“Ohrid Prologue” of St. Nicholas of Serbia: lives of saints, conversations, sermons for every day of the year

Conversations on the Gospel: in 2 books

This two-volume edition contains the gospel conversations of St. Nicholas of Serbia.

Just as four rivers watered the Paradise Land, so the four Divine Gospels water human life in this century. The Gospel is not a book, but power, life-giving and joy-giving power, the power that feeds and gives water, the power that raises the dead.

Content:

VOLUME I First Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints. The Gospel about following Christ - 5 Second Sunday after Pentecost. Gospel about the calling of the apostles - 21 Third Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Purity of Mind - 33 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Great Faith - 50 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel about the salvation of man and the death of pigs - 65 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Joy and Schadenfreude - 78 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Healed and Incurable Blinds - 92 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Him who multiplied the loaves in an empty place - 106 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Mightiest of Nature - 118 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel about the powerlessness of unbelief and the power of faith - 135 Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Forgiveness - 152 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Burden of Wealth - 166 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Evil Vinegrowers - 185 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Gospel of the Marriage of the Royal Son - 201 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Love - 218 Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Talents - 236 Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of constancy in faith and prayer - 251 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Rich Catch of Fishes - 265 Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Perfect Mercy - 279 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Resurrectionist Lord - 294 Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Lord the Sower - 308 Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Lazarus and the Rich Man - 324 Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost - 343 Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel about the power of God and human faith - 344 Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Merciful Samaritan - 362 Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of Diversity and Brazen Death - 382 Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the crouched body and crooked souls - 394 Twenty-eighth Sunday after Pentecost - 408 Twenty-ninth Sunday after Pentecost. Gospel of the healing of ten lepers - 409 Thirtieth Sunday after Pentecost - 423 Thirty-first Week after Pentecost. The Gospel of Blind Bartimaeus - 424 Thirty-second Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Repentant Zacchaeus – 445

VOLUME II Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Gospel of the Archangel Gabriel - 7 Nativity of Christ (I). Gospel of the Firstborn - 26 Nativity of Christ (II). The Gospel of Heavenly Bread in Straw - 43 Nativity of Christ (III). The Gospel of the Eastern Magi - 62 Nativity of Christ (IV). The Gospel of Light in Egyptian darkness - 82 Week before Epiphany. The Gospel of John the Baptist - 102 Holy Epiphany. Gospel of the Baptism of the Lord - 120 Saturday after Epiphany. The Gospel about victory over temptations - 138 Week about the publican and the Pharisee. The Gospel about the true and imaginary pilgrim - 153 Sunday about the prodigal son. The Gospel of the Prodigal Son - 165 Meat Week, about the Last Judgment. Gospel of the Last Judgment - 181 Raw Week. Gospel about fasting - 797 First week of Great Lent. Triumph of Orthodoxy. The Gospel about the Omniscient Lord and about man in whom there is no guile - 212 Second Sunday of Great Lent. The Gospel of the Healing of the Paralytic - 229 Third Sunday of Great Lent, Worship of the Cross. The Gospel of the Cross and the Salvation of the Soul - 237 Fourth Week of Lent. The Gospel about the powerlessness of unbelief and the power of faith - 254 Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. The Gospel about the ministry and suffering of the Son of God - 271 Sixth Sunday of Great Lent, vai (flower-bearing). The Gospel of the division of the flock in the presence of the Shepherd - 289 Great Heel. The Gospel of God among the Thieves - 304 Bright Resurrection of Christ. Easter. The Gospel about the Conqueror of Death - 318 Second Sunday after Easter. The Gospel of Doubt and Faith of the Apostle Thomas - 329 Third Sunday of Easter. The Gospel of the Myrrh-Bearing Women - 350 Fourth Sunday of Easter. Gospel of the miracle in Bethesda - 367 Fifth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel about the Giver of Living Water and the Samaritan Woman - 383 Sixth Sunday after Easter. The Gospel of the miraculous healing of a man born blind - 408 Ascension of the Lord. Gospel of the Ascension of the Lord - 430 Seventh Sunday after Easter, St. Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Gospel about the prayer of the Lord and Savior for us - 445 Trinity Day. Pentecost. Gospel of the Descent of the Holy Spirit - 462

Conversations

And God does not send His servants, His sons, His warriors into this world without feeding them, providing them and arming them. People are no wiser or more merciful than God—far from it! And if they know how to provide their messengers with what is necessary, God will be even more able to provide what is necessary for His own.

