Today's Sermon in a Nutshell (a story once told by St. Nikolaj Velimirovic - one of our American saints)

Once upon a time a priest is walking down a lonely road on a hot day when suddenly out of the bushes jumps a wild looking man with a gun. The man says to the priest, "I have killed 99 men, and you will be the 100th."

The priest says responds, "I am ready to die; but please before you shoot me, give me a little water to drink. I am so thirsty."

The murderer is confused for a moment, but then directs the priest at gun point to his campsite in the bushes where he gives the priest a cup of water to drink. As the priest is drinking the water, the murderer suddenly dies of a heart attack. At that moment angels from heaven come to escort the soul of this murderer to heaven, but the demons also arrive to contest for the man's soul.

How should we pray to God? by St. Nicholai Velimirovic

 How should we pray to God? by St. Nicholai Velimirovic

Many do not know.

Many people ask about it.

It is necessary to know, but if you do not know, it is appropriate to ask anyone about it.

The question, meanwhile, is simple and absolutely clearly defined in the Church of Christ throughout its two thousand-year history.

Any prayer, the shortest and the longest, must contain three things:

- thanks to God,

- a plea for help in this particular case,

- praise God.

Church Slavonic definitions of this threefold content of prayer are much more expressive than the words of the Serbians and they sound like this:

- thanks ,

- petition ,

- praise .

Thanksgiving. 

Parable about the nobleman and the plowman

A certain nobleman lived in his palace in luxury and bliss. Nobody in the world could match him either in wealth, strength or health. However, having been fed up with everything in the world, the nobleman felt with all his heart how empty and meaningless his life was, and he was bewildered by his heavy blues.

And then one morning he gathered in a long way to find solace and the joy of life. He jumped on a horse and, accompanied by a retinue, set off on the road. The path was long, but the rich man did not meet anything that would have pleased his soul and warmed him.

The acts of the enemy Saint – Nicholas Velimirovich

 The struggle is relentless and continuous, external and internal.

Sometimes, the enemy acts visibly, through people and things, and at others he attacks people invisibly, through their thoughts.

On occasion, he’ll appear openly, with a violent and merciless attack, like an enemy, but at others he’ll be disguised as a friend, who flatters and leads you astray with his cunning.

» Saint Nicholas Velimirovich

Source:  pemptousia.com

http://www.diakonima.gr/2015/06/03/the-acts-of-the-enemy-saint-nicholas-velimirovich/

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES By St. NikoLaj (Velimirovic), Pascha, 1934; Ochrid, Yugoslavia.

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES By St. NikoLaj (Velimirovic), Pascha, 1934; Ochrid, Yugoslavia.
Each Christian feast raises hundreds of questions and gives hun¬dreds of answers. The questions are from men, the answers come from God through the feasts. This is especially true with the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. Here He opens for us, with His keys, hundreds of locked doors. For God has more answers than man has questions; He has more keys than man has mysteries. Let us, then, consider a few such questions. Here is a mystery: Why did Christ rise from the dead? The key: Because Life could not remain in the grave. A thousand years before, the Prophet foretold concerning Christ: ...nor wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corrup¬tion (Pss 15:10). Christ revealed the living God, the Father, to the world; He revealed the heavens, the living realm of angelic hosts; He revealed life after death and the eternal heavenly kingdom. Would, then, the Restorer of life remain in the darkness of the grave and the embrace of death? Christ raised Jairus’ daughter and the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus of Bethany. Would He Who raised others not raise up Himself?

By the same standard Saint – Nicholas Velimirovich

God will behave towards us in the same way as we behave to our brothers and sisters.

We’ll be measured by the same standard we use to measure others.

