"You have risen from the dead as You said, O Giver of life..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the man born blind (source)

  

You have risen from the dead as You said, O Giver of life, and You appeared to Your holy Disciples after Your Resurrection, and worked wonders, giving sight to the blind, with whom we magnify You unto the ages.
-from the Matins Canon of the Sunday of the Blind Man

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death, and upon those in the tombs He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

"O noetic sun of righteousness, Christ God..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the man born blind (source)

  

O noetic sun of righteousness, Christ God, You Who from Your spotless condescension illumined him who was deprived of light from his mother's womb, shine also upon the eyes of our souls, showing us forth to be sons of the day, that we might cry out together in faith to You: Great and unspeakable is Your compassion towards us, O Lover-of-mankind, glory to You.
-Doxastikon of the Aposticha in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone from the feast of the Healing of the Blind Man

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death, and upon those in the tombs He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

Elder Aimilianos: Fasting and Prayer as a Longing for God

Jesus Christ, detail (source)

  
"Longing for God is expressed with fasting, with an empty stomach... Fasting has a unique meaning by expressing the longing for God... The same occurs for prayer. If prayer to myself had meaning, then my prayer life would be a human endeavor, a tendency and revival, it wouldn't be God. My prayer has meaning because it exactly expresses my longing: 'Come and abide in us...', the: 'Where are you, my God?'

"With fasting, vigil, and prayer, chaos and malaise are shown to be our rags before God, as the poor man shows his rags to his fellow man in order for him to have pity on him to help him, or like the blind man cried out to Christ to give him light. Thus, we show our poverty and he ask that He open our eyes in order to understand that we are sinners, that we might repent and so He can forgive us...

"The approach therefore is an uncreated energy, a true projection of His being. Because of this, my life as well is a true communion with the true God. While God acts, I commune with Him. While God is unapproachable, I partake of Him...

"Only the: 'Where are you, my God?', can make visible the invisible presence of God...We give Him our consent, our being, and He directs everything, He kneads us..."
-Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra
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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos on the Sunday of the Blind Man

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the Blind Man (source)

  

5th Sunday After Pascha - May 25, 2014 (John 9: 1-38)

“Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

  

It doesn’t work this way. We sin, we don’t sin; who’s to blame, who’s not to blame and each of us is what we are. It only matters that the Lord, who is Light, the Physician, is present and is able to heal and illumine our souls so that we can feel and live the reality of our salvation. You’re not able to comprehend, nor express, this reality,  since you’ve never experienced what release means, never experienced healing from sin. You’ve never experienced what it means for God to illumine you, for the darkness within you to flee as the light of God enters.

  

But people today are complicated, multi-faceted, confused, and in one way or another, their souls are layered: layer upon layer of blindness, layer upon layer of callousness, layer upon layer of pride. For this reason they are never healed once and for all. As soon as you take a humble attitude, though, Grace intervenes and works a miracle: you are freed. But the work does not end here. This Grace, this light, this healing that comes proceeds also to the next layer further down. And here the sin is more unyielding, is more strongly rooted, the resistance is uncompromising. If you say, “May it be blessed, My God. I will look even deeper and I will acknowledge my stubbornness and my sin, and will humble myself”, then another miracle takes place. And in some incomprehensible way, the second and the third, the fourth and the fifth layers of the soul are put right. But some people will not accept this. They remain at the superficial layers, and spend their life like this and are never healed.  

Transcribed talks by Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos

From: Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.

Translated:  by Fr. Matthew Penney

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

"Give sight, O Lord, to the eyes of my soul..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the man born blind, fresco from Dionysiou Monastery, Mount Athos (source)

  

Give sight, O Lord, to the eyes of my soul, maimed by gloomy sin, by grafting in humility, O merciful, and cleansing me with tears of repentance.
-Exaposteilarion from the Sunday of the Blind Man

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

Excerpt from St. John Chrysostom on the healing of the Blind Man

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the man born blind - Commemorated the Sixth Sunday of Pascha (source)

