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  Rejoice, Thou full of grace, the Lord is with Thee! Annunciation of the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

  06:07 AM

  Sermon of Sainted Proklos, Patriarch of Constantinople

  Our present gathering in honour of the MostHoly Virgin inspires me, brethren, to say of Her a word of praise, of benefit also for those come unto this churchly solemnity. It comprises a praise of women, a glorying of their gender, which (glory) is brought it by Her, She Who is at one same time both Mother, and Virgin. O desired and wondrous gathering! Celebrate, O nature, that wherein honour be rendered to Woman; rejoice, O human race, that wherein the Virgin be glorified. “For when sin did abound, grace did superabound” (Rom. 5: 20). The Holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary hath gathered us here, She the pure treasure of virginity, the intended paradise of Second Adam, – the locus, wherein was accomplished the co-uniting of natures, wherein was affirmed the Counsel of salvific reconciliation.

  Whoever is it that ever saw, whoever heard, that within a womb the Limitless God would make habitation, Whom the Heavens cannot circumscribe, Whom the womb of a Virgin limiteth not!?

  He born of woman is not only God and He is not only Man: This One born made woman, being the ancient gateway of sin, into the gateway of salvation: where evil poured forth its poison, bringing on disobedience, there the Word made for Himself a living temple, bringing in thither obedience; from whence the arch-sinner Cain sprang forth, there without seed was born Christ the Redeemer of the human race. The Lover-of-Mankind did not disdain to be born of woman, since this bestowed His life. He was not subject to impurity, being settled within the womb, which He Himself arrayed free from all harm. If perchance this Mother did not remain a Virgin, then that born of Her might be a mere man, and the birth would be no wise miraculous; but since She after birth remained a Virgin, then how is He Who is born indeed – not God? It is an inexplicable mystery, since in an inexplicable manner was born He Who without hindrance went through doors when they were locked. When confessing in Him the co-uniting of two natures, Thomas cried out: “My Lord, and my God!” (Jn. 20: 28).

  The Apostle Paul says, that Christ is “to the Jews indeed scandal, and to the Gentiles yet folly” (1 Cor. 1: 23): they did not perceive the power of the mystery, since it was incomprehensible to the mind: “for had they understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory” (1 Cor. 2: 8). If the Word had not settled within the womb, then the flesh would not have ascended with Him onto the Divine Throne; if for God it were disdainful to enter into the womb, which He created, then the Angels too would have disdained service to mankind.

  That One, Who by His nature was not subject to sufferings, through His love for us subjected Himself to many a suffering. We believe, that Christ not through some gradual ascent towards the Divine nature was made God, but being God, through His mercy He was made Man. We do not say: “a man made God”; but we confess, that God was incarnated and made Man. His Servant was chosen for Himself as Mother by That One Who, in His essence did not have mother, and Who, through Divine foresight having appeared upon the earth in the image of man, does not have here father. How one and the same is He both without father, and without mother, in accord with the words of the Apostle (Heb. 7: 3)? If He – be only a man, then He cannot be without mother – but actually He had a Mother. If He – be God only, then He cannot be without Father – but in fact He has the Father. And yet as God the Creator He has not mother, and as Man He has not father.

  We can be persuaded in this by the very name of the Archangel, making annunciation to Mary: his name – is Gabriel. What does this name mean? – it means: “God and man”. Since That One about Whom he announced is God and Man, then his very name points beforehand to this miracle, so that with faith be accepted the deed of the Divine dispensation.

  To save people would be impossible for a mere man, since every man has need in the Saviour: “for all, – says Saint Paul, – have sinned, and come short the Glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23). Since sin subjects the sinner to the power of the devil, and the devil subjects him to death, then our condition did become extremely hapless: there was no sort of way to be delivered from death. There were sent physicians, i.e. the prophets, but they could only the more clearly point out the malady. What did they do? When they saw, that the illness was beyond human skill, they summoned from Heaven the Physician; one of them said “Lord, bend the heavens, and come down” (Ps. 143 [144]: 5); others cried out: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shalt be healed” (Jer. 17: 14); “restore Thine power, and come yet to save us” (Ps. 79 [80]: 3). And yet others: “For if God truly be settled with man upon the earth” (3 [1] Kings 8: 27); “speedily send before Thine tender mercy, O Lord, for we are brought very low” (Ps. 78 [79]: 8). Others said: “O woe to me, my soul! For the pious art perished from the earth, and of the upright amongst men there is none” (Mich. 7: 2). “O God, in help attend to me, O Lord, shield me with Thine help” (Ps. 69 [70]: 1). “If there be delay, endure it, for He that cometh shalt come, and not tarry” (Hab. 2: 3). “Perishing like a lost sheep: seek out Thine servant, who doth hope on Thee” (Ps. 118 [119]: 176). “For God wilt come, our God, and wilt not keep silence” (Ps. 49 [50]: 3). That One, Who by nature is Lord, did not disdain human nature, enslaved by the sinister power of the devil, the merciful God would not accede for it to be forever under the power of the devil, the Ever-Existing One came and gave in ransom His Blood; for the redemption of the race of man from death He gave up His Body, which He had accepted of the Virgin, He delivered the world from the curse of the law, annihilating death by His death. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law”, – exclaims Saint Paul (Gal. 3: 13).

