Wednesday 26 February 2014

LET'S TALK ABOUT MASLENITSA

Boris Kustodiev. Maslenitsa

It is the last week before the beginning of Great Lent—the week the Russians call "maslenitsa." In the West it is called "carnival," which had a similar meaning originally, but is now understood quite differently.

On the one hand, spring is in the air—it is a great time to visit friends and family, and have a good time. Of course, this often leads to gastronomical excesses, and perhaps too much to drink. In some places, the festivities can even take on a pagan aspect.

By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos

Cheesefare Sunday received it's name because the previous week we did not eat meat, but only dairy products, such as milk, cheese, etc., as well as eggs and fish.

Many find this rule of the Church to be "unreasonable", saying: "How is milk of a lamb allowed but not the meat of the lamb, since milk is produced by the lamb? How are eggs allowed and not chicken, since the first are produced by the second?"

Fr. Seraphim Holland

Cheesefare week, the last full week before Great Lent begins, is an “in between” week liturgically in the Orthodox Church. Each day is “kind of like” Great Lent and “kind of like” outside of Great Lent. This is to provide a transition into Great Lent. Everything we do is better if we are prepared and in the proper state of mind. This week, if we read the readings and attend the services, gets us ready for Great Lent.

How is the week “kind of like” being in Great Lent?

We fast all week, but in the most unique way of the entire year, fasting from meat only, with all other foods being allowed. We are fasting every day, but only “partially” and we even eat cheese and other milk products on days we normally would not throughout the year, such as Wednesday and Friday.

“The First Time He Came to Save the World; the Second He will Come to Judge it.” (Meat-Fare Sunday)

Dionysios(+)

Nothing else in life is so certain as that we shall die. The fact that we were born and are in this world leads to the certainty that one day we will be leaving it. Every day we see and understand that people are born and that they die; some come, others go. But there’s another certainty: that we’ll be judged, in other words that we’ll give an account of the way we’ve led this life. This is a belief common to all, deeply-rooted in people of all nations and throughout all time. But we have “the prophetic word more certainly”; our Scriptures write about the great and manifest day of the judgement and Christ Jesus talks of His second coming, as we hear in the Gospel at the Divine Liturgy today.

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

In many of his texts St. Gregory speaks of man's freedom of choice, which is not abolished by God, and also about the perpetuity of Hell. Both these positions of his remove every notion of the theory of the restoration of all things as affirmed by Origen.

In his great catechetical oration, in which he refers to the Catechism and the value of Baptism, at the end he continues the subject of the change in a man's whole existence which comes about by his choice. He writes that holy Baptism is called birth from above, that is, it is man's rebirth and reconstitution, but it does not alter his characteristic features. This human nature does not of itself admit of any "change by Baptism", and neither is his reason or intelligence changed, nor his cognition nor any other characteristic of human nature. This must take place through man's struggle before and after Baptism. The grace of God which we receive through Baptism does not bring about our rebirth unless we ourselves play a part in it.

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

From the book Life After Death, Ch. 6: "The Coming Judgement".

The Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead are closely connected with the coming judgement, the so-called future tribunal. All men will stand before the dread judgement seat of Christ.

In the Creed we confess that Christ will come with glory “to judge the living and the dead.”

This conviction constitutes the central teaching of the Church, as we shall verify in what follows. In all the assemblies for worship and in the Divine Liturgy there are words about our presence before the throne of God. The priest prays:

“For a Christian end of our life, painless, peaceful and unashamed, and for a good answer before the dread judgement seat of Christ, let us pray to the Lord.”

Metropolitan Philaret of Eastern American and New York (+1985)

When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was a-hungered, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee a-hungered, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a-hungered, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord when saw we Thee a-hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Matthew 25:31-46).