The fact that God abundantly bestows His grace on those who do His work is most clearly demonstrated by the example of the holy apostles. The fact that twelve people, of simple origin and craft, without troops and wealth, without earthly splendor and power, were able to leave their homes and relatives and go into the world to preach the Gospel of Christ, that is, something completely new and opposite to everything that the world had hitherto believed truth and goodness - cannot be explained by anything other than God’s help. And the courage to rebel against the false learning of the most learned, the destructive wealth of the richest and the cruel power of the mightiest of this world - how would simple fishermen dare and be able to do this if God did not feed them with His wisdom, did not protect them with His strength and did not arm them with His weapons? And, moreover, with fearlessness and endurance, they endured unheard-of torments and indescribable humiliations: they were tormented by both people and natural elements; they were chained; they were persecuted with ridicule and stoned; they were starved in prison; in chains they were transported across stormy seas from one end of the earth to the other; they were thrown to wild animals, they were beheaded and crucified; they, twelve fishermen, saw the whole world armed to the teeth against them - and truly, oh truly, they could not help but have some invincible mysterious help, some food that is not put into the mouth, but nourishes, some weapon that is not held in hands and which is not visible to the enemy army. Having excited the whole world with an unheard-of sermon about the risen Christ, about God who appeared to people in the flesh and ascended again to His Heavenly Kingdom, and sowed the seed of a new faith, a new life, a new creation, they left this world. But it was then that the earth began to ignite from them: from their seed, from their words, from the traces of their feet. The nations that persecuted them were scattered throughout the world; the empires that resisted them fell into dust without strength; houses that did not accept them turned into ruins; the nobles and sages who tormented them suffered shame and despair and died a most terrible death. And their seed sprouted and blossomed; The Church was erected from their blood, on the ruins of violent and deceitful human creations; those who accepted them became famous; those who believed them and followed them were saved. Oh, how richly the Lord feeds His messengers! How luxuriously He bestows upon His faithful sons! How, like a good commander, he arms His warriors!

Last years of life

After his release from the concentration camp, Nikola Velimirović remained to live in America, where he wrote his messages:

• "The One Lover of Humanity";
• "The Harvests of the Lord";
• “The First Law of God and the Pyramid of Paradise” and other creations.

Sermons in churches, lectures in theological seminaries and academies fill the life of the saint, helping to soothe his homesickness, which was slowly fading away.

Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Ohrid and Zich

The Pennsylvania Russian monastery of South Canaan in the spring of 1956 became his burial place. Only 45 years later, in 1991, the relics of the holy Bishop of Serbia were transported to Serbia; they are kept in the Church of St. Nicholas the Pleasant, located in the Velimirović’s native village of Lelić.

Sermon of St. Nicholas of Serbia on the day of memory of St. Nicholas

For if He had said that this was impossible, then many of the rich people who inherited wealth from their parents would have been excommunicated from the Kingdom of Heaven from the very beginning, without being guilty of it.

In this case, Saint Nicholas, who inherited wealth from his parents, would have been excommunicated from him, and King Nemanja, Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming, the Serbian king, who had seven towers of pennies and ducats, would have been excommunicated. Others would also be excommunicated, who in this life were considered rich and whose names, meanwhile, we find in the church calendar.

No, my brothers, the good Lord does not deprive anyone of His Kingdom in advance, and He does not close the gates of heaven to anyone who desires eternal life, no matter what position or rank he may be. Out of His inexpressible love for mankind, God desires all people to be saved. And in this life it is impossible to prevent anyone from being saved, not a single person, if he does not prevent himself from doing so.

It is not because it is difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because he is rich. But because few rich people can cope with the temptations that come with wealth. It is rare that rich people can refrain from abusing their wealth. There are few rich people in the world whose wealth would not buy themselves a place in hell instead of heaven, eternal torment instead of eternal life. There are few who would not cleave their hearts to their wealth and would not move away from the Creator of all things.

