Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

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“… Adam chose the treason of the serpent, the originator of evil, in preference to God’s commandment and counsel, and broke the decreed fast. Instead of eternal life he received death and instead of the place of unsullied joy he received this sinful place full of passions and misfortunes, or rather, he was sentenced to Hades and nether darkness.

“Our nature would have stayed in the infernal regions below the lurking places of the serpent who initially beguiled it, had not Christ come. He started off by fasting (cf. Mk. 1:13) and in the end abolished the serpent’s tyranny, set us free and brought us back to life.”

— St. Gregory Palamas, The Homilies Vol. II

Do not shrug your shoulders.

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St. Anthony the Great

“It is said about an ancient orator that he labored day and night to perfect himself in the art of oratory. Someone said to him: ‘Demosthenes does not want you to be the chief orator.’ To which he immediately retorted: ‘Neither will I allow him to be the only one.’ If you cannot be a first-class saint like St. Anthony, do not shrug your shoulders and say: ‘Nothing can come of me!’ Increase your efforts and double your talent. In My Father’s house are many mansions, said the Lord (John 14:2). If you merit to settle in the least of these dwelling places, you will be more glorious and more fortunate than all of the rulers who have ever existed on earth. To each according to his own talent. You will not be a St. Anthony, but neither will St. Anthony, alone, occupy the Kingdom of God.”

-St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The true vocation of man.

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Fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual nature. It is not a theoretical but truly a practical challenge to the great Liar who managed to convince us that we depend on bread alone and built all human knowledge, science, and existence on that lie. Fasting is a denunciation of that lie and also proof that it is a lie.
….
Let us understand …that what the Church wants us to do during Lent is to seek the enrichment of our spiritual and intellectual inner world, to read and to meditate upon those things which are most likely to help us recover that inner world and its joy. Of that joy, of the true vocation of man, the one that is fulfilled inside and not outside, the ‘modern world’ gives us no taste today; yet without it, without the understanding of Lent as a journey into the depth of our humanity, Lent loses its meaning.

-Father Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

The cold in Armenia is very sharp.

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The 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste are commemorated on March 9. Their martyrdom was in 320 under the Emperor Licinius, and St. Basil eulogized them only 50 years later in a homily on their feast day:

Homily on The Forty Martyrs

Wikipedia has this to say about the saints:

“A church was built at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and it was in this church that Basil publicly delivered his homily. Gregory of Nyssa was especially devoted to the Forty Martyrs; two discourses in praise of them, preached by him in the church dedicated to them, are still preserved, and upon the death of his parents he laid them to rest beside the relics of the confessors. Ephrem the Syrian has also eulogized the Forty Martyrs. Sozomen, who was an eye-witness, has left an interesting account of the finding of the relics in Constantinople, in the shrine of Saint Thyrsus built by Caesarius, through the instrumentality of Empress Pulcheria.”

Those noble soldiers of the Master of all let us honor,
for they were united by their faith
as they passed through fire and water,
and being enlisted by Christ
they entered to divine refreshment.
Now those pious warriors stand and intercede
with Christ God for those who cry out.
Glory to Him that hath given you strength.
Glory to him that hath crowned you.
Glory to Him that made you wondrous,
Holy Forty Martyrs.

-Hymn for the feast