THE DREAD JUDGMENT

St. John of Shanghai

Today Is The Sunday of the Dread Judgment, and it is natural for us to speak of the Dread Judgment and of the signs of the end of the world. No one knows that day; only God the Father knows; but the signs of its approach are given in the Gospel and in the Revelation [Apocalypse] of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Dread Judgment principally in images and in a concealed manner; but the Holy Fathers have explained it, and there is an authentic Church tradition that speaks to us both about the signs of the approach of the end of the world and about the Dread Judgment.

Before the end of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, famine, and earthquakes. Men will suffer from fear; they will expire from the expectation of calamities. There will be no life, no joy of life, but a tormenting state of falling away from life. There will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith as well: when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8).

Sunday of or of the Last Judgment

Bulgakov, Handbook for Church Servers

The first name of this Sunday is explained by the fact that from it the permission to eat meat is ended (miasopustj=meat dismissal, or the discontinuance of meat), and the second name comes from the Gospel reading about the future all-inclusive Dread Judgment of the living and departed, which is described in all church services. By the commemoration of the Dread Judgment the Holy Church more strongly prompts the sinners to repentance and points out the true meaning of hope in the mercy of God. God is merciful but at the same time He is the Righteous Judge, having to render to everyone according to his deeds; therefore sinners should not be mistaken concerning their responsibility for their moral condition and abuse of the long-suffering God.

Saturday of the Dead

The day before the Sunday of the Last Judgement marks a commemoration of all those who have departed this life and Gone to their rest. This is the first of four such Saturdays 'of the dead' that occur during the annual Lenten discipline, and its position directly before the commemoration of the Last Judgement reminds us that all humankind, not only ourselves and those to come, but all those who have gone before us from the first moment of creation, will be called to account on the day of the great reckoning. Knowing that we live in a world filled with the consequences of human sin, the Saturday of the Dead is dedicated to praying on behalf of the members of this great human 'family' who now lie asleep in the Lord yet who continue to form an important part of our communal history of salvation.

Saturday of the Dead

The texts below are taken from the hymnography for the Saturday of the Dead, found in the Lenten Triodion.

Introduction

The Sunday of the Last Judgment is the third Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Great Lent. During this time, the services of the Church have begun to include hymns from the Triodion, a liturgical book that contains the services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), through Great and Holy Saturday. On this day, focus is placed on the future judgment of all persons who will stand before the throne of God when Christ returns in His glory.

Biblical Story

The commemoration for this Sunday is taken from the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning his Second Coming and the Last Judgment of all, both the living and the dead. In Matthew 25:31-46, Christ speaks about what will happen at this specific point in time when He will “come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (v. 31).

Services of the Triodion for the Sunday of the Last Judgement

On the Last Judgment

St. Augustine

From City of God

Intending to speak, in dependence on God’s grace, of the day of His final judgment, and to affirm it against the ungodly and incredulous, we must first of all lay, as it were, in the foundation of the edifice the divine declarations. Those persons who do not believe such declarations do their best to oppose to them false and illusive sophisms of their own, either contending that what is adduced from Scripture has another meaning, or altogether denying that it is an utterance of God’s. For I suppose no man who understands what is written, and believes it to be communicated by the supreme and true God through holy men, refuses to yield and consent to these declarations, whether he orally confesses his consent, or is from some evil influence ashamed or afraid to do so; or even, with an opinionativeness closely resembling madness, makes strenuous efforts to defend what he knows and believes to be false against what he knows and believes to be true.

Sunday of the Last Judgement

When Thou shalt come, O righteous Judge, to execute just judgment, seated on Thy throne of glory, a river of fire will draw all men amazed before Thy judgment-seat; the powers of heaven will stand beside Thee, and in fear mankind will be judged according to the deeds that each has done. Then spare us, Christ, in Thy compassion, with faith we entreat Thee, and count us worthy of Thy blessings with those that are saved. Vesperal Sticheron from the Triodion

O dread is that terrible day in which the just judgment of the Lord shall come. Quick shall be its coming, at a time unknown, and quick shall be its might. No ear shall be spared the trumpets' resounding call to the divine Tribunal, nor shall any earthly strength be fit to withstand it.

Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapotvitsky) of Kiev and Galicia (+1936)

When Thou Shalt Sit to Judge the World, Count Me Worthy to Sit at Thy Right Hand

On this day we commemorate the inexorable Second Coming of Christ. The holy fathers have ordained that it be observed after the second parable of the Prodigal Son, so that no one who has learned from it of God's love of for mankind will live in laziness, saying, "God loves mankind, and when I am separated from Him by sin, I will nevertheless be restored." This terrible Day of Judgment is now commemorated, so that through fear of death and the expectation of future torment, those who live in laziness may be encouraged to strive for the virtues, not only trusting in the love of God, but also realizing that He is the righteous Judge, who will judge all men according to their deeds. In other words, those souls who have passed over to the next life must undergo judgment. And this present feast is symbol of this, for it is presented now as a final celebration, just as it will be the last event after our death. For it behooves us to contemplate that as the beginning of the world and Adam's fall from Paradise are commemorated on the following Sunday, so this day is the end of all days and of the world itself.

Homily For Judgement Sunday

St John Chrysostom

(Homily LXXIX:
Matthew 25: 31-41)

Unto this most delightful portion of Scripture, which we do not cease continually revolving, let us now listen with all earnestness and compunction, this wherewith His discourse ended, even as the last thing, reasonably; for great indeed was His regard for philanthropy and mercy. Wherefore in what precedes He had discoursed concerning this in a different way; and here now in some respects more clearly, and more earnestly, not setting forth two nor three nor five persons, but the whole world; although most assuredly the former places, which speak of two persons, meant not two persons, but two portions of mankind, one of them that disobey, the other of the obedient. But here He handleth the word more fearfully, and with fuller light. Wherefore neither doth He say, "The kingdom is likened," any more, but openly shows Himself, saying, "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory." For now is He come in dishonor, now in affronts and reproaches; but then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And continually doth He make mention of glory. For since the cross was near, a thing that seemed to be matter of reproach, for this cause He raises up the hearer; and brings before his sight the judgment seat, and setteth round him all the world. And not in this way only doth He make His discourse awful, but also by showing the Heavens opened.

Sermon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Georgios Patronos

Introduction

Prodigal Son, which is the Gospel reading for today, is, as is well-known, one of the most beautiful texts of world literature.

It also recalls for us the Classical narrative, from Greek mythology, of the adventure of Odysseus who left Ithaca in order to become a man and wiser than before. This is to do with the eternal quest which people undertake, within time and history, leaving everything- certainty and security- to seek the unobtainable, the dream, and, in the end, made wiser by this experience of life, to return to their home and roots, where they eventually find rest.

TRIODION + SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON

Sunday Of The Prodigal Son

The Second Sunday Of The Triodion Period:

Introduction

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son is the second Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Great Lent. On the previous Sunday, the services of the Church began to include hymns from the Triodion, a liturgical book that contains the services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), through Great and Holy Saturday. As with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the theme of this Sunday is repentance, and the focus on the parable of the Prodigal Son leads Orthodox Christians to contemplate the necessity of repentance in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Who, like me, a fornicator, - go, go:

After all, God's bounty for all the open door.

On this day we celebrate the return of the prodigal son, which is the divine fathers put in transistors in second place for the following reason.

As some of you know of a lot of transgressions, from youth alive whoring, spending time idly, in drunkenness and uncleanness, and thus having run into the depths of evils, are giving up, which is the offspring of pride. Therefore, they did not want to go to the correct, exposing (as an excuse) capture evil, causing flow into the more evil.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Beloved brethren! The Holy Church, the loving mother of all her children, who gave them birth unto salvation, and takes upon herself all care to ensure that her children not lose their inheritance—Heaven, preparing them for the successful completion of the forthcoming podvig of the Forty Days Fast, has ordained that we read today at the Divine Liturgy the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ about the prodigal son.

