The Second Sunday Of Lent: The Sunday Of Saint Gregory Palamas

Introduction

On the Second Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, the Wonderworker. The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14, however, he is commemorated on this Sunday as the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy.

Life Of The Saint

Icon of Saint Gregory Palamas provided by Theologic and used with permission.

Our holy Father Gregory was born in Constantinople in 1296 of aristocratic parents who had emigrated from Asia Minor in the face of the Turkish invasion, and were attached to the court of the pious Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282-1328). Despite his official duties, Gregory's father led a life of fervent prayer. Sometimes as he sat in the Senate, he would be so deep in prayer as to be unaware of the Emperor addressing him. While Gregory was still young, his father died after being clothed in the monastic habit; and his mother for her part wanted to take the veil, but delayed doing so in order to take care of the education of her seven children. Gregory, the eldest, was instructed by the most highly reputed masters of secular learning and, after some years, was so proficient in philosophical reasoning that, on listening to him, his master could believe he was hearing Aristotle himself. Notwithstanding these intellectual successes, the young man's real interest lay only with the things of God. He associated with monks of renown in the city and found a spiritual father in Theoleptus of Philadelphia, who instructed him in the way of holy sobriety and of prayer of the heart.

Gregory Palamas: Historical Timeline

Written by M.C. Steenberg.

As an appendix to the two studies on St Gregory Palamas, this text offers a year-by-year timeline of events and activities in the life of St Gregory and his contemporaries.

Gregory Palamas: An Historical Overview

Written by M.C. Steenberg.

An overview of the historical circumstances of St Gregory's life and theological engagement, including a survey of the theological landscape that provided the contours of his own theological interactions.

Gregory Palamas Knowledge, Prayer and Vision

Written by M.C. Steenberg.

A study of three foundational aspects of the theology of St Gregory Palamas.

Three foundational aspects of the Theology of St Gregory Palamas

The theology of St Gregory Palamas, as expressed during the Palamite Controversy of the mid-14^th century, is far too extensive to be addressed in its full breadth in a paper such as this. Rather than attempt a manifestly impossible task, then, we will limit the focus of this essay to three central points in that theology: first, the idea of knowledge as expressed in the conflict between Gregory and Barlaam; second, the matter of prayer and the body; and third, the notion of the divine vision, which will lead naturally into a discussion of the energies and the essence of God.

Sunday of St Gregory Palamas

Lenten Synaxarion 

Now is the truly great preacher of the Radiant Light 

Led by the Source of Light to the never-setting Light 

This son of the divine and never-setting Light was a true man of God indeed, and a wondrous servant and minister of the divine mysteries, having been born in the imperial city (Constantinople) of most radiant and glorious parents. Through his virtue and instruction he desired to adorn not only the outer of mankind according to the senses, but also much of the unseen inner being. When he was yet quite young, his father died. His mother, brothers and sisters raised him and instructed him in morals, catechism and sacred scripture, and sent him to teachers of worldly wisdom, from whom he learned well. Cleverly combining his learning with a natural zeal, he soon became skilled in verbal arts. At the age of twenty, regarding all earthly things as inferior and passing dreams, he sought recourse to God the Author and Giver of all wisdom, to consecrate his entire self to God through a perfect life. Hence he disclosed his great love for God, his pious intentions and burning desire to his mother, and he found that for a long she too had been desirous of this and rejoiced at his decision. And straightway gathering her children his mother said with joy, 'Behold, I and the children God has given me!' And she disclosed to them the intent of the great Gregory, asking if it seemed to them to be good. And he with words of instruction soon convinced them all in earnestness to follow him in his love and withdrawal from life. Distributing then his earthly possessions to the poor according to the teachings of the Gospel, and cheerfully abandoning human love, earthly honor and the approbation of men, he followed after Christ.