  Thus know, that our Redeemer is not simply a mere man, since all the human race was enslaved to sin. But He likewise is not God only, non-partaking of human nature. He had body, since if He had not clothed Himself in me, He then likewise should not have saved me. But, having settled within the womb of the Virgin, He clothed Himself in my fate, and within this womb He perfected a miraculous change: He bestowed the Spirit and received a body, That One only indeed (dwelling) with the Virgin and (born) of the Virgin. And so, Who is He, made manifest to us? The Prophet David doth point it out for thee in these words: “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord” (Ps. 117 [118]: 26). But tell us even more clearly, O prophet, Who is He? The Lord is the God of Hosts, says the prophet: “God is the Lord, and hath revealed Himself unto us” (Ps. 117 [118]: 27). “The Word was made flesh” (Jn. 1: 14): there were co-united the two natures, and the union remained without mingling.

  He came to save, but had also to suffer. What has the one in common with the other? A mere man cannot save; and God in only His nature cannot suffer. By what means was done the one and the other? Wherein that He, Emmanuel, being God, was made also Man; both this, that what He was, He saved by, – and this, that what He was made, He suffered as. Wherefore, when the Church beheld, that the Jewish throng had crowned Him with thorns, bewailing the violence of the throng, – it said: “Daughters of Zion, go forth and behold the crown, of which is crowned He of His mother” (Sng. 3: 11). He wore the crown of thorns and destroyed the judgement to suffering from the thorns. He Only is That One both in the bosom of the Father and in the womb of the Virgin; He Only is That One – in the arms of His Mother and in the wings of the winds (Ps. 103 [104]: 3); He, to Whom the Angels bowed down in worship, at that same time reclined at table with publicans. Upon Him the Seraphim dared not to gaze, and at the same time Pilate pronounced sentence upon Him. He – is That One and Same, Whom the servant did smite and before whom did tremble all creation. He was nailed to the Cross and ascended to the Throne of Glory, – He was placed in the tomb and He stretched out the heavens like a skin (Ps. 103 [104]: 2), – He was numbered amidst the dead and He emptied hell; here upon the earth, they cursed at Him as a transgressor, – there in Heaven, they exclaimed Him glory as the All-Holy. What an incomprehensible mystery! I see the miracles, and I confess, that He – is God; I see the sufferings, and I cannot deny, that He – is Man. Emmanuel opened up the doors of nature, as man, and preserved unharmed the seal of virginity, as God: He emerged from the womb thus as He entered through the announcing; the same wondrously was He both born and conceived: without passion He entered, and without impairment He emerged, as concerning this doth say the Prophet Ezekiel: “He returned me back the way of the gates of the outer sanctuaries, looking upon the east: and these had been shut. And saith the Lord to me: son of man, these gates shalt be closed, and not open, and no one go through them: for the Lord God of Israel, He Only, shalt enter and come forth, and they wilt be shut” (Ez. 44: 1-2). Here – it clearly indicates the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary. Let cease all contention, and let the Holy Scripture enlighten our reason, so that we too receive the Heavenly Kingdom unto all eternity. Amen.

  (с) 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

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  Great Lent Clergy Retreat in Canadian Diocese

  02:09 PM

  March 15/28 through 17/30, 2011, at the Protection Memorial of the Millennium of the Baptism of Russia Church (Ottawa, Ontario), was the time of the annual Great Lent clergy meeting of the Canadian Diocese. His Grace, Gabriel, Bishop of Montreal and Canada, presided over the divine services and meetings. A meeting of the Diocesan Council took place during the second day of the retreat. On Wednesday, March 17/30, on the day of the commemoration of St. Alexis the Man of God, Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served hierarchically and was followed by a farewell brotherly meal. With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Gabriel, participants in the retreat in Ottawa adopted the following resolution:

  Resolution of the Clergy of the Canadian Diocese

  We the clergy of the Canadian Diocese, having gathered for the annual Great Lent retreat and meeting at the Protection memorial church in the divinely protected city of Ottawa, under the presidency of His Grace, Gabriel, Bishop of Montreal and Canada, prayerfully wish His Eminence, the Very Most Reverend Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, and His Eminence the Very Most Reverend Kirill, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America, a speedy recovery.