In what does the podvig of the holy Forty Days Fast consist? In the podvig of repentance. During these days, we stand before the time dedicated largely to repentance, as before the doors of repentance, and sing the song that is filled with contrite feeling: Open unto me the doors of repentance, O Giver of life! What does our Lord’s Gospel parable that we hear today reveal to us? It reveals the unfathomable, infinite mercy of our Heavenly Father for sinners who bring forth repentance. The Lord made it known to people, calling them to repentance: Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth (Lk. 15:10). So that His words would become even more strongly impressed in the hearts of His listeners, He decided to supplement them with a parable.

Cyril of Alexandria,

From the Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, Homily 107.

I HEAR one of the holy prophets trying to win unto repentance those who are far from God, and saying, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God: for you have become weak in your iniquity. Take with you words, and return to the Lord our God." What sort of words then did he, under the influence of the Spirit, command them to take with them? Or were they not such as become those who wish to repent; such namely, as would appease God, Who is gentle, and loves mercy. For He even said by one of the holy prophets, "Return you returning children, and I will heal your breaches." And yet again by the voice of Ezekiel, "Return you altogether from your wickednesses, O house of Israel. Cast away from you all your iniquities which you have committed, that they be not to you for a punishment of iniquity. For I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, as that he should turn from his evil way and live." And the same truth Christ here also teaches us, by this most beautifully composed parable, which I will now to the best of my ability endeavour to discuss, briefly gathering up its broad statements, and explaining and defending the ideas which it contains.

Fr. Thomas Hopko

Fr. Thomas takes a second look at the story of The Prodigal Son, this time focusing on the meaning of The Father's House.

As Christians meditate on the parable of the Prodigal Son during the pre-Lenten season and the Lenten season, because all during this time of year we will be hearing in church about this parable, about the mercy of God, about the gifts of God given to us, about our wasting of those gifts, about our going off into a far country, of being out there among the swine and coming to ourself and getting up and returning back to God and knowing that he accepts us. As we meditate on all those things, in the Orthodox tradition it has been traditional to somehow invision, or envisage, the Church itself as the house of the Father, the household of God.

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev

Everybody has heard of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It should be clear that those stolen from the New Testament concept of the French Revolution changed considerably meaning associated with the image of a naked lady in the Phrygian cap and on the barricades.

If you forget that "the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor. 3:17), the word "freedom" will slip out of your hands like a live fish, or disappear like vapor, or become so heavy that people will voluntarily give up the freedom.

Services of the Triodion for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

'All to no purpose have I left my true home...'

The second Sunday of the Triodion, the second Sunday before the Vespers of Forgiveness and the beginning of Great and Holy Lent, is dedicated to the recollection of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15.11-32). 'A certain man had two sons', both highly favoured, one of a more rebellious spirit than the other. The story, perhaps among the most well-loved of the Gospel parables, though it appears only in the Gospel of Luke, is familiar to most. The wealth of the young son is squandered by his raucous living, and from the mire of his agony (literally, from the mud of a pig-stall) he has a change of heart and returns home, humbled. His father, certainly justified in any anger he might choose to show, instead embraces his 'prodigal' with tears and sets a mighty feast. 'For my son was lost, and now is found'.

Reflections on the sin, 'fall', and the sinful condition of humanity

A consideration of the issues of sin, 'fall', and humanity's sinful condition, grounded in the parable of the Prodigal Son and the theme of exile in the Lenten liturgical texts.

I was enslaved to strangers, an exile in the land of corruption,and I was filled with shame.

But now I return, merciful Lord,

and cry to Thee: I have sinned.[1]

Meeting of the Lord and Zacchaeus

Giotto, Presentation of Christ at the Temple,
1306, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy

Fr. John Behr

A homily delivered in the Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple and Zacchaeus Sunday (Sunday, February 2, 2014).

Today, as we celebrate the meeting of Christ and the righteous Simeon and Anna, in the temple, we come to an end of a series of feasts that have taken us through the darkness of the long and cold winter nights: a series of feasts bringing out different aspects of God’s search or outreach to us: the Word becoming flesh in the small dark cavern, in the depths of the earth, the manifestation of God to us, through the passage through the waters.