GOD IS LIGHT

SECOND SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT

ST. GREGORY PALAMAS 

Commemorated November 14/27, and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent

St. Gregory Palamas, one of the pillars of Orthodoxy, was born in 1296, probably to a noble Anatolian family in Constantinople. He and his brother went to Mount Athos in around 1318, and lived in Vatopedi and Esphigmenou Monasteries. Gregory also successfully persuaded his widowed mother, brothers and sisters to become take up the monastic life. With the encroachment of the Turks, he was forced to flee to Thessalonica, being ordained a priest there in 1326. Afterward, he took up the eremetic life at a mountain near Beroea, and eventually returned to Athos in 1331.

Your Joy Will Be Full

Brother, you know that God is Love, and that He so loved you that He sent His Son for your salvation, and that His Son died on the Cross for you. Know also that God is leading you not to the restoration of the former Paradise that our first parents lost, but to something altogether new and infinitely greater and more wondrous. Do not turn back to gaze upon that which Adam lost for you, but look ahead to that which God has promised you, where our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are leading you. Yes, together with Adam we lost a great deal: Paradise, joy, and the possibility of immortality: great and wondrous things. But know that in your salvation you will receive immeasurably greater and more wondrous things. Because Paradise, which our first parents enjoyed, and the Kingdom of Heaven are not one and the same. The former was earthly, but the latter is heavenly. Adam lost a beautiful garden, planted by God and called “paradise,” but you are called to live in the Heavenly New Jerusalem, which is not yet built but which is already prepared and able to come into being, whose grandeur is revealed to us in part by the divine Saint John the Theologian (Rev. ch. 21, 22) …

ABOUT LONELINESS AND HOPE IN GOD

Metropolitan of Limassol Athanasios

Here's the question: what is better for the young man who was disappointed in the people - to move away from everyone and no one to meet, look inward for fear of trouble or is it a new set social networks, to relate to people and not be afraid of new disappointments?

And one more: a sense of emotional loneliness and separation from loved ones do not become a stimulus for closer communion with God? Such that the young man decides to enter the monastic path. Do you think it will be the right decision?

Twenty-first Instruction of Abba Dorotheos

A Commentary on certain expressions of St. Gregory concerning the holy martyrs.

Abba Dorotheos

It is good, O brethren, to sing the words of the holy God-bearers, for they strive everywhere to instruct us in everything which leads to the enlightenment of our souls. From the words we sing on the feast day, we should always come to understand the meaning of the what is being commemorated, whether it be a feast of the Lord, of the holy martyrs, or of the holy Fathers; in a word no matter what saint or blessed commemoration it is. Thus we should sing with heedfulness and penetrate with our minds into the significance of the words of the Holy Fathers so that we might sing not only with our lips as is said in the Patericon, but that our heart also might sing together with them. From the first hymn of the feast we have learned as we are able something about Holy Pascha; let us look further and see what St. Gregory wishes to teach us about the holy martyrs. In the hymnody about them, taken from St. Gregory's words, we sing today, "Living sacrifices, rational whole-burnt offerings," and the rest. What does this mean "Living sacrifices?" Sacrificial is the name for everything which is consecrated as a sacrifice to God, as for example sheep, bulls and the like. But why are the Holy Martyrs called living sacrifices? Because a lamb which is offered in sacrifice is first slaughtered and dies and then is sliced in pieces and offered to God; while the holy martyrs, while still being alive, were cut into pieces, scraped, tortured and endured dismemberment. Sometimes the torturers cut off their hands, feet and tongues and gouged out their eyes; and they were scraped in the ribs to such an extent with iron that their very inward parts were visible. In all of this of which I speak the Saints endured while still alive, still having their souls within themselves, which is why they are living sacrifices. And why are they called "rational whole-burnt offerings?" Because sacrifice is one thing and whole-burnt offering another. Sometimes men offer in sacrifice not a whole lamb but only a rudimentary part, as is said in the Law: the right shoulder, the pancreas and both kidneys, and the like (Ex. 29:22). Those who offered these, the rudiments, called this a sacrifice, which is why such an offering in general is called sacrifice. A whole-burnt offering is the name given to an offering of a whole lamb or a whole bull or any other offering burned without any remnant as is said in the same Law: the head with the feet and inward parts, sometimes also with the stomach and in a word, everything is burned entirely, and this is called a whole-burnt offering. Thus the sons of Israel according to the Law offered sacrifices and whole-burnt offerings. These sacrifices and whole-burnt offerings were a pre-figuration of the souls who desire to be saved and to offer themselves as a sacrifice to God.