  In his opening remarks, His Grace, Bishop Gabriel, having reminded all of the devastating natural disasters that the Japanese people – among them are our orthodox brethren, children of the Orthodox Church of Japan – are experiencing now, told everyone about the benefit concert, which took place at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Montreal, and called upon all the parishes of our Diocese to take part, as much as possible, in the work of helping the suffering, which is pleasing to God.

  We were informed that two significant events are expected to take place in our Diocese this year: ROCM and St. Herman’s conferences. We hope that Canadian youth will take active part in them.

  This year, the parish of St. John of Sochava, in Lachine (Quebec), marks its centennial anniversary. The founding of this parish is connected with the ministry of His Holiness, Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Confessor, on the American continent. We hope that His Eminence, the Very Most Reverend Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, will come to the celebration, to which end, he has already given his agreement.

  With spiritual joy, from the report of His Grace, Bishop Gabriel, we learned that our diocese will soon be visited by the wonderworking myrrh-streaming copy of the wondrous icon of the Montreal Iveron Mother of God, which manifested itself in Hawaii. We also hope, that by the mercy of God, Orthodox Canada may be visited also by the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God “Softening of the Evil Hearts,” which was present at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2009, when His Holiness, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia was called to his current ministry.

  Mitred Protopriest Vladimir Malchenko, rector of the Holy Trinity cathedral in Toronto, Ontario – the largest parish in the Russian Orthodox Diaspora – shared his impressions about a pilgrimage to the holy places of Moscow with his young parishioners, children, and teenagers. It was with heartfelt tenderness, that Fr. Vladimir spoke about the meeting of the young pilgrims with His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill.

  All present listened with special interest to the report of Protopriest Vladimir Morin, rector of the church of the Icon of the Savior Not Made with Hands in London, Ontario, dedicated to the results and decisions of the council of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, which took place in Moscow, in February of this year.

  As a result of this, the gathering decided to petition the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR to create in our Church Abroad also the Highest Church Council, in accordance with the decisions of the above mentioned Council of Bishops.

  Following the decisions of the Council regarding the education standards for clergy, it was decided to recommend two young priests for studies at the Moscow Spiritual Academy.

  Concluding the discussion of education, His Grace, Bishop Gabriel called upon all the rectors of the parishes of the Canadian Diocese to pay careful attention to their young parishioners, especially, those, drawn to the service in the Holy Altar and at the kliros. It is among them, that we must look for the future students of our Holy Trinity Seminary – the only school for the preparation of shepherds in the fold of the Russian Church Abroad. Our Seminary is officially recognized and is a part of the University of the State of New York (USA); those graduating it receive a bachelor’s diploma.

  Our brotherly meeting in Ottawa was primarily dedicated to discussion of Church and divine services questions, yet at the same time we tried to pay enough attention to the current affairs of our diocese. In particular, it was decided to establish a youth committee that will be charged with the task of organizing various youth events in the diocese, working in coordination with the Committee of the Russian Orthodox Youth at the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR.

  This decision, among others adopted during the meeting in Ottawa, appears to us, perhaps, the most important. In the specific conditions of the diaspora, and above that in current difficult times, the work of raising Russian Orthodox youth and children, as well as the preparation of the worthy and educated replacement of clergy, is an essential necessity for all of our dioceses. Beyond that, we are speaking about the task, the successful completion of which is the foundation for the future existence and ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. “I shall die, but live, and I shall tell of the works of the Lord” (Psalm 117).

  We offer the photos from the event for your viewing.

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  At the St. Nicholas cathedral in Montreal there was a benefit concert for the victims of the earthquake in Japan

  01:14 PM

  We offer you the photographs from the event taken by matushka Alexandra Platonow-Metni.

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  Third Sunday of Great Lent, Veneration of the Cross

  12:34 AM

  On Sunday of the third week, during matins, the Life-creating cross of the Lord is brought out into the middle of the church for the veneration by the faithful, that is why this Sunday and the following week are called of the Veneration of the Cross. The cross stays in the middle of the church until Friday of the fourth week. According to the typicon, there are four set times for veneration during this week: on Sunday, on Monday, on Wednesday and on Friday. On Sunday, veneration takes place only during matins (after the bringing out of the cross), on Monday and Wednesday it takes place during the first hour, and on Friday it happens after the “dismissal of the hours.” This is done for the encouragement and consolation of the repenting Christians. The Holy Church compares the Cross with the tree of life from paradise. According to the teaching of the church, the cross is also likened to the tree, placed by Moses into the bitter waters of Marah, to make them sweet for the Hebrew people during the forty years of wandering in the desert. The cross is also likened to a tree, under the shade of which tired travelers stop to rest, as they are being led into the promised land of the eternal inheritance.

