His All-Holiness: "We firmly believe that there is no solution possible to preserve and guarantee peace outside the path of dialogue, which abolishes the conditions that lead to violence and war. Peace comes from mutual respect and cooperation."
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Commemorated on 20 february
Sunday of the Prodigal Son.
Scripture Reading for Luke 15:11-32
The Sunday after the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This parable of God’s forgiveness calls us to “come to ourselves” as did the prodigal son, to see ourselves as being “in a far country” far from the Father’s house, and to make the journey of return to God. We are given every assurance by the Master that our heavenly Father will receive us with joy and gladness. We must only “arise and go,” confessing our self-inflicted and sinful separation from that “home” where we truly belong (Luke 15:11-24).
After the Polyeleion at Matins, we first hear the lenten hymn “By the Waters of Babylon.” It will be sung for the next two Sundays before Lent begins, and it serves to reinforce the theme of exile in today’s Gospel.
Starting tomorrow, the weekday readings summarize the events of Holy Week. On Monday we read Saint Mark's account of the Entry into Jerusalem. On Tuesday we read how Judas went to the chief priests and offered to betray the Lord. On the night before His death Christ tells His disciples that one of them will betray Him. He also predicts that they will desert Him, and that Peter will deny Him three times. On Wednesday the Gospel describes how Judas betrayed the Savior with a kiss. Thursday's Gospel tells how Jesus was questioned by Pilate. On Friday we read the narrative of Christ's crucifixion and death.
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The Saint of the day 8 august Venerable Moses the Hungarian of the Kiev Near Caves
Saint Moses the Hungarian of the Caves, was a brother of Saint Ephraim of Novy Torg (January 28), and of Saint George. Together with them he entered into the service of the holy Prince Boris (July 24). After the murder of Saint Boris in 1015 at the River Alta (Saint George also perished with him), Saint Moses fled and hid himself at Kiev with Predislava, sister of prince Yaroslav. In 1018, when the Polish king Boleslav seized Kiev, Saint Moses and his companions wound up in Poland as captives.
Tall and handsome, Saint Moses attracted the attention of a certain rich Polish widow, who burned with a passionate desire for him and wanted to ransom him from captivity and make him her husband. Saint Moses resolutely refused to exchange captivity for slavery to a wife. Despite his refusal, the Polish woman bought the captive.
She did everything in her power to seduce the youth, but he preferred hunger pains to banquets of food. Then the Polish woman began to convey Saint Moses through her lands, thinking to captivate him by power and riches. Saint Moses told her that he would not trade spiritual riches for the perishable things of this world, and that he wished to become a monk.
Passing through the area, an Athonite hieromonk tonsured Saint Moses a monk. The Polish woman gave orders to stretch Saint Moses on the ground and to beat him with iron rods, so that the ground became soaked with his blood. She sought permission of Boleslav to do with the captive all that she pleased. The shameless woman once gave orders to put Saint Moses in a bed with her. She kissed and embraced him, but she accomplished nothing by this.
Saint Moses said, “From the fear of God I loathe you as impure”. Hearing this, the Polish woman gave orders to give the saint each day a hundred lashes, and then to emasculate him. Boleslav soon began a persecution against all the monks in the land, but sudden death overtook him. A revolt arose in Poland, in which the widow also was killed.
Having recovered from his wounds, Saint Moses arrived at the Kiev Caves monastery, bearing on himself martyr’s wounds and a crown of a confessor and courageous warrior of Christ. The Lord provided him strength in his sufferings. A certain monastic brother, oppressed by impure passion, went to Saint Moses and sought his help, saying, “I promise to keep until death everything you tell me to do.” Saint Moses said: “As long as you live, do not speak a word to any woman.” The brother promised to obey the advice of the monk. Saint Moses had in his hand a staff, without which he was not able to walk because of the wounds which he had received. With this staff Saint Moses struck the chest of the brother who had approached him, and immediately he was delivered from temptation.
Saint Moses pursued asceticism at Kiev for 10 years; he died in about the year 1043 and was buried in the Near Caves. After venerating the saint’s holy relics and fervent prayer to him, the monks were healed of fleshly temptations.
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"Orthodoxy is what Christ taught, the apostles preached, and the Fathers kept." St. Athanasius the Great.
Eastern orthodox in Ukraine.