Homily for the Sunday of Orthodoxy,

Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic)

Given in the Cathedral of Trebinje, 2007

Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic) is one of the most outstanding contemporary Orthodox theologians. Born in 1938 in the town of Brdarica in western Serbia, he studied theology at Saint Sava’s Seminary in Belgrade, the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, the Theological Seminary in Halki, and the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, where he was awarded a doctoral degree in 1967 for his thesis entitled “The Ecclesiology of the Apostle Paul According to Saint John Chrysostom.” He has taught at the Saint Serge Institute in Paris and the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, of which he has also served as Dean, and has lectured internationally. He was one of the founders of the Theological Faculty of Saint Basil of Ostrog in Foca (Bosnia and Hercegovina), of which he was elected Rector in 1994. He was a close and trusted spiritual son of the Blessed Archimandrite Justin (Popovic), by whom he was tonsured in 1960. Consecrated a Bishop in 1991, he retired in 1996 due to his failing health. He has been an outspoken advocate of the rights of persecuted Serbs in Kosovo for many years. The author of a multitude of books and of over one hundred articles in a variety of languages, his book Christ—The Alpha and Omega was published in English by the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2007.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

“Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God!” This was the confession of Nathaniel, an honorable, modest, hitherto unnoticed disciple of Christ. When Philip said, Come, we have found the Messiah, we have found Christ, Him Who was prophesied by Moses and the Prophets, Nathaniel asked: Who is He? (cf., Jn 1:45-46). He told him, according to the human understanding of the time: It is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph (Jn. 1:45). Can anything good come from Nazareth, a remote town on the north side of Galilee that had been despised to begin with because many heathens had mixed with the Jews in Galilee? Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Prayer at Home during Lent

Archpriest Sergei Chetverikoff (+1947)   Mar 26th, 2013 

In the contemporary situation of Orthodox people, who are often completely cut off from the Church of God, who have no opportunity to experience within themselves the beneficial influence of the Church services and the whole prayerful atmosphere of the Church, it is very important to create, even in one’s solitude, some likeness of the churchly atmosphere. How can this be accomplished?

What's The Difference Between an Icon and a Portrait?

A saint’s icon can illustrate the story of his life in detail. Our reporter Ekaterina STEPANOVA asked the icon painter and teacher of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Svetlana VASYUTINA, how we can tell by a saint’s sacred image what his occupation was and what he is famous for. 

Notwithstanding Our Infirmities

The first question that an icon painter is often asked is how one can draw a saint one has never seen. When I graduated from the Surikov Institute of Art (Moscow), I was also tortured by this question. In hagiography, we find descriptions of many saints, for instance, a straight nose, a moustache, a black or a long beard… But there can be so many variants of a ‘long beard,’ how shall I understand what he really looked like? The answer is simple: it is the saint himself who helps the icon painter to determine the details. It is the only way. One is to read the hagiography, to pray to this saint, and then the sacred image will turn out correctly. If an icon painter paints an icon as a picture, trying to reflect a part of himself, his own feelings, his vision of the saint, he will fail. I remember when I was making a mosaic of Our Lady, it was not at once that the sacred image was shaped out. They told me to leave it as it was. But I could not stop until I suddenly felt that the image now was exactly what Our Lady wanted it to be. I won’t hesitate to say that it is the Holy Spirit who moves the icon painter. It is the Holy Spirit who draws the lines, chooses the colors.