THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN (Archimandrite Tikhon Nevidimov)

"Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:18)

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord!

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Today, in the radiance of Easter joy, the Church remembers those who remained with Christ when the world turned away from Him. We remember the Myrrh-Bearing Women – those whose faith was not loudly proclaimed, but was active; not confessed in words, but sealed with life, tears, love, and faithfulness.

These are not just pages of biblical history. This living, historical presence: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleophas, Solome, Joanna, Susanna, and others—those who followed Christ along the dusty roads of Galilee, who served Him from their estates, who stood at the Cross when the apostles fled in fear, who were the first to arrive at the Tomb while it was still dark.

They stood at the Cross—not as heroines, but as grieving mothers, sisters, and disciples. Their hearts were pierced with pain when the Lord was lifted up onto the Tree. They saw everything they had hoped for crumble. And even after the Savior's death, when it seemed all was over, when only despair remained—they did not leave. They went to the Tomb. Without hope. Without a miracle. Only with Love. Only to anoint the body. To remain close, at least, to the Shadows of Christ.

But it was to them—not the apostles, not the high priests, not the philosophers—that the risen Lord first appeared. Why?

Because Love is beyond knowledge.

Because Love is the foundation of faith.

Because Love is beyond even hope.

They didn't believe they would see the Living One—but they didn't stop loving the Dead One. And so they met the Living One.

While Peter wept, Thomas doubted, and the other apostles hid behind doors, the myrrh-bearing women were already preaching the Resurrection.

And even if they weren't listened to. Even if the men brushed them off: "Their words seemed empty to them." But with God, there are no "empty" words, spoken with love and tears.

And so—victory. Christ comes into the upper room, closed by fear. He Himself confirms the message brought by the women. Their truth conquers male unbelief. Their faithfulness breaks down the walls of fear. Their love opens the doors of eternity.

Perhaps we are those apostles who hide in fear of the world? Or are we Thomas, who demands proof? Or perhaps we are myrrh-bearers? Not in strength, not in knowledge, not in loud confession, but in daily, patient, loving fidelity.

And so, even now, someone stands at the crucified Body—in the form of a ruined temple, a blasphemed priesthood, persecuted Orthodoxy. Someone goes to the Tomb—when faith seems dead and prayer unanswered. Someone carries myrrh—when the heart is exhausted, but love has not faded.

When the world rejects the truth, when even within the Church itself there is pain, division, scandal, weakness—you remain. Because Christ is not somewhere "above," but here—in the Mystery of the Church. And you do not leave. You stay—not for proof, not for a miracle, but because you love.

The myrrh-bearing women are an image of spiritual courage. They are the motherhood of faith. This is tenderness transformed into confession.

Today the Church says to every soul: be a myrrh-bearer. Do not be afraid to go to the Tomb. Do not be afraid to remain close when all have departed. Do not fear love, which is stronger than death.

Let each of us take one thing from this week:

When everything collapses, when there is nothing, Love remains. And this Love reveals the Resurrection.

Amen.

What is prelest (spiritual deception)? (Saint Theophan of Poltava)

An example of Monk Iliodor:

Among the students at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was a monk named Iliodor. He was distinguished by his spiritual fervor and heightened zeal. The Holy Fathers warn of such students that they can easily fall into "spiritual delusion," into spiritual self-delusion. This occurs because, out of self-confidence and arrogance, they begin to struggle without due humility, trusting in their own strength rather than in the Lord. And the Lord allows this to happen to them, or rather to us, in order to teach us reason and humble us, for falling into this spiritual malady of self-importance and self-delusion is the beginning of all terrible troubles. For Scripture says: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" ( Proverbs 16:18 ). "Before a fall, the heart of a man is haughty" ( Proverbs 18:13 ). “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” ( Luke 18:14 ).

Mystical proof of the existence of God (Saint Theophan of Poltava)

"Hardly anyone would dispute that the truth of Divine existence is the most central of all possible and actual truths of human knowledge, both in its theoretical and practical significance. It is equally close to the simple believing heart and to the mind rich in scientific knowledge. Philosophers dedicate their "works" to it, poets are inspired by it. Finally, it represents the ultimate support for every person in moments of life's difficult trials..."

But precisely because of this great significance, it has long evoked diametrically opposed attitudes. While for some it is clearer than daylight, for others it is a mere phantom of an undeveloped imagination.

Truth and Spirit (Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov)

Do not be deceived by the conceit and teachings of those deceived by conceit, who, disregarding the truth of the Church and Divine Revelation, assert that truth can speak within you without the sound of words, and instruct you by itself, through some vague and unclear action. This is the teaching of lies and their confidants .