  What can better spiritually strengthen a person, who undertook a distant journey, and in this case, a fasting Christian, other than a look, directed toward the Cross, upon which Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself suffered? Lent is a difficult and responsible time for everyone, striving to draw near unto God. It is the time of the mortification within oneself of the “old” man, time for the expulsion of the passions, bad habits and passionate desires, therefore in the spiritual sense the very important is the reminder to the faithful about the sufferings and death upon the cross of our Savior, which He endured willingly for the salvation of the world. The Cross is the call to augmented repentance and weeping over one’s sins, yet at the same time it is the hope of the resurrection, for, if we suffer with Christ, then we shall be glorified with Him, and if we die with Him, then shall we be raised with Him. Let us recall the place in the Gospel, where the Lord says to every one of us: “Deny thyself and take up thy cross and follow Me.” Everyone has his own cross, his own difficulties, illnesses, sorrows and sins. We must bear it without grumbling, giving thanks to God for all things that we receive from His right hand.

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  March 7/20 – 2nd Sunday of Great Lent. Commemoration of St. Gregory Palamas

  05:48 PM

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonika, was born in the year 1296 in Asia Minor. During the time of a Turkish incursion the family fled to Constantinople and found refuge at the court of Andronikos II Paleologos (1282-1328). The father of Saint Gregory became a prominent dignitiary under the emperor, but he soon died, and Andronikos himself took part in the raising and education of the orphaned boy. Endowed with fine abilities and great diligence, Gregory without difficulty mastered all the subjects which then comprised the full course of medieval higher education. The emperor hoped that the youth would devote himself to government work. But Gregory, just barely age 20, withdrew to Holy Mount Athos in the year 1316 (per other sources, 1318) and became a novice in the Batopedeia monastery under the guidance of the monastic-elder, the Monk Nikodemos of Batopedeia (Comm. 11 July), and there he accepted tonsure and began on the path of asceticism. A year later, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision and promised him his spiritual protection. Gregory’s mother and sisters likewise became monastics.

  After the demise of the monastic-elder Nikodemos, the Monk Gregory spent 8 years of prayerful effort under the guidance of the monastic-elder Nicephoros, and after the death of this latter elder Gregory transferred to the Laura-monastery of the Monk Athanasias. Here he served in the refectory, and then became a church singer. But after three years, striving for a greater degree of spiritual perfection, he re-settled in the small hermit-life monastery of Glossia. The head of this monastery began to teach the youth the manner of concentrated spiritual prayer – the mental activity, which by degrees gradually was appropriated and cultivated by monastics, beginning with the great wilderness ascetics of the IV Century – Euagrios (Lat. Evagrius), Pontikos and the Monk Makarios of Egypt (Comm. 19 January). Later on, in the XI Century in the works of Simeon the New Theologian (Comm. 12 March), those praying in outward manner received detailed elucidation on adapting the mental doing, and it was implemented by the Athos ascetics. An experienced useage of mental activity, requiring solitude and quiet, received the name “Hesychiasm” (from the Greek “hesukhia” meaning calm, silence), and those practising it were called “hesychiasts”. During the time of his stay at Glossia the future hierarch Gregory became fully embued with the spirit of hesychiasm and adapted it as fundamental to his life. In the year 1326, because of the threat of Turkish invasions, he together with the brethren retreated back to Soluneia (Thessalonika), where he was then ordained to the dignity of priest.

  Saint Gregory combined his priestly duties with the life of an hermit: five days of the week he spent in silence and prayer, and only on Saturday and Sunday did the pastor emerge to his people – he celebrated Divine-services and preached sermons. For those present in church, his teaching often evoked both tenderness and tears. Sometimes he visited theological gatherings of the city’s educated youth, headed by the future patriarch, Isidor. Having returned from being a certain while at Constantinople, he found near Soluneia the locale of Bereia, a place suitable for solitary life. Soon he gathered here a small community of hermit-monks and guided it over the course of 5 years. In 1331 the saint withdrew to Athos and lived in solitude at the skete-monastery of Saint Savva, near the Laura-monastery of the Monk Athanasias. In 1333 he was appointed hegumen of the Esthygmena monastery in the northern part of the Holy Mountain. In 1336 the saint returned to the skete-monastery of Saint Savva, where he concerned himself with theological works, continuing on with it until the end of his life.

  But amidst all this, in the 1330’s culminated events in the life of the Eastern Church which put Saint Gregory amongst the most significant universal apologists of Orthodoxy, and brought him reknown as the teacher of hesychiasm.