There are few of them, but there were them too. It is difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. But some rich people entered. Saint Nicholas entered, King Nemanja entered, and others entered. Wealth not only did not hinder them, but also helped them enter the Kingdom and be included in the Saints. For they used their wealth for the glory of God and for the salvation of their loved ones.

Having wealth, it was as if they had nothing. They considered everything that they had to be the property of the Lord, and themselves to be God's servants and guardians of other people's treasures, which were distributed and shared according to the Gospel commandments. In this way they saved their souls and helped others to be saved. These are heroic souls who did not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by their wealth. But they owned it themselves.

In addition to earthly wealth, Saint Nicholas had three much greater treasures: the wealth of faith, the wealth of truth and the wealth of mercy. By distributing his earthly wealth to the poor out of love for Christ, he himself became a beggar. But these three treasures only multiplied even more towards the end of his earthly life. The fact that they abundantly passed on their faith to other people made him rich in faith. Because he was zealous for the truth of God, his soul was filled with truth. His heart was full of mercy, pouring out mercy on people. Faith, truth and mercy are heavenly riches, which are not diminished when distributed. Faith, truth and mercy are the three treasures of St. Nicholas, which he left as an inheritance to the Church, which to this day have not been spent.

The saint of God left this triple blessing as an inheritance to you, to those who remember and glorify him. You who glorify Saint Nicholas know that what you take from him is dearer to him than what he receives from you.

Saint Nicholas's faith was as pure as crystal. And as hard as a diamond. He showed this at Nicaea, defending Orthodoxy against a heretic, while putting his life in danger.

The truth of God in Saint Nicholas is clear as the sun. He showed this when he prevented the executioner from executing three husbands, innocently condemned to death, by appearing before the executioner and snatching the sword from his hands. Putting your life in danger again.

And St. Nicholas’s mercy towards the poor and needy was similar to Christ’s mercy. He gave away all his property as alms more secretly than openly, dooming himself to poverty and hunger.

But this great servant of Christ feared neither the heretic, nor the executioner, nor hunger. He knew with confidence that the Almighty was watching over His faithful servants. And indeed, the Almighty protected him until the end of his life and glorified him after death among angels and people, like few others.

But besides these three great treasuries of spiritual blessings, in addition to faith, truth and mercy, Saint Nicholas also had several more overflowing sacristies. This is the sacristy of meekness, the sacristy of abstinence, fasting and prayer, the sacristy of humility, and so on.

This wondrous saint of Christ left all these overflowing sacristies of spiritual and moral goodness to you, Orthodox Christians, as a legacy. Today, all these rich sacristies are opened and offered to you. Saint Nicholas accepts your bread, your candles and prayers as a return gift to him, and not as your gift.

He offers you his gifts today. If you accept them, then he will also accept reciprocal gifts from you. If you reject his gifts, he will reject yours. Take care of what is good and do not refuse the gifts that this rich man of Christ offers you.

And pay attention to one more thing and rejoice. Saint Nicholas did not write any books, nor did he shed his blood as a martyr for Christ, and yet he glorified many saints who wrote wise books or suffered as martyrs for Christ. This is a great and wonderful mystery. This is God's work.

By this, the good Lord wanted to show that He brings into His Kingdom not only wise theologians and martyrs, but also all that innumerable number of good souls who neither wrote books nor suffered martyrdom, but preserved the true faith and fulfilled the law of God. And these are precisely the majority among the faithful. That is, those who do not speak, but do, who do not write books, but breathe the Spirit of God.

Indeed, there are many wise theologians and martyrs, but still they are in the minority compared to the huge number of these latter, who were not glorified either as theologians or as martyrs, but as silent but faithful servants of God, as the holy people of God.

Saint Nicholas is a national saint, a perfect representative of that multitude of people who listen to the word of God and rush to fulfill it, and teach others by their example.

This is the reason why Saint Nicholas is glorified more than many holy teachers and martyrs. And therefore, the Church dedicated to the wonderworker Nicholas of Myra, in addition to today, all Thursdays of ordinary weeks for the whole year together with the holy apostles.

