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Virtual Parish
Pray for us here at Saint Philaret's House in Roslindale, Massachusetts U.S.A.
Unworthy,
Priestmonk Theodore & mga
December 4
WHO SHALL FIND A VIRTUOUS WOMAN?
Who shall find a virtuous woman? for such a one is more valuable than precious stones. The heart of her husband trusts in her: such a one shall stand in no need of fine spoils. For she employs all her living for her husband's good. Gathering wool and flax, she makes it serviceable with her hands. She is like a ship trading from a distance; so she procures her livelihood. And she rises by night, and gives food to her household, and appointed tasks to her maidens. She views a farm and buys it: and with the fruit of her hands she plants a possession. She strongly girds her loins, and strengthens her arms for work. And she finds by experience that working is good; and her candle goes not out all night. She reaches forth her arms to needful works, and applies her hands to the spindle. And she opens her hands to the needy, and reaches out fruit to the poor.
Her husband is not anxious about those at home when he tarries anywhere abroad: for all her household are clothed. She makes for her husband clothes of double texture, and garments for herself of fine linen and scarlet. And her husband becomes a distinguished person in the gates, when he sits in council with the old inhabitants of the land. She makes fine linens, and sells girdles to the Chananites: she opens her mouth heedfully and with propriety, and controls her tongue. She puts on strength and honour; and rejoices in the last days. The ways of her household are careful, and she eats not the bread of idleness. But she opens her mouth wisely, and according to law. And her kindness to them sets up her children for them, and they grow rich, and her husband praises her. Many daughters have obtained wealth, many have wrought valiantly; but thou hast exceeded, thou hast surpassed all. Charms are false, and woman's beauty is vain: for it is a wise woman that is blessed, and let her praise the fear of the Lord. Give her of the fruit of her lips; and let her husband be praised in the gates.
Prov. 31: 10-31 LXX
Saint Barbara save us.
SAINT PETER OF DAMASKOS
Circa 1156-7
All that has been said from the beginning of this discourse is of no benefit to anyone without the true faith; nor can it be put into practice without faith, just as there is no faith without works (James 2:20). Many of the holy fathers have written concerning faith and works. As a concluding reminder I shall say briefly that, to whatever order we belong, we ought all of us to undertake the works I have written about, as well as holding fast to the Orthodox faith we have received from the saints I have cited, so that with them we may attain eternal blessings through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom rightly belong honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and His all-holy, blessed and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Philokalia Vol. III, A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, p.210.
Saint John of Damascus save us.
December 5
SAINT PETER OF DAMASKOSCirca 1156-7
We must admire not only the inner power of all things that are celebrated in the Church of the Orthodox Christians, but also the mystagological# actions through which this power is conveyed: how through divine baptism we become sons of God by grace, though we have done nothing before this, and do nothing after except keep the commandments; and how these awesome mysteries—I refer to holy baptism and holy communion—cannot take place without the priesthood, as St. John Chrysostom says.* Here, too, we see the significance of the power given to Saint Peter, chief of the apostles; for if the gates of the kingdom of heaven are not opened by priestly action, no one can enter (cf. Matt. 16:19). As the Lord says: 'Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit…' (John 3:5f.); and again: 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you' (John 6:53).
The Philokalia Vol. III A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, pp. 208-209.
#Mystagogological, cf. St. Photius the Great in On the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit. A pagan term employed by the Church Fathers for the Christian mysteries, especially baptism, but often with a sense broader than that of introduction or initiation into them. The continual participation and celebration of them implies spiritual progress and a continuing revelation.
*On Priesthood III, 5 (P.G. xlvii, 643).
Saint Sabbas save us.
December 6
"WE ALL WORSHIP THE SAME GOD"
by His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston
In discussing this issue with friends and acquaintances, the following "parable" might be useful in clarifying our thoughts.
There is, indeed, only one true God, as the Holy Scriptures and our Holy Orthodox Faith affirm, but not all men worship Him; nor is it simply a matter of different peoples calling Him by various names, as some suppose. In various passages of the Old and New Testaments, He has described Himself to us, as far as it is possible for us to comprehend; these descriptions exclude many of the attributes which, for example, Hindus and others ascribe to Him. He has also become man for us in time and space, and given us teachings about His Person and His relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit [hence, we know that He is one God in Trinity). So, as we said, we know that there is only one true God and that He has certain identifiable attributes.
