare Sunday) ANOTHER
We could say that the Lord’s entire Sermon on the Mount (18) is a neptic homily where our Theanthropic Saviour pinpoints for us the root of the passions, but at the same time He plants the root of the true spiritual life. This is where the work of watchfulness is to be found: where the finest pulsations of the heart are, the beats which move and direct everything: thoughts, words, memories, feelings, actions, and deeds.
By Father Matthew Baker St. Gregory of Nyssa’s Commentary on the Song of Songs offers a profound contemplative theology in which the category of vision occupies a central place. To see correctly for Gregory involves a process in which exegesis and askesis, a proper interpretation of scriptural images and the purification of the soul’s eye, are inseparable, having as their common goal the vision of God. All vision is tied to imitation, and subject to
The holy, glorious Martyr Haralambos lived at the time of the Emperor Septimus Severus (194-211) in the city of Magnesia on the River Meander near Ephesus. He was 107 years old and had ministered as priest to the Christians of the city for many years, devotedly instructing them in the way of truth and preaching Christ to all, regardless of the threats of the pagans. When he was denounced as a dangerous mischief-maker and brought
In vain do you rejoice in not eating, O soul! For you abstain from food, but from passions you are not purified. If you have no desire for improvement, you will be despised as a lie in the eyes of God, you will be likened to evil demons who never eat! If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast; therefore, remain in constant striving so as to stand before the Crucified Savior,
Open to me, O Giver of Life, the gates of repentance: for early in the morning my spirit seeks Your holy temple, bearing a temple of the body all defiled. But in Your compassion cleanse it by Your loving-kindness and Your mercy. (Troparion of Matins, Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee) IF THERE IS ONE CENTRAL THEME TO LENT, it is without doubt repentance. The season of the Triodion begins with the above
In Luke 21:34, having foretold the fearsome events of His Second Coming, the Lord underlines a serious danger, that of our hearts “being weighed down”. And our hearts are “weighed down” by many and different causes. What can redeem them from that disastrous evil? Christ’s commendation: “Take heed to yourselves”, the attention, that is, the watchfulness which the Lord stresses in other words further down: “Watch therefore at all times praying … “(15). “At all
By Seraphim Danckaert The rapid growth of the early Christian church is a source of perennial fascination. As Rodney Stark, a sociologist of religion who has written extensively on the topic, put it: “How did a tiny and obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?” In developing his answer to this question, Stark combines historical research with insights from the social-scientific study
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