The hallmarks of a false doctrine are obscurity, vagueness, opinion 21 , and the dreamy, bloody, and nervous pleasure it engenders. It is achieved through the subtle effects of vanity and lust.

Fallen humanity approaches holy truth by faith; there is no other way to it. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" ( Rom. 10:17 ), the Apostle teaches us.

The word of God is truth ( John 17:17 ); the commandments of the Gospel are truth ( Psalm 119:86 ); every man is a liar ( Psalm 116:2 ). All this is attested to by Divine Scripture. How then can you expect to hear the voice of holy truth from one who is a liar?

Life of Saint Leo Bishop of Catania, Sicily (+789)

Saint Leo, the saint of God, the son of noble and pious parents, hailed from the region of Ravenna. For his pure life and intellect, he was honored with all the sacred orders in due order, and upon the death of Blessed Sabinus, Bishop of Catana, he was elevated to the episcopal throne by God's election. The city of Catana is located on the island of Sicily, not far from Mount Etna, which still spews fiery lava. Upon accepting the episcopal throne, Saint Leo also assumed all the labors befitting his new rank. He cared for orphans, the poor, widows, the sick, and the straitened, feeding and clothing them at the expense of church property, and healed their ailments with his prayers. He was a merciful father to his children and a faithful shepherd of his flock, but to demons and their servants he was as terrifying as a lion to wolves. In his days there was a certain sorcerer in Catania, named Heliodorus; he was the son of pious parents who believed in Christ, and had himself been enlightened by holy baptism, but later secretly renounced Christ and began to serve demons, having learned sorcery from a Jew. Thus he was considered a Christian, but in fact he was a pagan, a servant of demons and a great sorcerer, no better than that ancient sorcerer Simon, whom the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul put to death by their prayers. Heliodorus was like him in all things: performing astonishing magical miracles, he, through his suggestion, caused people to imagine that rivers were flowing on dry ground, on roads and in the streets, so that citizens of both sexes, naked, crossed through the middle of the city, as it seemed to them, a river; he turned stones into gold, but only for a short time; In the markets he caused great losses to the merchants with his sorcery; he so aroused noble maidens, the daughters of honest and dignified citizens, to carnal sin with his magic that, forgetting shame, they left their homes and parents and ran to various places for the sake of fornication. When the hegemon Lucius reported him to the kings Leo and his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the kings sent a command to arrest him; but Heliodorus himself gave himself up to the people who were looking for him; he boarded a ship with them in Catania and landed that same day at Constantinople, having sailed in one hour a distance that only people sailing from the West - from Sicily to the East - to Thrace can imagine. Appearing before the kings, he was condemned by them to death, but immediately before the kings' eyes he became invisible and again appeared in Catania; Having been summoned a second time to Constantinople and condemned to beheading by the sword, the sorcerer again became invisible at the very moment when the warrior, raising the sword above his head, swung it with such force that the sword struck only the air; and again this sorcerer found himself in Catania.

Advice to contemporaries

Dear brother in Christ,

I am glad to greet you in the Lord, and thank you for your letter. I understand how serious these questions are, and I will try to answer you with the same seriousness.

First of all, I must tell you this: judging by everything, there are no truly God-bearing elders in our day —like, for example, the Optina elders who once guided people by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not by their own understanding or the interpretation of the Holy Fathers. This path of spiritual guidance is not given to our time—and, frankly, with our sins, weaknesses, and spiritual corruption, we do not deserve it .

On Zealotry (Saint Seraphim Rose)

Letter 218 (excerpt). Apodosis of Ascension, 1976 [May 29/June 11, 1976] Dear Daniel,

…Before going ahead, we must stop and find out where we are. We wish to be

zealots for true Orthodoxy, and our Church leaders have indicated clearly that we must have no contact with the Moscow Patriarchate and similarly enslaved Churches; must refrain from participating in ecumenist activities and must be aware that ecumenism is eating away the very Orthodox fiber of most of the Orthodox Churches, beginning with Constantinople; and must be zealously pursuing a path of true Orthodoxy ourselves, not only in outward acts but especially in spiritual life,  but without falling into false zealotry “not according to knowledge”—a point that Vlad. Averky especially emphasized. About the latter danger we have been learning much of late from the situation of the Old Calendarists in Greece, which can help us to avoid some mistakes “on the right side.”

Orthodox teaching on atonement and original sin

The following is the complete, extracted text of the two chapters from Acquiring the Mind of Christ: Embracing the Vision of the Orthodox Church by Archimandrite Sergius (Bowyer). These chapters are presented together because they form a unified Orthodox presentation of atonement (salvation).