Likewise, there is only one Father Neketas Palassis in the whole universe. He is unique, since, presumably, only he has his unique DNA and other unique characteristics. Now— paraphrasing Father Michael Azkoul's example* — suppose you wanted to meet Father Neketas and you asked me to describe him to you. If I were to tell you that he is seven feet tall, weighs 300 pounds, has a red beard, green eyes, and speaks only Swahili with a French accent, and lives in Lompoc, California, would you ever be able to locate him and make his acquaintance — if you accepted my description of him as true?
In like manner, if you accepted a wrong description of God as being true, would you be able to find and acknowledge Him? For example, if someone were to tell you that God highly esteems men who are suicide bombers that kill innocent men, women and children; or that He approves of the "honor killing" of women; or that He reincarnates people as cats, dogs, or fish; or that He is a Tibetan monk and He teaches that nothing has any meaning; or that He is the Great Pumpkin Who rises into the sky from the Sacred Pumpkin Patch on Halloween night — would you ever be able to find the real God? — if you believed any of these false descriptions of Him?
In Church terminology, these false descriptions are called "heresies."
Further, it is important to know that, in the teachings of its Saints, the Orthodox Church — unlike Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Western Europe — did not seek to exterminate or condemn to death individuals who differed from the Church's teachings. St. John Chrysostom, one of the Church foremost preachers, taught us the following:
I do not persecute the heretic bodily, but I wage war against him with words — and not even against the heretic, but only against his heresy: I do not disdain the man; it is the error I hate, and I seek to pull him out of it…. I am accustomed to being persecuted, not to persecute others…. Thus did Christ triumph; He did not crucify, but rather it was He that was crucified.
* See the published text of Father Michael Azkoul's talk, "The Western God," given at the Seattle Conference of 1980.
Saint Nicholas, Protector of Travellers and Seafarers save us.
Saint Nicholas Sermon by Metropolitan Makarios Sermon by Metropolitan Philaret Saint Nicholas on the Bus
December 11-17
THE ELECTION OF CHRISTIANSFor The Virtual Parish
When we say that we are, in truth, Confessors and Defenders of the Holy and Blameless Faith of the pious and Orthodox Christians we speak of our inheritance as bequeathed to us by God in Orthodox Baptism, for the Orthodox Faith and “the faith once delivered to the Saints” (Jude 3) is one and the same faith with nothing taken away and nothing added.
In our Orthodox worship of God, our true worship formed by the Holy Spirit so that we may rightly glorify the Lord God, and serve Him “in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:23), we in the act of worship and in our own prayers cry out that our deeds and our manner of life are not worthy of our high calling to serve God.
We, the unworthy, have been elected to serve God on the basis of His having called us to do so. This is the mystery of the Church:
“For not by laboring and sweating,
not by fatigue and suffering,
but merely as being beloved by God,
we received what we have received.”
Saint John Chrysostom
Homily I on St. Matthew NPNF Vol. 10 p. 2B
And again,
“Ye have not chosen Me,
but I have chosen you, and ordained you,
that you should go and bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye should ask of the Father in My Name,
He will give it to you”
(Jn. 16:16)
We will confess our worthlessness until our dying breath because our faith and hope is in God and not in ourselves. We are no better than the folks living down the street from us, yet, in the mystery of God, selling all that we have, we seek to "go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:13), in order to purchase the Pearl of Great Price, the Holy Orthodox Faith. This faith is our only hope.
May God grant us to endure until the end.
Ed. Virtual Parish
Holy Forefathers save us
December 12
Professor Ivan Andreyevon those who recognized the Red Church.
And not only were we ready to die, but many did die, confident that somewhere there, outside the reach of the Soviet authorities, where there is freedom—there the Truth was shining in all its purity. There people were living by it and submitting to it. There people did not bow down to Antichrist. And what terror overwhelmed me when, fairly recently, I managed to come abroad and found out that some people here ‘spiritually’ recognize the Soviet Church. Spiritually! Many of us there fell, ‘for fear of the Jews,’ or giving in to the temptation of outward cooperation with the authorities. I knew priests of the official Church who, at home, tore their hair out, who smashed their heads making prostrations, begging forgiveness for their apostasy, calling themselves Cain—but nonetheless they did not have the strength to decide upon martyrdom. But even they spiritually did not recognize the Red Church. But these others abroad—it is precisely spiritually that they submit to it. What good fortune that our priest-martyrs, in dying, did not find out about this betrayal!
Ivan Andreyev. Russia's Catacomb Saints. page 49.
1982 edition. St. Herman of Alaska press.