  
Excerpt from St. John Chrysostom's homily: "On zeal and piety, and on the man born blind" (amateur translation)
The word of God is a spring of light. The light therefore fills, and the light shines, and illumines the senses of the faithful. For from Him and in Him shines, and those who partake of Him shine. And He does not only enlighten the minds of the faithful, but grants the name of light. For the divine Scripture, for those who dwell with the ignorant and who live in disbelief, rightly calls them darkness, not receiving the lamp of truth, that they might be sons of light. Therefore, the divine Apostle Paul writes: "We were not sons of the night, nor of the darkness, but sons of the light and day." And regarding the sons of light was the evangelical word spoken from the mouth of God: "I am," as Christ said, "the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

His word is light, that if any of us might believe in him, that they might be made to be born as a son of light. Therefore the Savior said: "As long as you have the light, believe in the light, that you be born sons of the light." For as this sensible light is for the body, thus noetically is the word of God for souls. And as there is the darkness at night, thus is there delusion in ignorant souls. Because of this, the blessed David writes of this, saying: "They did not know, nor did they perceive that they were walking in darkness..."

It is right therefore for good students to imitate the teacher, as Paul says: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Do you wish to learn how the simple student can benefit from the zeal of piety? Hearken to how Christ healed the man born blind. Likely you have heard this story from the beginning. Among other things, the evangelical word says: "As Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him..." "And he spat, and made clay, and anointed his eyes and told him: 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.' And having washed, he began to see. The Judeans recognized him and said: 'Was not this the man who was sitting blind and receiving alms?' Some said yes, others said no, but he is like him. He said: 'It is me.'"

The Pharisees therfore and the rulers of the Judeans, beholding that this wonder was drawing many to Christ, overcome with the zeal of impiety, and struck by the sting of the truth, asked him how long he was blind. And behold this evil theater that has gathered to try piety, and the evil judges who judge, and the great gathering that has gathered, to look into and study God. They called him who was once blind, and when the children of the Judeans saw him in the council, they asked him: "How did you see, and who opened your eyes, and who accomplished it?" This they said not that they might learn, but that the form of the question might give way to fear. For many times, by the form of the question, the teacher who is asking [seeks] an answer, or silence. But he told them that he might bear witness to the reality. "Did you see this deed? Were you there? How did you see the reality?" The form of this teaches denial. Therfore they asked: "How did you see? Who opened your eyes?" But he, having cultivated fearlessness, or more so the truth, said: "A man named Jesus took clay and anointed my eyes and told me: 'Go, wash at Siloam.' And I went and washed, and I began to see..."

Because they could not deny [the miracle], they hastened to cover it, saying: "Give glory to God. We know that that man is a sinner." The Son is the glory of the Father, and His glory is inseparable. And he fought the good fight against the Judeans [to defend Christ]...

Though they spoke with him till now, they then commanded that he be cast out. And they cast him out, as the Evangelist said. Blessed is he who hastens from the council of evil men. And behold what happened. Because he fought the good fight, and gave glory to God, and confessed the Savior gloriously with much boldness, and completed the battle in the stadium, being cast out as a wrestler, without receiving the crown, the Referee called to him outside. Jesus, hearing therefore that they cast him out, found him and spoke to him. The Word found him who spoke of Him, whom He delivered from delusion, and found the Truth...

For when He sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash, He sent him blind. And when he began to see, he did not see the Savior among the multitude that had gathered around him, but immediately, before he saw the Master, he was called to struggle in the contest. For the Master put clay on his eyes before this, that the following might be fulfilled. For when they cast him out, Christ found him and said to him: "Do you believe in the Son of God?" For he did not see him as a prophet and struggle, but as the Son of God. He did not recognize His face, but he recognized His voice. "Do you believe," He said, "in the Son of God?"

He hearkened to the voice, and with joy he said: "And who is He, O Lord, that I might believe in Him?" Why did He ask "Do you believe" of him? "Do you believe in the Son of God?" I see that Your word is truth. However, if you give me the knowledge, I will not neglect to believe You. "And who is He, O Lord, that I might believe in Him?" And the Foreseer was before him. And he looked upon Him, Who spoke to you previously. He Who was with you within the council, and outside speaks with you. "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He who was enlightened in body and in mind said: "And who is He, O Lord, that I might believe in Him?" He replied to him: "You have seen Him, and it is He Who is speaking to you." He, therefore, said: "I believe, O Lord," And he worshipped Him.