  In about the year 1330 the learned monk Varlaam had arrived in Constantinople from Calabria (in Italy).He was the author of tractates on logic and astronomy, a skilled and sharp-witted orator, and he received an university-chair in the capital city and began to expound on the works of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite (Comm. 3 October), whose “apophatic” (“negative”, “via negativa”, as contrast to “kataphatic” or “postive”) theology was acclaimed in equal measure in both the Eastern and the Western Churches. Soon Varlaam journeyed to Athos, where he became acquainted with the modality of spiritual life of the hesychiasts, and on the basis of the dogma about the incomprehensibility of the essence of God, he declared the mental doing an heretical error. Journeying from Athos to Soluneia (Thessalonika), and from there to Constantinople and later again to Soluneia, Varlaam entered into disputes with the monks and attempted to demonstrate the created creatureliness of the light of Tabor (i.e. at the Transfiguration); in this he reduced to the point of a joke the sayings of the monks about the modes of prayer and about the spiritual light.

  Saint Gregory, at the request of the Athonite monks, countered at first with spoken admonitions. But seeing the futility of such efforts, he put in writing his theological argument. Thus appeared the “Triades in Defense of the Holy Hesychiasts” (1338). Towards the year 1340 the Athonite ascetics with the assist of the saint compiled a general reply to the attacks of Varlaam – the so-called “Svyatogorsk tomos”. At the Constantinople Council of 1341 in the church of Saint Sophia there occurred a debate of Saint Gregory Palamas with Varlaam, centering upon the nature of the light on Mount Tabor. On 27 May 1341 the Council accepted the position of Saint Gregory Palamas – that God, inapproachable in His Essence, reveals Himself in energies, which are directed towards the world and are able to be perceived, like the Tabor light, but which are neither material nor created. The teachings of Varlaam were condemned as heresy, and he himself, anathemised, withdrew to Calabria.

  But the dispute between the Palamites and the Varlaamites was far from finished. To these latter belonged a student of Varlaam, the Bulgarian monk Akyndinos, and also the patriarch John XIV Kalekos (1341-1347); to them inclined also the emperor Andronikos III Paleologos (1328-1341). Akyndinos came out with a series of tracts, in which he declared Saint Gregory and the Athonite monks guilty of church disorders. The saint in turn wrote a detailed refutation of Akyndinos’ conjectures. The patriarch thereupon excommunicated the saint from the Church (1344) and had him locked up in prison, which lasted for three years. In 1347, when John XIV was succeeded on the patriarchal throne by Isidor (1347-1349), Saint Gregory Palamas was set free and elevated to the dignity of archbishop of Soluneia (Thessalonika). In 1351 the Blakhernae Council solemnly witnessed to the Orthodoxy of his teachings. But the people of Soluneia did not immediately accept Saint Gregory, and he was compelled to live in various places. In one of his travels to Constantinople the Byzantine galley-ship fell into the hands of the Turks. They offered to sell Saint Gregory in various cities as a captive during the course of a year, but he then also incessantly continued to preach the Christian faith.

  Only but three years before his death did he return to Soluneia. On the eve of his repose, Saint John Chrysostom appeared to him in a vision. With the words “To Heaven! To Heaven!”, – Saint Gregory Palamas reposed peacefully to God on 14 November 1359. In 1368 he was canonised at a Constantinople Council under Patriarch Philotheos (1354‑1355, 1362-1376), who compiled the Life and Services to the saint.

  © 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

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  THE MEETING OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

  09:20 PM

  The event of the meeting, in other words the meeting of the Old Testament piety with the holiness of Christ, the Church remembers every evening, “at the setting of the sun”, repeating the words of St. Symeon the Receiver of God: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, Oh Master, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation…” (St. Luke 2:28-32).

  “Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast,” was commanded by the Lord through the prophet Moses. “and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem” (Exodus 13:2, 13). When the service before the tabernacle of the covenant was given to the tribe of Levi, in other words to the Levites, a special redemption was set for the firstborn (Leviticus 12:6-8).

  Thus, the Redeemer of the entire race of men was brought into the Jerusalem temple for redemption, while the More Honorable than the Cherubim, His Most Pure Mother had to undergo the ancient custom of the cleansing of the one who gave birth, who for the duration of the first forty days after the birth of a male child was considered unclean: in these days she was forbidden from touching holy objects, climbing unto the Temple Mount and taking part in the public worship (the unclean days of those, who gave birth to infant girls, altogether lasted for sixty six days (Leviticus 12:2-5). So it turns out that the Meeting is also, in a way, a Feast of the Lord’s humility.

  According to ancient tradition, repeated in the works of Ss. Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, and Andrew of Crete, the high priest (believed to be St. Zacharaiah – father of St. John the Baptist) by grace, contrary to the old law, led the Theotokos with the Infant from the place appointed to unclean women to the place where only the virgins stood, leaving without heed the rebukes of the scribes and Pharisees.

  “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,” writes of this the Apostle Paul (Galatians 4:4-5). “And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth” (St. Luke 2:39).

