Daily Meditations Archives - Page 223 of 333

The Great and Holy Tuesday: The Services of the Bridegroom (Part II)

04/26/2016

Holy Tuesday On Holy Tuesday the Church calls to remembrance two parables, which are related to the Second Coming. The one is the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-3); the other the parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). These parables point to the inevitability of the Parousia and deal with such subjects as spiritual vigilance, stewardship, accountability and judgment. From these parables we learn at least two basic things. First, Judgment Day will be

The Great and Holy Monday: The Services of the Bridegroom (Part I)

04/25/2016

Sunday through Monday Evening Introduction Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday and continuing through the evening of Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church observes a special service known as the Service of the Bridegroom. Each evening service is the Matins or Orthros service of the following day (e.g. the service held on Sunday evening is the Orthros service for Holy Monday). The name of the service is from the figure of the Bridegroom in the

Palm Sunday: The Feast of the Entrance of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem

04/24/2016

Introduction On the Sunday before the Feast of Great and Holy Pascha and at the beginning of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church celebrates one of its most joyous feasts of the year. Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem following His glorious miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Having anticipated His arrival and having heard of the miracle, the people when out to meet the Lord and welcomed

Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Friend of Christ, Lazarus

04/23/2016

Introduction On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of Palm Sunday. In triumph and joy the Church bears witness

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: Gluttony is the Snare of the Devil & Ridiculous Conceit

04/22/2016

Gluttony is the Snare of the Devil The devil said to Jesus: ‘If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Luke 4:3] Here we learn that there are three principal weapons that the devil likes to carry in order to wound our souls. They are gluttony, arrogance and ambition. He begins with the weapon with which he has already been victorious. We likewise should begin to be victorious in Christ

The Sixth Thursday of Great Lent: Greed is never Satisfied & Anyone Given to Lust is Dead while Alive

04/21/2016

Greed is never Satisfied Ambrose said: ‘Avarice and pride are so much the same evil that you cannot find someone who is proud but not avaricious nor someone who is avaricious but not proud.’ Isidore said: ‘The greater our love for the things we possess, the greater our pain when we lose them. ‘Greed is insatiable. The person who is afflicted with it always needs something else; the more he has, the more he wants.

The Sixth Wednesday of Great Lent: Three Kinds of Lies & Few Manage to Stem the Gossiping Tongue

04/20/2016

Three Kinds of Lies There are three kinds of liar: those who lie with their thoughts, those who lie with words and those who lie with their very lives. The liar of thought, for example, is the individual who is suspicious. If he sees two people talking, he immediately imagines they are talking about him. If they break off their conversation, he is convinced they are doing so because they have seen him coming. Whatever

The Sixth Tuesday of Great Lent: The Worm of Pride & The New Pharisees

04/19/2016

The Worm of Pride Augustine said: ‘We must avoid pride. If it was able to deceive angels, how much more will it be able to scatter human wits.’ Ambrose said: ‘Pride transformed angels into demons, humility makes human beings into saints. Pride leads you to despise God’s commandments, humility urges you to follow them. The proud want to be praised even for what they have not done, the humble try to hide the good they

The Sixth Monday of Great Lent: Just as Crabs & Idleness Contains All Sin

04/18/2016

Just as Crabs Just as a bundle of green logs suffocates and puts out a bonfire causing clouds of smoke, so excessive grief often surrounds the soul with thick cloud and dries up the fount of tears. Just as a blind person is no use as an archer, so a disciple with the mania of contradiction will end in perdition. Just as tempered metal can sharpen soft or rusty metal, so can a zealous brother

The Fifth Friday of Great Lent: The Three Stages & One Vice leads to Another

04/15/2016

The Three Stages We must distinguish simple thoughts, that is, ones without passion, from passionate thoughts. If we are examining the way in which sins of thought begin, we notice that the latter, namely passionate thoughts are accompanied by a large number of simple thoughts. Let us take money as an example. Someone thinks of a sum of money belonging to someone else. His imagination urges him to theft, and in his spirit he has