And now, in obedience to the Mosaic Law, forty days after his birth, Christ, the first-born son, is brought to the temple so that he might complete the law, and the law might be completed by him.

The Sickness that Is Arrogance

Varnavas, Metropolitan of Neapolis and Stavroupolis

In its desire to prepare us for the great and bright battle of the virtues, Holy and Great Lent, the Church, has adopted a period of preparation, that of the Triodion. This period starts with tomorrow’s Sunday, with an important parable related by our Lord: the Publican and the Pharisee.

Priest Thaddaeus Hardenbrook

On the Sunday just past, Zacchaeus taught us about desire for Christ and overcoming everything about our fallen human nature that keeps us from seeing Him. And his personal strength of unrestrained desire, which was previously misdirected toward greed and power, is now focused in the proper direction, on the “one thing needful,” on the true source of all: Christ.

Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

How short, and how well known is today's parable, and yet, how intense its message, how challenging.

Intense it is in its very words. Two men come into the church of God, into a sacred realm which in a world that is lost to God belongs to Him unreservedly, into His Divine Realm. And one of the men walks boldly into it, takes a stand before God. The other one comes, and doesn't even dare cross the threshold: he is a sinner, and the Realm is holy, like the space around the Burning Bush in the desert which Moses could not enter without having unshod his feet, otherwise than in adoration and the fear of God.

Synaxarion week of the Publican and the Pharisee

Creator of heaven and earth!

As Trisagion Hymn of the Angels,

On the Publican and the Pharisee:

In hypocritically who live, he is removed from the Church;

Christ, however, is acquired by you, the humble, inside.

Publican and Pharisee

At the start the day with God Triodion, which many of our holy and God-bearing fathers, poets, moved by the Holy Spirit, beautiful and properly accounted for, filling the songs. First coined tripesnets - believe in the image of the Holy Trinity and, - the great poet Cosmas [ ] for the Great Holy Week, the Passion of the Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, wrote the song with a short name of each day in the acrostic. After he and other fathers, especially Theodore of Studios and Joseph [2 ] , following his example, were liturgical succession for the other weeks of Lent - at first for his Studion monastery, above all, they wrote tripesntsy, and then following the instructions of their fathers, and were Align and other religious books.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

And He spoke also this parable unto certain men who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others. "Two men went up unto the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I pay tithe of all that I gain.' But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up even his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful unto me the sinner.' I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that abases himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:9-14).

St. Gregory Palamas

1. THE unseen patron of evil is full of evil ingenuity. Right at the beginning he can drag away, by means of hopelessness and lack of faith, the foundations of virtue already laid in the soul. Again, by means of indifference and laziness, he can make an attempt on the walls of virtue’s house just when they are being built up. Or he can bring down the roof of good works after its construction, by means of pride and madness. But stand firm, do not he alarmed, for a diligent man is even more ingenious in good things, and virtue has superior forces to deploy against evil. It has at its disposal supplies and support in battle from Him Who is all-powerful, Who in His goodness strengthens all lovers of virtue. So not only can virtue remain unshaken by the various wicked devices prepared by the enemy, but it can also lift up and restore those fallen into the depths of evil, and easily lead them to God by repentance and humility.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

On Prayer and Repentance

Translated by Nun Cornelia (Rees)

In today's Gospel, the prayer of the publican is shown drawing God’s mercy to him. This prayer consisted of the following words: God be merciful to me a sinner (Lk. 18:13). It is worthy of our attention that God heard such a short prayer, and that it was pronounced in the temple, during the common worship services, during the reading and chanting of psalms and other prayers. This prayer is commended in the Gospels; it is set forth as an example of prayer, and it becomes our sacred duty to piously contemplate it.

