Before considering St. Gregory and St. Paisius we should look at the Jesus Prayer, a form of prayer which influenced them and which they influenced. In its longer form it is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” It can be shortened to “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” or “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” or finally “Lord have mercy”, which we is what we sing at the Divine Liturgy. For those of us living in the world, clergy and laity alike, can pray it by sitting or standing in one’s icon corner at home and repeating it five, ten or fifteen minutes. The time doesn’t matter, as long as one prays with attention and devotion, that is enough. It can also be repeated at such random moments as waiting for a train, being stuck in traffic, while walking and so on. It is also useful in fighting temptation, if we repeat it even as “Lord have mercy” before we speak or act. The whole culture of the Jesus prayer is theology and practice is referred to as hesychasm. This is from the Greek work for silence.
St. Gregory Palamas was born into a noble family in Constantinople in 1296 AD.  In 1318 he became a monk on Mount Athos when he learned the traditions of hesychasm. With the aggressive action of the Turks, St. Gregory was forced to flee Athos to Thessalonica where he was ordained to the priesthood. He then returned to Mt. Athos in 1331. Six years later, at the request of the Athonite monks, he entered into conflict with Barlaam, and Italo-Greek monk. Barlaam said that philosophers had a better knowledge of God than the monks. For Barlaam, education and scholarship were the best way to know God. However, he believed that God was unlimited, unknowable for human beings. St. Gregory taught that monks had a greater knowledge of God because they had seen or heard Him. He said that God was indeed unknowable in His essence, but is knowable though his energies, which refer to God’s activities in the created world and humanity. St. Gregory wrote several books defending the theory and practice of hesychasm (the Jesus Prayer) and his teaching was vindicated by church councils in Constantinople. In later life, St. Gregory became Archbishop of Thessalonica and spent a year as a captive of the Turks. He died in 1368.
Much of the teaching of the hesychasts are contained in a series of books known in Greek as the Philokalia, meaning “the love of the beautiful or good.” It contains teaching on prayer from fathers of the church from the fourth to fifteenth centuries. It was first published in Greek in 1782 by Saints Nikodemos and Makarius on Mount Athos. It was translated into Church Slavonic by St. Paisius Velichkovsky and published in 1793. This was the book carried by the pilgrim in “The Way of the Pilgrim” and influenced the elders at Optina Monastery and throughout the whole Russian Orthodox Church. It was translated and published in Russian in the second half of the 19th century and published in English in the 20th century. It is said that the Philokalia is the most important book in the Orthodox Church after the Bible. However, its style and context arose in radically different times than our own so simply picking it up and trying to read it straight through is difficult. It is very helpful to read it with the guidance of someone, often a monk or nun who are steeped in it spiritually. There are also abridged editions with commentary which can help us to understand it.
As mentioned above, St. Paisius was the one who translated the Philokalia into Slavonic. St. Paisius was born in Poltava in 1722 and as a teenager entered the Kiev Theological Academy. Leaving the academy to become a monk, he eventually made his way to Mt. Athos. He gathered many disciples around him. After 17 years on Mt. Athos he and his fellow monks moved to Moldavia. Finally, St. Paisius and his brotherhood moved to a monastery in Niametz. This became a large monastery with over 700 monks. They maintained a hospital and house of mercy.
At this monastery St Paisius and his monks translated many books including the Philokalia into Slavonic and other languages. As befitting a translator of the Philokalia, St. Paisius revived and taught hesychast spirituality and the Jesus Prayer. St. Paisius’s translation and his practice of the Jesus Prayer led to a revival of this spirituality and influenced many monks and monasteries in the years to come. St. Paisius died in 1794.

St Gregory Palamas the Archbishop of Thessalonica – Troparion & Kontakion

Troparion — Tone 8

O light of Orthodoxy, teacher of the Church, its confirmation, O ideal of monks and invincible champion of theologians, O wonder-working Gregory, glory of Thessalonica and preacher of grace, always intercede before the Lord that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion — Tone 8

Holy and divine instrument of wisdom, joyful trumpet of theology, together we sing our praises, O God-inspired Gregory. Since you now stand before the Original Mind, guide our minds to Him, O Father, so that we may sing to you: “Rejoice, preacher of grace.”

Venerable Paisius Velichkovsky – Troparion & Kontakion

Troparion — Tone 2

Having become a stranger on earth, you reached the heavenly homeland, venerable Father Paisius. You taught the faithful to lift up their minds to God, crying out to Him with all their hearts: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!”