Saint Spyridon save us
METROPOLITAN EPHRAIM OFTHE HOLY ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF BOSTON An excerpt from
SAINT ATHANASIUS AND THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY
Here, perhaps, I should add as a parenthetical comment, that the Orthodox laypeople throughout the Roman Empire played a significant and heroic role in the defense of the Orthodox Faith and defeat of Arianism, even when many of the bishops faltered.
Not only in Alexandria and Egypt, but in Constantinople, Syria, Cappadocia, Edessa, Samosata, Pontus, Armenia, Nicomedia, Paphlagonia, Scythia, Illyria, Rome, Milan, and elsewhere, the simple faithful of the Church showed amazing devotion, courage and tenacity in resisting the Arians.
In Edessa, for example, the Arian Emperor Valens sent a large body of soldiers to massacre all the Orthodox Christians who, in defiance of his orders, had gathered in their church. When the prefect of the army was going towards it with a large military force, a young mother, leading her own little child by the hand, hurried hastily by on her way to the church, breaking through the ranks of the soldiers. The prefect, irritated at this, ordered her to be brought to him, and thus addressed her: “Wretched woman, where are you running in so disorderly a manner?” She replied, “To the same place that others are hastening.” “Have you not heard,” said he, “that the prefect is about to put to death all that shall be found there?” “Yes,” said the woman, “and therefore I hasten, that I may be found there.” “And why are you dragging that little child?” said the prefect. The woman answered, “That he also may be vouchsafed the honor of martyrdom.” The prefect was stunned. Promptly, he turned back his troops, returned to the Emperor and told him that it would be preposterous to destroy such a multitude of people who were so ready to die for their Faith.
Saints Father Herman and Peter the Aleut save us.
Saints Herman of Alaska and Peter the Aleut
December 17
OUR RIGHTEOUS FATHERHERMAN OF ALASKA From this day, from this hour, from this moment, *
let us mightily strive * to love our God above all *
Who took our flesh and suffered our whole banishment *
that He might restore us * to the light and kingdom *
where Herman doth await us.
The Menaion December 12; Ode Eight, Troparion
The Holy Transfiguration Monastery (c) 2005 Boston, Massachusetts 02445
Saint Daniel and the Three Holy Children, save us.
Prophet Daniel and the Three Children
STARETS AMBROSYOF OPTIMA FOR TRUE REPENTANCE not years and days are needed,
but one instant.
Staretz Amvrosy by John Dunlop, p.55
Saint Dionysius save us.
December 20
Adamantios KoraisTeacher of the Hellenes
1748-1833
Our religion, [the Holy Orthodox Faith] which is above reason (divinely revealed), does not resemble the rational sciences and arts. These, being the work of the human mind, are perfected with the progress of time, insofar as its rational power is perfected by philosophy. Our religion, the work of God, is, on the contrary, corrupted, insofar as it is separated in time from its first proclamation, if its leaders do not take care to guard it intact, as a treasure entrusted to them by its Author.
Korais, Advice of Three Bishops, London 1820, pp. xv-xvi
Quoted in Ecumenism Examined by Constantine Cavernos. 1996
Saint Ignatius save us.
December 24
SAINT MARK THE ASCETIC5TH - 6TH CENTURY On Those who Think They Are Made Righteous by Works
Two Hundred Twenty Six Texts
2. Wishing to show that to fulfill every commandment is a duty, whereas Sonship is a gift given to men through His own Blood, the Lord said: “When you have done all that is commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do’” (Lk 17.10). Thus the kingdom of heaven is not a reward for works, but a gift of grace prepared by the Master for his faithful servants.
Saint Eugenia save us.
December 25
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOMArchbishop of Constantinople
+ 407 A.D.
For if ye can learn what the star was, and of what kind, and whether it were one of the common stars, or new and unlike the rest, and whether it was a star by nature or a star in appearance only, we shall easily know the other things also. Whence then will these points be manifest? From the very things that are written. Thus, that this star was not of the common sort, or rather not a star at all, as it seems at least to me, but some invisible power transformed into this appearance, is in the first place evident from its very course. For there is not, there is not any star that moves by this way, but whether it be the sun you mention, or the moon, or all the other stars, we see them going from east to west; but this was wafted from north to south; for so is Palestine situated with respect to Persia.
In the second place, one may see this from the time also. For it appears not in the night, but in mid-day, while the sun is shining; and this is not within the power of a star, nay not of the moon; for the moon that so much surpasses all, when the beams of the sun appear, straightway hides herself, and vanishes away. But this by the excess of its own splendor overcame even the beams of the sun, appearing brighter than they, and in so much light shining out more illustriously.