Bulgakow Lental Handbook

The name of this first preparatory Sunday was received from the appointed Gospel reading of the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, from which the first, from the image of the parable, left the temple for his house more justified than the second. By the example of one and the other the Holy Church points out the true beginning and basis of repentance: humility and, on the other hand, the main source of sin and obstacle to repentance, pride. According to the words of the Holy Church, "every good deed is made of no effect through foolish pride, while every evil is cleansed by humility." Without the humble consciousness of one's sinfulness one cannot alone have the appropriate sense of one's high external righteousness. In this idea the faithful also should begin the ascetical effort of fasting and repentance. In accordance with this core content, the Holy Church in all its services for this Sunday, especially in the Vespers and Matins stichera and in the troparia of the canon, denouncing, agreeing with the Gospel parable, the self- righteous pride of the Pharisee, praises the humility of the Publican and calls each of us to reject "the swollen boasting and evil folly of the Pharisee, his loathsome pride, and the wicked cruelty hateful to God" to lay aside self-conceit about one's imaginary worthiness and perfection, the self sufficiency of one's imaginary righteousness to humble oneself by consciousness of one's unworthiness and guilt before God, to condemn oneself, as a sinner, worthy of condemnation and judgment, and beating one's breast to pray: "God be merciful to me a sinner". If each of us will pray, according to the example of the Publican, with a broken heart and humble spirit, undoubtedly, we will receive great mercy from the One to whom all hearts are open: the Lord opens to us the door of repentance, will lead us into the holy and redemptive days of the Holy Forty Day Fast, will enable us by His grace to bring us to true repentance that we may receive complete remission and forgiveness.

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

My dear, our other three events, three memory must simultaneously resurrected today in our heart and mind. "Repentance E Open to the door, O Giver of life ..." - sounded again publicly in the churches of God. And looking pretty quiet time of repentance post. Evangelical Pharisee and the publican cause us today to look into your heart and see it or hypocritical: "... I do not like other people ..." - or, seeing there the abyss of sin to bow before God in humility Mytareva repentance ( Lk. 18, 11).

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

This sermon was not published during his life on. John

Brennan. Publican and the Pharisee (1858)

The temple of God - our heavenly Father's house - a house of prayer. It convenes He their own children in prayerful communion they desperately voschuvstvovali His closeness, His love, to warm the Father's edification and strength it took with them in the difficulties of life. All he sees the light of His Gospel of Truth blesses the audience to the last depths. So it was during the earthly life of the Savior, when the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the great temple of Jerusalem, and now God sees you and me coming to Him in prayer, it always will be until the last days of the world.

Reflections on the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee

'Not like other men'

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men--extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess'. But the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18.10-14)

PREPARING FOR LENT

Lent is preceded by preparation of the week (Sunday), and Week.Order of services and of the preparation week of Lent is set out in the Lenten Triodion. It begins with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and ends on Holy Saturday, covering the 70-day period.

Precede Lent - Lent - Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the week and the Week of the Prodigal Son, week, Week of Meat-fare (meat otpustnaya) Week and Week of Cheesefare (raw-otpustnaya, cheese, carnival).

Zacchaeus

Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk. 19:1-10).

Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk. 19:1-10).

The First Sunday Of The Triodion Period:

Introduction

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is the first Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Great Lent. It marks the beginning of a time of preparation for the spiritual journey of Lent, a time for Orthodox Christians to draw closer to God through worship, prayer, fasting, and acts of charity. It is also on this day that the Triodion is introduced, a liturgical book that contains the services from this Sunday, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), to Great and Holy Saturday.

Biblical Story

The name for this Sunday is taken from the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ found in Luke 18:10-14. This is the story of two men, one a Pharisee, a member of a Jewish sect known for its diligent observance of the Law, and the other a Publican, a government official charged with the responsibility of collecting taxes.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Sunday 23 February 2014

Saturday 22 February 2014

Thursday 20 February 2014

Sunday 16 February 2014

Saturday 15 February 2014

Friday 14 February 2014

Sunday 9 February 2014

Saturday 8 February 2014

Zacchaeus

Journeys through Great Lent

Feast of Feasts (Pascha)