Kontakion — Tone 8

Like a much-laboring bee, you were an elect zealot of the monastic life, supplying our souls with the writings of the Fathers through which you guide us on the path of salvation. Therefore we cry out to you: “Rejoice, truly-wise Paisius, for through you the tradition of spiritual elders has been restored to us!”

Fr. John

Some think that Christians pray to an “old man in the sky,” that for Christians God is rather a distant figure. Of course God is in heaven, but He is omnipresent, he is everywhere. As the prayer “O Heavenly King” says, God (the Holy Spirit) is “everywhere present and fills all things”. If we read the Bible, we see that God is present in the world and in the hearts of humanity. Of course, God is present in the world most fully in the person of Jesus Christ, but we see that before the coming of Christ, God was often present by sending His angels into the world. For example, in the Book of Genesis, Jacob had a vision of angels ascending and descending to heaven, in other words, heaven was open and God was present to His people through His angels (Gen 28:12). In the New Testament Jesus Christ, recalling the Old Testament passages, says to Nathaniel that He would see heaven open and angels ascending and descending on the “Son of Man”, i.e., Jesus Christ Himself. In other words, Jesus Christ Himself is the person through whom heaven is open to humanity (Jn 1:51).
In the Creed we say that we believe that God created “all things visible and invisible”. Invisible here refers to the creation of the angels. Of course, this invisible world with its angels is something human beings ordinarily cannot see, but the lives of the saints show us that the invisible world and its angels sometimes become visible.
The word angel literally means messenger, but in the Orthodox Church angels are only one part of this invisible world. According to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a fifth century saint, there are nine choirs of angels in three groups. Actually angels strictly speaking are the lowest part of this hierarchy of bodiless powers.

First Hierarchy:
Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones

Second Hierarchy:
Powers
Dominions
Principalities

Third Hierarchy:
Virtues
Archangels
Angels

We should not take this classification too literally. However, we can say that in the Orthodox Church there is some difference in rank and office of the angels. We see angels acting in the whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. In the New Testament we see an angel appearing to Zechariah to announce his wife would give birth to John the Baptist (Lk 1:11). In Luke 12:6, the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to Jesus Christ. In Luke 2:10 we see the angels announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. In Mark 4:11 the angels come and minister to Jesus Christ after his forty-day fast in the desert. In Luke 22:43 an angel comforts Jesus during his agony in the garden before his arrest, crucifixion and death. In Matthew 28:5 an angel announces the resurrection of Jesus and also moves the stone away from the tomb.
So we see angels acting in the world at God’s bidding. According to tradition, each person has a Guardian Angel and most Orthodox prayer books have a prayer to one’s Guardian Angel among morning prayers. Here is one such prayer: O Angel of God, my Holy Guardian, given to me from heaven by God for my protection, enlighten me this day, and save me from all evil, instruct me in doing good deeds, and set me on the path of salvation. Amen.
There have been many times when a Guardian Angel has intervened to help someone, and they even have become visible. We should remember that angels are real, and an important part of the spiritual world.

Troparion — Tone 4

Commanders of the heavenly hosts, we who are unworthy beseech you/ by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you: “Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commanders of the powers on high!”

Kontakion — Tone 2

Commanders of God’s armies and ministers of the divine glory, princes of the bodiless angels and guides of mankind, ask for what is good for us, and for great mercy, supreme commanders of the Bodiless Hosts.