I said these things, that all of you might learn, and that I might call all to fall before the teacher, and to imitate the Good Shepherd, and to struggle on behalf of the Truth..."
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Christ healing the man born blind (source)

  

Christ has risen from the dead, by death he has trampled on death, and to those in the graves given life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

The Sixth Sunday of Pascha: The Sunday of the Blind Man

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Icon of Christ healing the Blind Man (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.com used with permission)
 

"Reading:
The Lord Jesus was coming from the Temple on the Sabbath, when, while walking in the way, He saw the blind man mentioned in today's Gospel. This man had been born thus from his mother's womb, that is, he had been born without eyes (see Saint John Chrysostom, Homily LVI on Matthew; Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V:15; and the second Exorcism of Saint Basil the Great). When the disciples saw this, they asked their Teacher, "Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" They asked this because when the Lord had healed the paralytic at the Sheep's Pool, He had told him, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14); so they wondered, if sickness was caused by sin, what sin could have been the cause of his being born without eyes. But the Lord answered that this was for the glory of God. Then the God-man spat on the ground and made clay with the spittle. He anointed the eyes of the blind man and said to him, "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam." Siloam (which means "sent") was a well-known spring in Jerusalem used by the inhabitants for its waters, which flowed to the eastern side of the city and collected in a large pool called "the Pool of Siloam."

Christ healing the man born blind (http://www.ruicon.ru/arts-new/fresco/1x1-dtl/dionisiat_gretciya/istceleneie_sleporozhdennogo/?page_19=2179&p_f_12_temp_id=1&p_f_12_63=1&ref-cat=&ref-cat=)

   

Therefore, the Saviour sent the blind man to this pool that he might wash his eyes, which had been anointed with the clay-not that the pool's water had such power, but that the faith and obedience of the one sent might be made manifest, and that the miracle might become more remarkable and known to all, and leave no room for doubt. Thus, the blind man believed in Jesus' words, obeyed His command, went and washed himself, and returned, no longer blind, but having eyes and seeing. This was the greatest miracle that our Lord had yet worked; as the man healed of his blindness himself testified, "Since time began, never was it heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind," although the Lord had already healed the blind eyes of many. Because he now had eyes, some even doubted that he was the same person (John 9:8-9); and it was still lively in their remembrance when Christ came to the tomb of Lazarus, for they said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Saint John Chrysostom gives a thorough and brilliant exposition of our Lord's meeting with the woman of Samaria, the healing of the paralytic, and the miracle of the blind man in his commentaries on the Gospel of Saint John." (taken from: http://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=912&PCode=5PS&D=S&date=5/24/2009)
   

Icon of Christ healing the Blind Man, and washing in the Pool of Siloam, from Ravanica Monastery (http://www.srpskoblago.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2180&g2_jsWarning=true)
   

Kontakion. Tone 4
With the eyes of my soul mutilated I come to you, O Christ, as the man blind from birth, crying to you in repentance: You are the radiant light of those in darkness.

The Ikos.
Grant me a stream of inexpressible wisdom, and knowledge from above, O Christ, light of those in darkness and guide of those who stray; that I may recount what the divine book of the Gospel of peace teaches: the miracle of the blind man; for being blind from birth he receives both physical eyes and eyes of the soul, as he cries: You are the radiant light of those in darkness.

Doxastikon of the Praises - Plagal of the 4th Tone.
Who will recount your powers, O Christ? Who number the multitudes of your wonders? For twofold you appeared on earth through your goodness, twofold also the healings you bestow: for you opened not only the bodily eyes of one who was maimed from the womb, but also those of his soul. Therefore he confessed you the hidden God, who grant to all your great mercy.

(taken from: http://www.anastasis.org.uk/BlindMatins.htm)
   

Christ healing the blind man (http://www.ruicon.ru/arts-new/fresco/1x1-dtl/rospisi_stavronikita/istcelenie_slepogo/?page_19=2142&p_f_12_63=1&ref-cat=&p_f_12_temp_id=1&ref-cat=)

   

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life!
Truly the Lord is risen!