  Corresponding with this indication of the Evangelist Luke, who made a special effort to follow the chronological continuity in his account of the Good News, one can admit that the Holy Family fled into Egypt not directly from Bethlehem, but from Nazareth, having spent a short time there. In reality, the events of the gospel history – prior to the flight into Egypt – look this way: Nativity in Bethlehem of Judea; Circumcision of the Lord on the eighth day (in the same place); visit to the Jerusalem temple on the fortieth day (Meeting); return to Bethlehem and stay there until the arrival of the magi (?); departure for Nazareth, and from there into Egypt.

  Wolfgang Pax in his detailed illustrated guide to the Holy Places of Palestine “In the steps of Jesus” notes, that, “supposedly Joseph and Mary with the infant moved to a small stone building; we don’t know whether it was built by the betrothed himself (he was a builder because of his occupation), or it belonged to some of his relatives. Now, nothing is left of it” (I cite the 1970 edition published in English).

  Traditions about some home of the Holy Family in Bethlehem, more specifically in its immediate surroundings, to name it, in Beit Jala, are kept to this day among the Christians of Palestine.

  Yet, according to the Lives of the Saints, the Theotokos during the forty days lived in the same cave, where the Savior was born. There is also a tradition to relate the arrival of the magi to the very first days after the Nativity: that is why it is said that the cleansing sacrifice of the Ever-Virgin – two doves (St. Luke 2:24) – was so small, because from the gold, brought as a gift by the magi, she left herself the smallest part, having given the rest away to the poor. Let us not forget, at the same time, that king Herod “sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under” (St. Matthew 2:16), but the Lord was not among them: notified by the Angel, the Holy Family left the city. How did that happen? It turns out that, by the will of God, the murderers missed Christ: Joseph and Mary with the Divine Infant were already in Jerusalem, when Herod’s special forces entered Bethlehem…

  “…the Holy Spirit was upon him,” says the Gospel about the elder Symeon, who came out to meet Christ (St. Luke 2:25). “Like the other old testament faithful, Symeon prepared to die with the faith in the fulfillment of the promises of God, but the Holy Spirit revealed to him that his was a much better lot” (Archbishop Nikodim. Soul-benefitting Reading, part 1,. 1861). Let us recall that this better lot was the punishment for unbelief: according to tradition, Symeon, who lived to the most profound old age, doubted the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Virgin, Who shall give birth to a Son (Isaiah 7:14). As one of the creators of the Septuagint (“the translation of the seventy”), preparing the Greek text of the Bible for the king Ptolemeus Philadelphus, the young zealous scribe Symeon already wanted to change the unusual words, which he had to translate into Greek, but the Angel stayed his hand, having cried: “Believe in what is written! You shall see the fulfillment of these words and shall not die until you see their fulfillment.”

  The feast of the Meeting, according to the rubrics, is considered to be one of the Theotokos, and is even sometimes called the Meeting of the Most Holy Theotokos; however, at the same time, some of the details of the service of the Meeting are the same as for the feasts of the Lord. This “dual nature of the feast, the joy of the Meeting and the sorrow of the Passion” (Monk Gregory Kroug, Thoughts about the Icon, 1969) is reflected in the prophecy of the holy elder Symeon, addressed to the Infant and to His Mother, and to the entire created world, which is “broken upon Christ,” is divided in two; is cut asunder by the same weapon (specifically – by the sword), that – according to the words of Symeon the Receiver of God – will pierce the soul of the Mother of God, in order that “the thoughts of the many hearts” may be revealed (St. Luke 2:35). Let us also note, that this is the last time until the very crucifixion, when that of Mary and that of Jesus is tied into one in the historical narrative of the Gospel, when the Mother is still trying to protect Her Son, to hold Him with her hands. Therefore, the Meeting contains within itself the Gospel of the Passion: on the icon of the feast “the Mother of God as though carries the Savior, but the Savior is no longer in her hands, He is held by Symeon the Receiver of God, and the throne, depicted in the very center of the icon, between the Mother of God and Christ in the hands of Symeon, creates as though the impassable wall” (monk Gregory Kroug).

  Nothing can be changed. The redemptive sacrifice must be offered.

  Child, what didst Thou do with us? – Mary will quietly ask her Son, Whom She looked for a long time in the noisy porticos of the Jerusalem temple. – Behold, Thy father and I looked for Thee with great sorrow.

  Why did you need to look for Me? – the twelve year old Child will answer. – Or, did ye not know that I must be about My Father’s business? (St. Luke 2:48-49)

  The feast of the Meeting in its essence sets boundaries. Our ancestors very well recognized this characteristic, saying: “for the Meeting the sun turns for the summer, and the winter turns for the frost.”

