![[Orthodox Cross]](/images/cross.png)
Library
Elder Ambrose of Optina on the Meaning of the Incarnation
… for Christmas of 1870 the Elder Ambrose wrote to his spiritual children about the lofty meaning of the Incarnation:
"Wisdom seekers in the Lord!
The Word of St. John Kronstadt on the 26th Week after Pentecost
Luke 12
16 Then he spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink and be merry.’ 20 but God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
On the Annunciation by St. Maximos the Confessor
Let us contemplate with faith the mystery of the divine incarnation...For who relying on the power of rational demonstration, can explain how the conception of the divine Logos took place? ...How was there an engendering without loss of maidenhood? How did a mother, after giving birth remaina virgin? ...How was He who was pure baptized? How did He who was hungry give sustenance? How did He who was weary impart strength? How did He who suffered dispense healing? How did He who was dying bestow life? And, to put the most important last, how did God become man? ...Faith alone can embrace these mysteries, for it is faith that makes real for us things beyond intellect and reason. St. Maximos the Confessor. First Century of Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, Text 13. B#22, Vol. Two.
Fourth Sunday of Great Lent , Commemoration of St. John of the Ladder
Healing Through Prayer and Fasting
Do you see how He now proceeds to lay beforehand in them the foundation of His doctrine about fasting? ...You see, at any rate, how many blessings spring from them both. For he who is praying as he ought, and fasting, has not many wants, and he who has not many wants cannot be covetous; he who is not covetous, will also be more disposed for almsgiving. He who fasts is light, and winged, and prays with wakefulness, and quenches his wicked lusts, and propitiates God, and humbles his soul when lifted up. Therefore even the apostles were almost always fasting. He who prays with fasting has his wings double, and lighter than the very winds...nothing is mightier than the man who prays sincerely ...But if your body is too weak to fast, yet you can avoid luxurious living. St. John Chrysostom. Homily LVII on Matthew XVII
Do you see how He now proceeds to lay beforehand in them the foundation of His doctrine about fasting? ...You see, at any rate, how many blessings spring from them both. For he who is praying as he ought, and fasting, has not many wants, and he who has not many wants cannot be covetous; he who is not covetous, will also be more disposed for almsgiving. He who fasts is light, and winged, and prays with wakefulness, and quenches his wicked lusts, and propitiates God, and humbles his soul when lifted up. Therefore even the apostles were almost always fasting. He who prays with fasting has his wings double, and lighter than the very winds...nothing is mightier than the man who prays sincerely ...But if your body is too weak to fast, yet you can avoid luxurious living. St. John Chrysostom. Homily LVII on Matthew XVII
Third Sunday of Great Lent, Adoration of the Holy Cross
Whosoever Desires to Come After Me, Let Him Deny Himself, and Take Up His Cross, And Follow Me (Mark 8:34)
And you see how He also makes his discourse unexceptionalable: not saying at all, 'whether you will or not you must suffer this,' but how? 'If any man will come after Me.' I do not force, I do not compel, but each one I make lord of his own choice ... For to good things do I call you, not to things evil or burdensome; not to punishment and vengeance, that I should have to compel. No, the nature of the thing alone is enough to attract you ... For you ought not, O Peter, because you have confessed me Son of God, therefore only expect crowns (Cf. Mark 8:29), and to suppose this enough for your salvation, and for the future to enjoy security, as having done all. For although it be in My power, as Son of God, to hinder you from having any trial at all of those hardships, yet such is not My will for your sake, that you may yourself contribute something, and be more approved. St. John Chrysostom. Homily LV on Matthew XVI
And you see how He also makes his discourse unexceptionalable: not saying at all, 'whether you will or not you must suffer this,' but how? 'If any man will come after Me.' I do not force, I do not compel, but each one I make lord of his own choice ... For to good things do I call you, not to things evil or burdensome; not to punishment and vengeance, that I should have to compel. No, the nature of the thing alone is enough to attract you ... For you ought not, O Peter, because you have confessed me Son of God, therefore only expect crowns (Cf. Mark 8:29), and to suppose this enough for your salvation, and for the future to enjoy security, as having done all. For although it be in My power, as Son of God, to hinder you from having any trial at all of those hardships, yet such is not My will for your sake, that you may yourself contribute something, and be more approved. St. John Chrysostom. Homily LV on Matthew XVI
The Life of St. Leo the first, Pope of Rome
St Leo the First, Pope of Rome (Commemorated February 18 o.s.)
Born in Italy of devout parents, he was first archdeacon with Pope Sixtus the Third, then elected against his own will to the papal throne after Sixtus's death. When Attila drew near to Rome with his Huns and prepared to ravage and burn the city, Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments, tamed the wrath of the Hun leader and averted the fall of Rome. Attila was willing to be guided by Leo both because of his holiness and because of a vision he had of the Apostles Peter and Paul, standing behind Leo and threatening Attila with a flaming sword.
Born in Italy of devout parents, he was first archdeacon with Pope Sixtus the Third, then elected against his own will to the papal throne after Sixtus's death. When Attila drew near to Rome with his Huns and prepared to ravage and burn the city, Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments, tamed the wrath of the Hun leader and averted the fall of Rome. Attila was willing to be guided by Leo both because of his holiness and because of a vision he had of the Apostles Peter and Paul, standing behind Leo and threatening Attila with a flaming sword.
Sermon on the Feast of Nativity by St Leo the First
On the Feast of the Nativity, I.
I. All share in the joy of Christmas.
Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentle take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fulness of time which the inscrutable depth of the Divine counsel has determined, has taken on him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that (nature) which he had conquered. And in this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wondrous principles of fairness; for the Almighty Lord enters the lists with His savage foe not in His own majesty but in our humility, opposing him with the same form and the same nature, which shares indeed our mortality, though it is free from all sin. Truly foreign to this nativity is that which we read of all others, “no one is clean from stain, not even the infant who has lived but one day upon earth.” Job xix. 4. Nothing therefore of the lust of the flesh has passed into that peerless nativity, nothing of the law of sin has entered. A royal Virgin of the stem of David is chosen, to be impregnated with the sacred seed and to conceive the Divinely-human offspring in mind first and then in body.
Sunday Before Nativity, A Homily by St. John Chrysostom
SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS
HEBREWS 119 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up by his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called," 19 accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concern ing things to come. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones. 23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's command.
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith sub dued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Commemoration of Our Father Among the Saints, Nicholas Archbishop of Myra in Lycia (6 Dec / 19 Dec )
Thy memory, O holy hierarch, hath shone forth like the sun, noetically illumining the hearts of the faithful; and celebrating it today with splendor, we cry out to thee in supplication: Rejoice, O might of chastity who, armed with the shield of abstinence, didst preserve the dignity of thy soul intact! Rejoice O pastor and teacher of thy Christian people! Rejoice, adornment of the Church, beauty of hierarchs, boast of monastics! O most blessed and all sacred father Nicholas, unceasingly entreat Christ God that He grant peace to the whole world and save our souls.
(Glory..., in Tone VI at Little Vespers)
(Glory..., in Tone VI at Little Vespers)
The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, 21 Nov/ 4 Dec
Today let the heaven above greatly rejoice and the clouds pour down gladness at the mighty acts, exceeding marvelous, of our God. For behold, the Gate that looks towards the East, born according to the promise from a fruitless and barren womb, and dedicated to God as His dwelling, is led today into the temple as an offering without blemish... Within the tabernacle of God, within His place of propitiation, she shall be brought up, to become the dwelling place of Him who was begotten of the Father without change before all ages, for the salvation of our souls.
George of Nicomedia. Great Vespers for the Feast.