Criticism of the new disgusting Kremlin propaganda: April 19, the so-called "Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Soviet People."

 

Criticism of the new disgusting Kremlin propaganda: April 19, the so-called "Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Soviet People."

Критика новой отвратительной кремлевской пропаганды: 19 апреля, так называемый «День памяти о геноциде советского народа».

(https://paodkb.org/events/19-aprelya-den-pamyati-o-genotside)

Homily for Thomas Sunday (Saint Alexei Mechev)

 

After completing the Forty Days of Great Lent, we have entered a new Forty Days, yet of a completely different nature. There, we mourned our sins, confessed our weaknesses, humbled ourselves through fasting and abstinence – we were in every respect as guilty ones seeking mercy and forgiveness of sins.

The new Forty Days, beginning with the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ, has placed us in a new and radiant state as Christians, liberated from condemnation, resurrected for a new holy life, confident in the eternal blessedness of the immortality bestowed upon us.

There we saw an example for ourselves in our Lord, how He, entering into the work of saving humankind, spent forty days in the strictest fasting, in solitary prayer, and in struggle against the unseen enemy.

Here we see the same Lord, who for forty days appeared to His disciples, but we see Him glorified, victorious, triumphant over all His enemies. How comforting are these repeated appearances of the Lord to His disciples following His Resurrection. All of them testify to the greatest love of the Lord for those who believe in Him.

Here is the first assurance of the goodwill of the Lord, bestowed upon Christians: He, the risen one, appeared only to His own, only to His closest disciples, only to those who believed in Him. It seems, why would the Lord not appear again in Jerusalem before the faces of His treacherous enemies, the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees? What confusion, shame, and defeat He would have brought upon them before the people, before those whom they taught to oppose the Lord.

So it seems to us, brethren, due to our vanity and love for power: it is we who enjoy witnessing the humiliation of our enemies, it is we who boast of victory over our opponents. It is gratifying for us to trample upon those who intended to do us harm.

Our Lord is loving; He spares His enemies. He allows them to realize their guilt, to acknowledge their crimes, and to willingly come to the Lord.

Would there have been any benefit had He appeared in glory to His enemies? For a moment they might be struck down – but then what?

If the very disciples of the Lord did not suddenly meet Him with faith, but considered Him joyfully as a dream, a premonition, or merely an appearance of the spirit – then even more so would His adversaries, blinded by passions and malice, have encountered Him with doubt, disbelief, and an even greater surge of malice and hatred.

Yes, even if they were to convert – would it be for long?

We observe among ourselves how thoughtful individuals refuse to acknowledge the manifest truth, but stubbornly reject it, spurred by pride and the desire to glorify themselves.

It seemed that they had lost faith in His Resurrection; yet in an instant, when He was among them, when He still sat with them, spoke His wondrous familiar words, even ate and drank with them, showed them His wounds and scars – in that moment, this sorrow, this doubt transformed into joy, into certainty, into such devotion for which they were ready to go to the marketplace, endure suffering, and accept a painful death. And behold, how diverse were the manifestations of the Lord! He appears to women first, to reward them for the courage with which they stood by Him until His last breath; He appears to Peter, who had denied Him three times, to encourage him and restore his title as Apostle; He appears to two disciples on the way, so that two witnesses could more firmly assure the Apostles; and finally, when all the Apostles were prepared, in an eager expectation, already tormented by impatience – then He stood among them to bless them for the great task that awaited them after Him. He appeared to all the faithful to assure them of His Divinity.

The Lord has demonstrated a renewed assurance of love for Christians in that He has shown, through His appearances, His care for all the needs of His disciples. The Lord appears to all the disciples and also to one or two alone. This signifies that the Lord cares for both the entire Church and for each individual believer.

The Lord has appeared not once, nor twice, but many times. This means that regardless of our state or circumstances, He is always present with us. The Lord, through His manifestations, has always brought some joy, help, or consolation: here is Mary standing by the tomb of the Lord and weeping – and He is there to comfort the grieving. Here are two disciples on their way to Emmaus, expressing their emotional sorrows and shattered hopes – and the Lord is right there to dispel their doubts. The Apostles locked their doors, Thomas does not believe until he touches His wounds, and the Lord satisfies them all.

Is it not reassuring for us, Christians! Christ has promised to be with us forever: what, then, shall we fear?

Source: https://www.mystagogyresourcecenter.com/2025/04/homily-on-sunday-of-thomas-righteous.html