• 

  THE HOLY THEOPHANY (BAPTISM) OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

  05:34 PM

  “The significance of Jordan cannot be overestimated, for the historical role of the river goes beyond all rational calculations,” wrote the famous archeologist Nelson Gluck about this muddy, somber, and in places dangerous river.

  According to the Old Testament book of Joshua the son of Nun, stones were put into the waters of the Jordan in memory of the miraculous crossing of the Israelites across the river as though it were dry land; blessed Jerome, who lived in the Holy Land in the ninth century, testifies that these stones were still visible during his time. It was there, near Bethabara (which means ford), that the last Prophet of the passing, Old Testament, was baptizing the people. Pointing to the white slippery boulders, solemnly, he said:

  “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9).

  However, according to other commentaries, the Baptist, by stones, meant the gentiles, yet it is difficult to understand where, in the crowd surrounding the prophet, could be found any noticeable number of those, who did not keep the law of Moses. One way, or another, yet the pilgrims used to carry away, and they do it to this day, from the holy river broken pieces of stone, filed and rounded by the streams of Jordan’s waters; and are not all of us made sons unto Abraham out of them?

  “Water is the beginning of the world, Jordan is the beginning of the Gospel”, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem. As in the second verse of the book of Genesis, on the day of the Baptism, the Spirit of God once again was hovering over the water, over the wet brown (“which reached to extremities” – church historian Nicephoras Callistos) hair of Christ, and God the Father, Himself, the Lord of Hosts, in the expression of one of the contemporary church author, did not hold back and exclaimed: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased!”

  In the year 28, having come to Bethabara, which was located a few kilometers away from the Dead Sea, the Lord knew “what He was doing, and what He was doing it for” (Prot. A.V. Gorskiy). “Jesus Christ asks for baptism for Himself, as a symbol of the repentance for the sins of mankind,” we read in one of the festive homilies. However, is it correct here, is it applicable here, the very meaning of the symbol?

  “He comes to the waters of the Jordan in order, to wash the sins of publicans and sinners, says St. John Chrysostom, oh, the new wonder! Oh, the unspeakable grace! Christ completes the feat, yet I receive the honor; He struggles with the devil, yet I am the victor; He is baptized, yet the defilement is removed from me…”

  And the Forerunner, filled with the prophetic spirit, knows that now, before his eyes, the Lamb of God takes upon Himself the sins of the world, and, as a man, he tries to halt Him:

  “I must be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?!” (Matthew 3:14)

  Three years later, His Apostle Peter asked Him in the same way:

  “Lord! Dost Thou wash my feet?” (John 13:6)

  The answer was similar: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Thus did the Lord answer John the Forerunner. And here is the answer for Peter: “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7).

  John agrees right away, the disciple first argues, but in both cases the Gospel ministry of Christ is fulfilled to the end.

  “…St. Paisios the Great prayed for his disciple, who renounced Christ, and when he was praying, the Lord appeared to him and says: “Paisios, for whom are you praying, he renounced me?” Yet the saint continued to pity his disciple and then the Lord said to him:

  “Paisios, you became like unto Me through love.”

  Thus is peace acquired and apart from this, there is no other way” (St. Silouan of Athos. About peace).

  Christ, in the words of the same St. Silouan, was “sorrowful for the people to such an extent,” that He went to the death on the cross for their sake.

  Here, on the Jordan was the beginning of the way of the cross, the way that leads to Golgotha and Resurrection.

  “The voice of the Lord upon the waters is crying out, saying: come, receive ye all the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of the fear of God, of Christ manifest. Today the nature of water is sanctified, and the Jordan is parted, and it turns the streams of its waters, beholding the Master being baptized” (from the service of the feast).

• 

  Nativity epistle of His Grace, Bishop Gabriel

  11:40 AM

  Dear in the Lord, fathers, brothers and sisters!

  The spiritual significance of the events of the Gospel history, one way or another connected with the birth into the world in the flesh of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, is truly precious for the pious Christian conscience.

  “As God of the world and Father of compassions, Thou hast sent to us Thine Angel of great Council, Who granteth us peace. Wherefore, guided to the light of knowledge divine, and rising at dawn out of the night, we glorify Thee, Who lovest mankind,” is sung in the 5th ode of the Nativity canon.

  We see, that long before the coming of the Messiah-Christ, He was already called “Angel of great Council of God”. And in these days of the solemnities of Nativity He, Christ-Child, having become Man, came to earth, to us – people, granting us peace. What does it mean, to have spiritual peace? It means humbly to accept the course of our life, including sorrows and injustices. One cannot live without them, yet in the eyes of true followers of Christ, they – at least on the day of the Feast – seem to be too insignificant to disturb the spiritual peace of those, who came to know that today with us is the Angel of great Council, “Who brought the very heaven into the cave in Bethlehem”, – according to the words of the Most Blessed Metropolitan Anthony, founder of our Church Abroad.