Fr. John

St. John Kochurov is a 20th C. martyr, but before we consider him, let us look at martyrdom in general. First, Christianity has always been a church of martyrs. One often hears it said that St. Stephen is the first Christian martyr. St. Stephen was one of the seven men ordained as deacons by the apostles. He was preaching the Gospel, was arrested and put on trial before the Council in Jerusalem. At his trial, he bravely spoke about how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of all the hopes of the Old Testament. For this he was stoned to death, forgiving his murderers as he died. So St. Stephen is often referred to as the first Christian Martyr or Protomartyr. His story is found in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles 6:8 to 7:60. However we can call the Holy Innocents the first martyrs. These were the babies who were killed by King Herod in Bethlehem when he sent his soldiers to find and kill the Christ child. Now obviously these babies were not martyrs in the way we usually think of them, but in a sense they did die because of the world’s hatred of Christ. Their story is found in the Gospel of St. Matthew 2:16-18. In the first three centuries after Christ, there were periodic campaigns against the Christians with many martyrs. The last and worst of the Roman persecutions came under Emperors Diocletian, Maximus, Galerius and Constantine in 303 AD. About 3000- 3500 Christians died as martyrs then. As we can see these numbers are rather small compared to the martyrs of the 20th century. We all know about the millions of believers who suffered under the Nazis, Communists and so on. Unfortunately, persecution against believers of all religions continues today. For example, the Chinese government targets Christians, as well as Tibetan Buddhists, Daoists and Moslems. In the last decade of the 21st century as many as 100,000 Christians have died as martyrs. This was a statistic used by the Vatican and others. Others say the number is much smaller but we are still talking about thousands of martyrs each year. We should pray for them and also work in any way we can to save such people. On October 31st, we commemorate St. John Kochurov. St. John was born in ussia in 1871, in the family of a priest. After studying in Ryazan and St. Petersburg he got married and ordained to the deaconate and priesthood. After ordination St. John came to the United States as a missionary and was assigned to what later became Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago. He was instrumental in the building of the church. He worked as a priest in various cities in Illinois, New York and even in Oklahoma. He helped to organize the first All-American Council, which met in Mayfield, Pennsylvania in 1908. A little later he returned to Russia and served as a priest in Narva, Estonia. In 1911 he was assigned to St. Catherine’s cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo, a town close to St. Petersburg and one of the residences for the Russian Imperial family. It is now part of the town of Pushkin. When the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, St. John was arrested and quickly shot. He then became the first hieromartyr of the Bolshevik yoke. In other words, he was the first member of the clergy to be killed by the communists after their takeover. In December of 1994 St. John was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church. Of course, we in the United States should remember and be grateful for St. John’s work in building up the Orthodox Church in America and pray to him now as a saint, believing that St. John continues to intercede for us and the church in America.

Troparion — Tone 1

Aflame with love for God, you gave your life as a martyr for Christ and neighbor, for this you received a crown of righteousness from Him. Hieromartyr John, entreat the most Merciful God to preserve the Holy Holy Church in peace and to save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 1

You were revealed to all as a true shepherd O Hieromartyr John of Chicago, for you nurtured your people in the Orthodox Faith, guiding them by word and deed on the path of salvation, and defended the Faith even unto the shedding of your blood. Therefore, we, your spiritual children, cry out in thanksgiving: Glory to Him who gave you strength! Glory to Him who granted you the Martyr’s crown! Glory to Him who through you grants mercy to all!

Kontakion — Tone 8

As you zealously fulfilled your pastoral service, you brought your soul to God as a well-pleasing sacrifice, O Father John. Entreat Christ God to grant peace to the world and great mercy to our souls.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Now the holy Hieromartyr is glorified, for he took up his cross and followed Christ. In so doing, he gave us a model of true discipleship. Therefore, let us cry aloud to him: Rejoice, O Father John, the glory of priests!

Fr. John

One may well wonder why we are commemorating this particular earthquake. After all, there have been many earthquakes, as well as other natural disasters in human history – so why commemorate this one?
This earthquake in Constantinople took place in 740 AD. This was at the time Emperor Leo was destroying icons and the people of Constantinople felt that it was God’s anger that led to this disaster. The believers prayed to St. Demetrius of Thessalonica and the earthquakes ceased.
St. Demetrius of Thessalonica is a third to 4th century martyr. He was born in 270 AD in Thessalonica. He came from a noble Roman background and according to some traditions he was a soldier, and is depicted as a solder on his icons. He was martyred in approximately 306 AD during the persecution of the Roman Emperors Diocletian and Galerias. During the reign of the Emperor St. Constantine (306-337) his relics were exhumed and it was found that the relics streamed myrrh, a miraculous sign which pointed to St. Demetrius being a saint, and a church was built for these remains in Thessalonica and they remain there today. Emperors sometimes tried to bring the relics to Constantinople, but the saint always revealed that his relics should stay where they were. For centuries, the people of Thessalonica prayed to St. Demetrius to save them from natural disasters and enemy attack.
Now if we take the cessation of the earthquake as simply one more miracle we might miss a deeper meaning. The Book of Genesis tells us that when God created the world he saw that it was good. But as humanity fell in the persons of Adam and Eve, in some sense the universe, the material world also fell. As St. Paul wrote in Romans 8:22 “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now…” In other words, Jesus Christ did not come simply to “save souls” but also to raise the dead and restore the created world back to its original condition. The restoration of the material world will only be complete at the end of time,. But we can see Jesus’ many nature miracles, such as stopping the storm on the sea, multiplying the bread and the fish, walking on water, as foretastes of this final restoration to come. In that sense St. Demetrius stopping the earthquake of Constantinople (and his relics streaming myrrh) shows that God’s saints, through their intercession and human beings through their prayer, cooperate in the restoration of the cosmos. We see this reflected in the Bible in the Book of Revelation which tells us about the end time. St. John writes in Revelation 21:1-5 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
So we can see that these nature miracles are not isolated ‘wonders” but signs of what God is doing even now.

