Welcome HTGOC Parishioners & Guests!
Second Sunday of Great Lent - Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas (Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos)
By Archimandrite Epiphanios Theodoropoulos
On this day is celebrated the memory of our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. The Horologion says this about him:
"This divine father was from Asia Minor, and as a child he was raised in the royal court of Constantinople, where he was educated in both our own and in secular wisdom. After this, while still a youth, he abandoned the imperial court and went to live on the Holy Mountain of Athos and in a skete of Beroea. He spent some time in Thessaloniki to treat an illness brought on by his rigorous lifestyle. In Constantinople he attended a synod that had convened in 1341 against Barlaam the Calabrian and in 1347 against Akindynos who was like-minded to him, where he bravely contested on behalf of the correctness of the doctrines of Christ's Eastern Church. In 1349 he was appointed Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, and he shepherded this flock in an apostolic manner for 13 years. Having lived a total of 63 years in which he wrote many things, he departed to the Lord. His sacred relic is preserved in the metropolis of Thessaloniki, and his Service of Praise was composed by Philotheos the Patriarch in the year 1368, at which time his feast was established for this day."
The reason for the feast of Saint Gregory being established on this Sunday is as follows: This Father of our Church was the foremost teacher of Orthodox Dogmas and an unconquerable opponent of the cacodox. The Church therefore sets before us his memory on the second Sunday of Great Lent, as a continuation, in a way, and extension of the first Sunday, namely the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Therefore the memory of Saint Gregory is in appearance a second "Sunday of Orthodoxy".
Our Church praises with hymns this great Father, chanting:
"Light of Orthodoxy, support and teacher of the Church, beauty of the monastic life, invincible defender of theologians, Gregory the Wonderworker, the boast of Thessaloniki, and preacher of grace, intercede forever that our souls may be saved."
Source: From the book Περίοδος Τριωδίου. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
"This divine father was from Asia Minor, and as a child he was raised in the royal court of Constantinople, where he was educated in both our own and in secular wisdom. After this, while still a youth, he abandoned the imperial court and went to live on the Holy Mountain of Athos and in a skete of Beroea. He spent some time in Thessaloniki to treat an illness brought on by his rigorous lifestyle. In Constantinople he attended a synod that had convened in 1341 against Barlaam the Calabrian and in 1347 against Akindynos who was like-minded to him, where he bravely contested on behalf of the correctness of the doctrines of Christ's Eastern Church. In 1349 he was appointed Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, and he shepherded this flock in an apostolic manner for 13 years. Having lived a total of 63 years in which he wrote many things, he departed to the Lord. His sacred relic is preserved in the metropolis of Thessaloniki, and his Service of Praise was composed by Philotheos the Patriarch in the year 1368, at which time his feast was established for this day."
The reason for the feast of Saint Gregory being established on this Sunday is as follows: This Father of our Church was the foremost teacher of Orthodox Dogmas and an unconquerable opponent of the cacodox. The Church therefore sets before us his memory on the second Sunday of Great Lent, as a continuation, in a way, and extension of the first Sunday, namely the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Therefore the memory of Saint Gregory is in appearance a second "Sunday of Orthodoxy".
Our Church praises with hymns this great Father, chanting:
"Light of Orthodoxy, support and teacher of the Church, beauty of the monastic life, invincible defender of theologians, Gregory the Wonderworker, the boast of Thessaloniki, and preacher of grace, intercede forever that our souls may be saved."
Source: From the book Περίοδος Τριωδίου. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
St. Gregory Palamas: The Wonder of Noetic Prayer
By Archimandrite Dionisios Karagiannis
During the Second Sunday of Great Lent, the Church celebrates the memory of the epitome of faith and life, St. Gregory Palamas, later Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who, according to the hymns, is the great teacher of the Church and the preacher of divine light.
The distinction of essence and energies of God involves all of those things God can share and those He cannot share. The essence of God is inaccessible and unknown to creation, including people. However, one can come into relationship and communion with God through His uncreated energies, and the grace offered generously.
In the relation of sanctification and communion, the heart, not the mind, is the way for anyone to have the divine experience of uncreated light. Saint Gregory Palamas gives us the example of the sun.
For Palamas, God is known sort of like the sun is known. We see the sun’s light and sense its heat. And though we may not be able to stand on the surface of the sun without melting, or be joined to its essence without disintegrating, we can nevertheless experience its energy. Thus, the face of the Prophet Moses radiated on Mount Sinai.
Yet perhaps one is wondering what is the benefit for us today, of a teaching of a Saint, a Hesychast, focused on noetic prayer known as “prayer of the heart”, an ancient practice of monks and people of the fourteenth century?
Why is the essence–energies distinction of God a basic element of our Orthodox spirituality and our personal relationship with God? Many of us are not monks and ascetics.
Learning the ascetic prayer method of the Holy Fathers gives us the possibility to taste the uncreated light of God. It also gives us the necessary spiritual goods in order to participate in this experience.
It is not, therefore, merely a reflection that forms the basis of Hesychasm. Nor is it a super-cognitive inner self-revelation of the mind, which is the hesychastic experience.
We feel that these profound teachings of St. Gregory Palamas touch the boundaries of divine presence, out of noetic capabilities, in the depths of our heart, where the prayer is working for union with God.
Noetic prayer, which St. Gregory Palamas hands down to us as a spiritual treasure, is not only for those who live in the monasteries and deserts, but also for the faithful. This prayer makes the nous to meet in the heart. The heart in the neptic and hesychastic tradition is the center of the moral and spiritual, and the throne and the place of the grace of God.
There a human being meets God and God meets a human being. In this meeting the filthy thoughts and sinful desires will emerge, trying to infect our hearts and severe the ties of communion with the uncreated light.
That is why we need silence, a special way that protects us from the devil’s scourges and our desires.
With the basic prerequisite of the essence-energies distinction, noetic prayer is the light in our soul. It is a chain that connects a human being with God.
These two things are not doctrinal or abstract concepts and some philosophical views of the Saint. On the Second Sunday of Great Lent the gracious preacher reminds us that God is light, in Whom there is no darkness.
Our noetic prayer helps us to taste this divine state and experience, because otherwise God and the uncreated light will remain unknown and invisible and will not touch our everyday life.
This light and experience is given to us by the Church through its mysteries, and noetic prayer helps us to become the vessels of the grace of God. Amen.
| CLICK HERE for Live Streaming of Holy Trinity Cathedral Services | CLICK HERE for Metropolis of Atlanta Live Stream Services |
(Submit names and cathedral clergy will light candles)
In the event you are unable to access our live stream, you can find a church in our metropolis here:
https://atlmetropolis.org/liturgies-and-sermons
If you need help creating an online giving account, or if you are not receiving communications from the church, please contact the office so we can update your information in our systems. (803) 252-6758 or htgocc@gmail.com
Online Chapel
5th Thursday of Lent: The Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete
Saints and Feasts Commemorated
Visit the Online Chapel for more daily readings, hymns, a monthly calendar of saints and feasts, and more.
Click above for Holy Trinity Livestreaming Services
Click above for the Atlanta Livestreaming Services
The Adornment Of Our Beautiful Sanctuary