  Every little detail of the Nativity events is full of salvific meaning. Let us recall how the righteous Joseph the Betrothed met the news that the Virgin Mary committed to his care was found to be with child. From the words of the canon of Nativity with learn that the meek elder was overcome by the “tempest of doubting thoughts.” Separately, we should note that he was not yet granted the full comprehension of exactly what events his was a witness and participant. The Betrothed remained humble, meek and fully submitted to the will of God, unwaveringly believing in its goodness and justice. In response to his meekness and humility, the Lord, wishing to comfort and strengthen His faithful servant, sent to him in a dream His Angel, who revealed to him the greatest mystery of the creation of the world: “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20).

  How often all of us are faced with temptations, which stir us up, incline us toward wrath and irritability. Yet let us not forget that it is not given unto us to understand the true meaning of what is happening in the world “according to our own desires.” Let us ask of the Lord meekness, humility and kindness. Maybe the merciful Lord will see our faithfulness and efforts, and will grant us the understanding of the salvific meaning of the events, which cause us alarm and confusion. “Bow before the manger of beasts, through which you, who became irrational, were nourished by the Word,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian, and then our souls will be filled peace and joy in Christ.

  CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

  GABRIEL
  Bishop of Montreal & Canada

  Nativity of Christ, 2011

• 

  Parish feast in Montreal

  09:06 AM

  This year, the parish feast of St. Nicholas’ Cathedral in Montreal, celebrated on “Winter St. Nicholas”, December 6/19, fell on Sunday. Guests from the other parishes of our diocese arrived for the all-night vigil on Saturday: for Polyeleos, His Grace, Gabriel, Bishop of Montreal and Canada, was followed not only by the cathedral clergy: the sacristan, protopriest George Lagodich and priest Michael Metni, but also by priest Viatcheslav Davidenko (Trinity cathedral, Toronto, Ontario) and priest Alexey Pjawka (Protection Memorial church, Ottawa, Ontario).

  His Grace, Vladyka Gabriel served the Divine Liturgy, along with the above mentioned clergy, together with protodeacon Vasili Milonow, cathedral deacon Boris Sidorenko, and deacon Eugene Schukin, who was ordained to the priesthood after the Great Entrance. Fr. Eugene will have the task of caring for the recently established community of St. Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, the Confessor, in Kitchener, Ontario.

  The services were held with a large number of people attending: there were not only local parishioners, but also those, who came to the cathedral in order to share the feast with the Montreal parishioners. The cathedral choir, under the direction of Michael Kreiger-Voinovsky, sang beautifully and movingly.

  Priest Viatcheslav Davidenko preached a sermon, and after the dismissal, Vladyka Gabriel address the flock with his archpastoral greeting. After the prayer service before the church icon with the relics of St. Nicholas, and after the chanting of many years, all present were invited to a meal, prepared by the cathedral sisterhood, which is long famous for its hospitality.

  Here are some photos from the event in Montreal.

• 

  St. Herman’s youth conference

  08:55 PM

  ENCYCLICAL

  To All the Reverend Rectors of the Montreal & Canadian Diocese

  DIRECTIVE

  This year, the St Herman’s Youth conference will be held, with God’s help, at the Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, USA. The St Herman’s youth conference is now in it’s 30th year and continues it’s mission to provide a rare opportunity for all of our Orthodox youth to meet together, to become acquainted, to participate in group discussions and to listen to lectures of a purely Orthodox character, and finally and most importantly, to prepare for and receive communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ on the feastday of St Herman, 12/25 December.

  In connection with this, I urgently request that all the reverend rectors take up a special collection on Sunday, December 6/19 of this year in our parishes at the end of the Divine Liturgy to help defray the costs of organizing this conference. I would also ask that this be announced from the amvon prior to the collection taking place.

  The St Herman’s committee which is undertaking the organization of the conference is working very hard to contain the costs of attending these conference to a minimum. As always, the outlays for food and lodging are the highest. For this reason we are appealing to each parish to make this conference accessible to as many of our Orthodox youth as possible.

  The funds collected will help to cover the expenses of the conference and will also be used to make it possible for the St Herman’s organizing committee to assist young people from families of limited means.

  You may ask why support a conference in the USA when we have our own Canadian needs? To this I will answer, last year when the conference was in Montreal we received most of our support from the USA parishes. We need to contribute generously to help as many of our Canadian youth to attend the conference this year.

  I thank you in advance for your support. Please do not forget that our youth is our future. We must support it!

  Please send cheques to:
  St. Herman’s Youth Conference
  c/o Rev. George Lagodich
  6738 32 Ave
  Montreal, QC H1T 3C9

  Gabriel

  Bishop of Montreal and Canada

  November 22/December 5, 2010