In the third place, from its appearing, and hiding itself again. For on their way as far as Palestine it appeared leading them, but after they set foot within Jerusalem, it hid itself: then again, when they had left Herod, having told him on what account they came, and were on the point of departing, it shows itself; all which is not like the motion of a star, but of some power highly endued with reason. For it had not even any course at all of its own, but when they were to move, it moved; when to stand, it stood, dispensing all as need required: in the same kind of way as the pillar of the cloud, now halting and now rousing up the camp of the Jews, when it was needful.
In the fourth place, one may perceive this clearly, from its mode of pointing Him out. For it did not, remaining on high, point out the place; it not being possible for them so to ascertain it, but it came down and performed this office. For ye know that a spot of so small dimensions, being only as much as a shed would occupy, or rather as much as the body of a little infant would take up, could not possibly be marked out by a star. For by reason of its immense height, it could not sufficiently distinguish so confined a spot, and discover it to them that were desiring to see it. And this anyone may see by the moon, which being so far superior to the stars, seems to all that dwell in the world, and are scattered over so great an extent of earth,—seems, I say, near to them every one. How then, tell me, did the star point out a spot so confined, just the space of a manger and shed, unless it left that height and came down, and stood over the very head of the young child? And at this the evangelist was hinting when he said, “Lo, the star went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.”
Seest thou, by what store of proofs this star is shown not to be one of the many, nor to have shown itself according to the order of the outward creation? And for what intent did it appear? To reprove the Jews for their insensibility, and to cut off from them all occasion of excuse for their willful ignorance. For, since He who came was to put an end to the ancient polity, and to call the world to the worship of Himself, and to be worshipped in all land and sea, straightway, from the beginning, He opens the door to the Gentiles, willing through strangers to admonish His own people. Thus, because the prophets were continually heard speaking of His advent, and they gave no great heed, He made even barbarians come from a far country, to seek after the king that was among them. And they learn from a Persian tongue first of all, what they would not submit to learn from the prophets; that, if on the one hand they were disposed to be candid, they might have the strongest motive for obedience; if, on the other hand, they were contentious, they might henceforth be deprived of all excuse. For what could they have to say, who did not receive Christ after so many prophets, when they saw that wise men, at the sight of a single star, had received this same, and had worshipped Him who was made manifest.
The Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily VI. 3, 4, pp. 37-38.
O Saviour save us!
December 27
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM347-404 A.D. For this cause God blessed these above all the rest of men, saying,
“Blessed are they that mourn” (Mt. 5:4).
And how saith Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord alway?” (Phil. 4:4). The joy he is speaking of is what springs from those tears. For as men’s joy for the world’s sake hath a sorrow in the same lot with it, even so godly tears are a germ of perpetual and unfading joy. In this way the very harlot became more honorable than virgins when seized by this fire. That is, being thoroughly warmed by repentance, she was thenceforth carried out of herself by her longing desire toward Christ; loosing her hair, and drenching with her tears His holy feet, and wiping them with her own tresses, and exhausting the ointment. And all these were outward results, but those wrought in her mind were far more fervent than these; which things God Himself alone beheld. And therefore, every one, when he hears, rejoices with her and takes delight in her good works, and acquits her of every blame. But if we that are evil pass this judgment, consider what sentence she obtained from that God who is a lover of mankind; and how much, even before God’s gifts, her repentance caused her to reap in the way of blessing.
For much as after a violent burst of rain, there is a clear open sky; so likewise when tears are pouring down, a calm arises, and serenity, and the darkness that ensues on our sins quite disappears. And like as by water and the Spirit, so by tears and confession are we cleansed the second time; unless we be acting thus for display and vanity; for as to a woman whose tears were of that sort, I should call her justly condemnable, more than if she decked herself out with lines and coloring. For I seek those tears which are shed not for display, but in compunction; those which trickle down secretly and in closets, and in sight of no man, softly and noiselessly; those which arise from a certain depth of mind, those shed in anguish and in sorrow, those which are for God alone; such as were Hannah’s, for “her lips moved,” it is said, “but her voice was not heard;” (I Sam.1:13 LXX) however, her tears alone uttered a cry more clear than any trumpet. And because of this, God also opened her womb, and made the hard rock a fruitful field.
The Gospel of St. Matthew Homily VI. 8, pp. 40-41.
Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen save us
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