Bishop Elias Miniatius, born 330 years ago on the Greek island of Cephallinia, was a very educated man: for a long time he even taught secular and theological sciences to the children of noble Greeks. "The fame of Miniatius' eloquence," historians say, "was so great that not only Orthodox, but also Italian Catholics came to listen to his sermons." The book "Sermons", published by Sretensky Monastery, includes the saint's talks during the days of Great Lent and on major church feasts.

priest's advice, Great Lent, Orthodox Lent, about fasts and meals ru Tatyana Trushova If you found an error - write to e-mail saphyana@inbox.ru ExportToFB21 15.03.2011 OOoFBTools-2011-3-15-12-38-25-1155 1.0 Sermon Sretensky Monastery Publishing House

Homilies for Great Lent

Period one

A Word on Predestination in the First Week of Lent. On predestination

"In the morning (Jesus) wanted to go out into Galilee; and you shall find Philip, and say unto him, Follow me" (John 1:43)

There is nothing so proud and so inquisitive as the human mind. Though sin has weakened him greatly, though faith demands of him blind obedience, he still stretches out a hundred wings to soar to the heights, opens a hundred eyes to explore the most innermost things. And it would also be good if he were so eager to investigate so many wondrous works of nature on earth, for this is the natural striving of man, by which he is led to the knowledge of all existence. But he strives to penetrate into the most invisible depths of the incomprehensible divine destinies, in order to ascertain whether the supreme Providence of God really governs everything in a rational way, and what it positively determines about human affairs. After all, this is indecent impudence! Divine predestination is one of the most incomprehensible mysteries contained in the abyss of Divine reason and wisdom! The human mind, which is not narrow in cognition, limited in perception, let it study and investigate this mystery as much as it likes: it will never be able to understand it anyway.

Learned theologians, I know how you talk about divine predestination. You say: predestination is the foreknowledge and preparation of God's blessings, by which all who are saved are irrevocably saved; that it is the ascent of the rational creature to eternal life, it is the election to grace and glory. But you do not understand that God from eternity foresees everything that men do in time, that this divine foreknowledge is certain, and that the affairs of men in time are free. How can we reconcile the immutability of God's counsel and the free self-determination of rational creatures? Just as the immutability of the divine decision does not lead to necessity, why is it indubitable and not subject to chance? "And so, far away, away from these questions and perplexities of scientists, questions that do not teach, but only darken the mind. In this incomprehensible realm we, brethren, understand only one thing: namely, that predestination is a combination of divine grace and human will, the grace of God, which calls, and the human will, which follows the calling.

Going to Galilee, Jesus Christ found Philip and called him – saying to him: "Come after me." Philip believed and followed him. And Moses wrote in the law and the prophets, he says to his companion Nathanael, who found Jesus, the son of Joseph, who was of Nazareth. Thus Philip is predestined to the honor of the apostolic dignity and to the glory of the heavenly kingdom. This is what I will talk about today. I will try to prove two propositions. First, that God has all the desire to save every person; secondly, that man has all freedom to be saved with the help of the grace of God. God wills, and if man wills, then he is already predestodated.