Second Sunday in Lent: St. Gregory Palamas
March 2015
Planting the doctrines of Orthodoxy, uprooting the thistles of wicked opinion, O blessed one, and growing well the plant of faith with the rain of thy sayings, thou didst offer to God, like a good farmer, ears a hundred fold.
+ Orthros of the Feast, Tone 1
On the second Sunday of Lent, we celebrate the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, who upheld the Orthodox doctrine that humans can know God not only through the intellect but through experience of His uncreated energies.
… every day we should stand in awe of Him, as He is with us, and do what is pleasing before Him. If we are unable now to perceive Him with our physical eyes, we can, if we are watchful, see Him continuously with the eyes of our understanding, and not just see Him, but reap great benefits from Him. This vision destroys all sin, demolishes all evil, and drives away everything bad. It gives birth to purity and dispassion, and bestows eternal life. + St. Gregory Palamas
Read and Listen:
- A Man Fully Alive by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, author, and pastor of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church
- The life of St. Gregory Palamas by Fr. Bassam A. Nassif, University of Balamand
- Fr. Tom Hopko’s homily on St. Gregory
Visit our full section on Great Lent.