» Saint Nicholas Velimirovich

Source: pemptousia.com

 http://www.diakonima.gr/2015/06/18/by-the-same-standard-saint-nicholas-velimirovich/

The span of a raven Saint – Nicholas Velimirovich

God didn’t send us to earth so that we could live comfortably but for us to prepare for the eternal life that awaits us.
Just think what a terrible tragedy it would be if our Maker and Creator couldn’t offer us anything better, more luminous and more protracted than this life on earth, which has the stench of decline and death and lasts less than the span of a raven!
» Saint Nicholas Velimirovich
Source:  pemptousia.com
http://www.diakonima.gr/2015/06/02/the-span-of-a-raven-saint-nicholas-velimirovich/

St. Theodosius the Great, the Cenobiarch

St. Theodosius the Great, the Cenobiarch

Commemorated on January 11

Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

Theodosius was the first founder and organizer of the cenobitic way of monastic life. He was born in the province of Cappadocia in the village of Mogarissus of devout parents. As a child, he visited St. Simeon the Stylite who blessed him and prophesied great and spiritual honors about him. With a thurible [censer] in which he placed unburned charcoal and incense, Theodosius sought out a place where he could settle and establish his monastery and stopped when the charcoal fired up on its own. Here, he settled and began to live the ascetical life. Soon, he gathered around him many monks of various nationalities. He built a church for each nationality so that, at the same time, services and hymns were offered to God in Greek, Armenian, Georgian, etc. But, on the day of Holy Communion, all the brotherhood gathered in the great church in which the Greek language was used.

Saint John the Baptist gave himself up completely to the will of God…Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

SAINT JOHN THE FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST

 Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

HOMILY About submission to the Will of God

“Your will be done, on earth as in heaven” (St. Matthew 6:10).

Blessed be John the Baptist, for he fulfilled the Good News before the arrival of the Good News! Going into the wilderness, he gave himself up completely to the will of God, both body and soul. The will of God was carried out in his body on earth as well as in the heaven of his soul. Neither hunger nor wild beasts did harm his body throughout the many years that he spent in the wilderness. Neither was his soul harmed by despair because of loneliness, nor pride because of heavenly visions. He did not seek from man either bread or knowledge. God granted him everything that was necessary for him because he gave himself up completely to the will of God.

On the only Peace and the Peacemaker. Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

HOMILY on the only Peace and the Peacemaker

For He is our peace, Who hath made both one (Ephesians 2:14).

Between the Israelites and the pagans there lay a wide abyss that no mortal could bridge, or fill in and level off. The Lord Jesus Christ alone was the one who could do that, and He did it. That which had been estranged, He brought closer and joined. By what? By His Blood. By His sacrifice, He replaced all other sacrifices. By this, He redeemed all of nature and by Himself replaced that which men brought and offered to God (or, to the gods) as sacrifice. One sacrifice is sufficient both for the Israelites and for the pagans: the sacrifice of Christ. Furthermore, the blood of animals separated the Israelites and the pagans-by the places where they were offered, by the divinity to whom they were offered, by the kind of animal that was offered and the manner in which it was offered. Now, Christ’s Most-pure Blood has come in place of all that blood, and His Blood unites and makes brothers of the Israelites and the pagans. They became blood brothers, even as all of us faithful are blood-brothers-because of the Blood of Christ, by which we are redeemed from the curse, and by which we are now fed.

ON HALLOWEEN. By Saint Nicholai Velimirovic

ON HALLOWEEN

By Saint Nicholai Velimirovic.

As Orthodox Christians we must carefully examine every aspect of our involvement in the world, its activities, holidays and festivals, to be certain whether or not these in¬volvements are compatible with our Holy Orthodox Faith.

For a while now everything in the outside world is reminding us that Halloween is near: at school our children are busy painting pumpkins, cutting and pasting bats, ghosts and witches and planning the ideal costume in which to go trick-or-treating. Most of our schools, local community organizations and entertainment on television, radio and press will share in and capitalize upon the festival of Halloween. Many of us will participate in this festival by going to costume parties, or by taking our children trick-or-treating in our neighborhood after dark on October 31st.

Most of us will take part in the Halloween festivities believing that it has no deeper meaning than fun and excitement for the children. Most of us do not know the historical background of the festival of Halloween and its customs.