Holy, Glorious Demetrius the Myrrh-gusher of Thessalonica

Troparion — Tone 3

The world has found you to be a great defense against tribulation and a vanquisher of
heathens, O Passion-bearer. As you bolstered the courage of Nestor, who then
humbled the arrogance of Lyaios in battle, Holy Demetrius, entreat Christ God to grant
us great mercy.

Kontakion — Tone 2

God, who has given you invincible might, has tinged the Church with streams of your
blood, Demetrius! He preserves your city from harm, for you are its foundation!

Commemoration of the Great Earthquake at Constantinople

Troparion — Tone 8

Christ our God, You look the earth and it trembles; deliver us from the terrible threat of
earthquakes; and through the prayers of the Theotokos, send down upon us Your
abundant mercy and save us.

Kontakion — Tone 6

Deliver us all from upheavals, and from terrible afflictions caused by our sins, O Lord, and
spare Your people whom You have purchased with Your blood, O Master. Do not deliver
Your city to destruction by terrible earthquakes, for we know no other God than You; and
to those who cry out You respond: “I am with you and no one will be against you.”

Fr. John

St. Luke is the author of one of the Gospels, the others being Matthew, Mark and John. When we hear the word “Gospel” we understand it to be one of these four books and this is true in a sense. But our English word “Gospel” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “God-spell”, meaning “Good News”. In Greek the word is “Evangelion” which also means good news. In this sense the Good News refers not so much to the four books, but rather the good news of what God has done for men and women through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So for example, St. Mark’s Gospel beings this way “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mk 1:1). In this passage the Gospel is the Good News about Jesus which follows in the rest of the Gospel.
St. Luke, unlike, the authors of the other three Gospels was a Greek by upbringing and education, Matthew, Mark and John all being Jews. Luke was an educated man and a doctor. In fact, some scholars have detected a professional medical use of language in St. Luke’s Greek, although this is only held by a minority of scholars. St. Luke was one of the Seventy Apostles, a larger group than the twelve we usually think of. During Our Lord’s lifetime, St. Luke was sent out on preaching trips like the other apostles. After the Resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to St. Luke and Cleopas (also an apostle of the seventy) on the road to Emmaus, where he was “made know to them in the breaking of the bread.” This passage is found in the twenty fourth chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel which is read in turn with the other Resurrection Gospels in the Matins service, usually served on Saturday night. After Pentecost, St. Luke worked as a missionary and accompanied St. Paul during parts of St. Paul’s travels, going together with him to Rome. St. Luke’s travels with St. Paul are found in the Book of Acts, the second part of St. Luke’s writing. Actually, St. Luke’s description of St. Paul’s journeys by sea around the Mediterranean are considered by some to be rather accurate descriptions of sailing conditions in those places. After St. Paul’s martyrdom, St Luke continued preaching the Good News of Christ. He wrote his two volume work “The Gospel According to Saint Luke” and the “Book of Acts”. St. Luke, being an educated man, prefaced his Gospel with remarks about how he set about researching and writing his Gospel. Although the Gospels are not biographies in a modern sense, St. Luke is proceeding in the best tradition of Greco-Roman historiography. “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” (Lk 1:1-4) St. Luke’s Gospel begins with the birth stories of St. John the Baptist, Jesus hrist and ends with Christ’s Ascension. The Book of Acts begins with the Ascension and tells the early history of the Church.
According to tradition, St. Luke was the first iconographer and painted an icon of the Mother of God and some of the Apostles. St. Luke died as a martyr in Greece. His relics were kept in Constantinople until 1204 when the Crusaders took them to Padua.

Troparion — Tone 5

Let us praise with sacred songs the holy Apostle Luke, the recorder of the joyous Gospel of Christ and the scribe of the Acts of the Apostles, for his writings are a testimony of the Church of Christ: He is the physician of human weaknesses and infirmities. He heals the wounds of our souls, and constantly intercedes for our salvation!

Kontakion — Tone 2

Let us praise the godly Luke: he is the true preacher of piety, the orator of ineffable mysteries and the star of the Church; for the Word, Who alone knows the hearts of men,  chose him, together with wise Paul, to be a teacher of the gentiles!

Fr. John