In the video above, listen to his audio message. His Eminence Seraphim, Metropolitan of Kythira and Antikythira, for Sunday Z’ LUCA (06-11-2022).
Here is the written Divine Sermon of the day, by Prelate Fr P. Mariatou
«After His descent into Hades and His resurrection from the dead, the deaf - as was natural for the Disciples from Your separation, Christ - returned to their work. And again the same and the same: boats and nets and nowhere to catch fish.
But, O our Saviour, appearing as Lord and Saviour of all, thou commandest the nets to be cast to the starboard side of the ship. And Thy word was immediately fulfilled, filling the nets with a multitude of fish. Not only that. A strange dinner was prepared on the ground.
Of this Supper which Your disciples tasted then, let us today, O merciful Lord, be worthy to enter mentally into it.».
This hymnal rendering, dear Christians, is a poem by the Emperor Leo VI of Sophus. It is a wonderful and succinct rendering of the passage of St. John the Evangelist, which we read on this tenth Sunday in today's liturgy.
It is a shame that - whether justifiably or not - the faithful are not at the Eucharist. The morning Mass, the prelude to the Divine Liturgy, beautifully conveys (both in its hymnology and in its readings) the Church's events.
The 11 alternating Sundays have characteristics corresponding to the day. And because Sunday is always a resurrection Sunday, the element that predominates in the Article is the Gospel of the Lord's Prayer. In it, a passage from the writings of the 4 Evangelists is described, which refers to incidents of Jesus’ presence during the 40 days after His Resurrection.
Three great hymn writers - literary writers, embroidered their own spiritual embroidery on the Gospels of the Gospels: St. John Damascene, who wrote and set to music the Glorious Troparia, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who wrote the Exapostelaria, and Leo the Wise, father of Constantine. (Note that autographs of Porphyrogenitus' Exapostelaria are kept in Meteora!).
It would be a blessing for those of us Christians who can attend the Divine Liturgy. Not as an oppressive obligation. But as a right to share in the resurrection joy of our Christ. The joy that soothes all the sorrows of our daily grind...
