My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
SAINT GREGORY PALAMAS, ARCHBISHOP OF THESSALONIKI,
THE MIRACLE-WORKER.
On the Second Sunday of Holy and Great Lent the Holy Orthodox Church commemorates our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, the Wonderworker. The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14th, however, he is commemorated on this Sunday as the condemnation of heresies and vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a Second Triumph of Orthodoxy.
Saint Gregory Palamas was born in the city of 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 Paleologos [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 deep in prayer as to be unaware of the Emperor addressing him. While Saint 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 interests lay only with the things of God. He associated with monks of renown in the city and found a spiritual father in Theoleptos of Philadelphia, who instructed him in the way of holy sobriety and of PRAYER OF THE HEART.
About the year 1316, Gregory decided to abandon the vanities of the world. His mother, two sisters, two brothers and a great many of his servants entered upon the Monastic Life with him. He and his two brothers went on foot to the Holy Mountain of Athos, where they settled near the Monastery of Vatopedi under the direction of the Elder Nikodemos, who came from Mount Auxentius. Gregory made rapid progress in the holy activities of prayer, for he had put into practice since childhood the fundamental virtues OF OBEDIENCE, HUMILITY, MEEKNESS, FASTING, VIGIL and the different kinds of renunciation that make the body subject to the spirit. Night and day he besought God ceaselessly with tears saying, “LIGHTEN MY DARKNESS!” After some time, the Mother of God, in whom he had put his trust since his youth, sent Saint John the Theologian to him with the promise of her protection in this life and in the next.
After only three years, the early death of his brother Theodosios, followed by that of the Elder Nikodemos, led Gregory and his second brother, Macarios, to attach themselves to the Monastery of the Great Lavra. Gregory was appointed chanter. His conduct in the cenobitic life was beyond reproach, and the brethren admired his zeal for putting into practice all the holy evangelic virtues. He lived with such abstinence as to appear unburdened by the flesh to the extent of being able to go three years of common life, his soul thirsting for the sweet waters of the wilderness, he retired to the hermitage of Glossia, under the direction of an eminent monk called Gregory of Byzantium. With the passions purified, he was now able to rise up in prayer to the contemplation of the mysteries of the Creation. Solitude and inner stillness enabled him to keep his intellect fixed at all times in the depths of his heart, where he called on the Lord Jesus with compunction so that he became all prayer, and sweet tears flowed continually from his eyes as from two fountains.
The incessant raids of Turkish pirates soon obliged Gregory and his companions to leave their Hermitage. Together with twelve monks, he wanted to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Places and to seek refuge at Mount Sinai, but this did not prove feasible. Instead, he spent some time in Thessaloniki, where he joined the group around the future Patriarch Isidore, who was endeavoring to spread the practice of the JESUS PRAYER among the faithful so that they might profit from the experience of the monks. In 1326, Gregory was ordained a priest, having understood in a vision that this was indeed the will of God. He then departed to found a Hermitage in the area of Veroia, where he practiced an even stricter ascesis than before.
When his mother died, he went to Constantinople to fetch his sisters, whom he settled in a Hermitage next to his own. But as Serbian raids in the region became more and more frequent, he decided to go back to Mount Athos. He settled a little above the Lavra in the Hermitage of Saint Savas, where he lived in greater seclusion than before, and could converse alone with God.
One day in a dream, he saw himself holding in his hands an overflowing bowl of milk which, little by little, became changed into wine that spilled over the lip of the bowl and soaked his hands and clothing. A youth then appeared, bathed in Light, and said to him: “Why do you not share with others that wonderful drink that you are wasting so carelessly, or are you not aware that it is a gift of God’s Grace? To this, Saint Gregory replied: ‘But, if there is no-one these days who knows the need of such a drink, to whom should I give it?’ Then the young man said to him: ‘Even if they are not thirsty for such a drink, you must pay your debt and not neglect such a gift.’ Saint Gregory interpreted the milk as signifying the ordinary knowledge of the mass of the people with reference to moral life and conduct, and the wine as signifying the knowledge of dogma. This was a sign to him that the moment had come to teach his brethren the mysteries that God revealed to him. He wrote several ascetic treatises at this time, and, in 1335, appointed Egoumenos (Abbot) of the Monastery of Esphigmenou. But the two hundred monks who lived there understood neither his zeal nor his spiritual expectations so, after a year, he returned to his Hermitage.
At that time, Barlaam, a monk from Calabria, won a great name for himself as a speculative thinker in Constantinople. He was particularly fond of expounding the mystical writings of Saint Dionysios Areopagite, which he interpreted in an entirely philosophical way, making knowledge of God the object of cold reason and not of experience. When this refined humanist learned of the methods of prayer of some simple monks of his acquaintance, who allowed a place to the sensory element in spiritual life, he was scandalized. He took the occasion to calumniate them and to accuse them of heresy. The hesychast monks appealed to Gregory who then wrote several polemical treatises in which he answered the accusations of Barlaam by locating monastic spirituality in a dogmatic synthesis.
He governed the Church in Thessaloniki for twelve years, of which he spent one year in slavery to the Saracens in Asia. He entered peacefully into rest in 1359, and entered into the Kingdom of Christ. His holy relics are preserved in Thessaloniki, where there is a beautiful church dedicated to him.
He showed that ASCESIS AND PRAYER ARE THE OUTCOME OF THE WHOLE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION, AND ARE THE WAY FOR EACH PERSON TO MAKE THE GRACE GIVEN AT BAPTISM BLOSSOM WITHIN HIMSELF. HE ALSO DEFENDED THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE METHODS WHICH THE HESYCHASTS USED TO FIX THE INTELLECT IN THE HEART; FOR SINCE THE INCARNATION WE HAVE TO SEEK THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN OUR BODIES WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED BY THE SACRAMENTS AND GRAFTED BY THE EUCHARIST INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST. THIS UNCREATED GRACE IS THE VERY GLORY OF GOD WHICH, AS IT SPRANG FORTH FROM THE BODY OF CHRIST ON THE DAY OF TRANSFIGURATION, OVERWHELMED THE DISCIPLES [Matthew 17]. [Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese]
(To be continued)
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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 