Glory to our God, honor and worship to Saint Nicholas.

Amen.

Miracle of Nicholas the Ugodnik

My life was poor and difficult, and the only joy in it was children. It was also difficult because we, Russian by roots and faith, accidentally ended up in Central Asia. And they settled near Chimkent. My husband and I lived in a local environment without a church, and even though we were baptized, we were as far from the faith as from the sun. The husband drank quietly, but strongly.

There, drunkenness was condemned and drunkards were persecuted. He beat me, insulted me and cursed me with black words in front of the children. The eldest son was shaking all over. My husband often hit him in the face. And the son took a bad road, ran away from home, fought often, and ended up in a colony for re-education before he came of age.

I forgave my husband everything, but we came face to face with the children. We already had two, and my husband forced me to have abortions. The locals there all have many children, are child lovers, and could get stoned for having an abortion. I flatly refused to destroy the children, but my husband threatened to leave, and I went to the district hospital for an abortion. I was already over thirty when I was supposed to have another child. I will also say that we had no relatives in those places at all. There is no one to expect help from. But I couldn't be a killer anymore. I stopped sleeping and began to pray in my own words to God and all the saints to send me help. And then I see in a dream a handsome gray-haired old man in rich vestments (now I’m a church member, I know all the words), with kind eyes. I cry and sob, and he calmly tells me: “Leave the house, I will help you.” For some reason I immediately believed this dream. And she left home. I took two bags, got on the bus with my ten-year-old daughter and left for Chimkent.

And I didn’t know a single soul there. It was already dark when my daughter and I reached some large and beautiful temple. We sat down by the fence, the gate was locked. The night is cold. Suddenly a stranger comes and comes to us simply as if we were family: “Why are you sitting on the ground, go to the guardhouse.” He opened the gate and settled us in for the night. And in the morning we went with Natasha to the temple. There is a huge icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and this temple is also his, St. Nicholas! It’s clear that in the icon I immediately recognized the kind old man from the dream who promised to help. And we stayed at the temple. And the priest did not drive us away, but quite the opposite, he did everything for us and the children. He immediately hired me as a cleaner at the temple. The children went to Sunday school. They became people. And we all work in the church. Apparently, Nikola the Pleasant ordered him to help our poor family.

His icon was miraculous. People always stood there, prayed, and cried. And Nikolai the Wonderworker helped everyone very well. And at that time I lost my son, he was transferred to another colony, and my daughter and I moved. And suddenly a letter: “I’m arriving soon, meet me at the bus station.” There are, however, few flights. But my daughter and I were exhausted from walking every day. And I decided to ask Saint Nicholas to show me the day of my son’s arrival. I prayed at the icon, to be sure, I wrote a note and stuck it behind the icon case. I go the next morning, there is still no one in the temple, I approach St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Behind the icon is my note. And there are only two words written on it: “Wednesday the fourteenth.” My legs just gave way. I got down on my knees and prayed. But the main thing is that there was no doubt that someone was playing a joke. I immediately believed that Nikola Ugodnik himself answered me. Exactly a week later, on the fourteenth of August, my son arrived on Wednesday. Here's the story.

I will add that I have never heard such miracles from our parishioners.
Saint Nicholas helps everyone. He pities and loves everyone. That’s why I named my youngest son Kolya. R.B.Tamara

The Hand of God or the Birth of a Monk

The joy of receiving the titles had not yet passed when a fatal illness covered Nikola Velimirović. Subsequently, Saint Nicholas would write that it was God who appeared to him through illness, for after suffering for 1.5 months, the theologian promised God to become a monk if he recovered. The miracle did not take long to arrive.

The recovered young scientist of world renown went to the Rakovitsa monastery as a novice, and by the end of 1909 he was ordained as a hieromonk.

The Metropolitan of Serbia, knowing all the academic credentials of the young minister, sent him to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, where with his hard work, inquisitiveness, and modesty, he won the patronage of Metropolitan Anthony of Ladoga, who saw in the Serbian envoy a future Orthodox saint and ascetic.

The Bishop pays for Hieromonk Nikola to travel to the holy places of Russia to learn about Orthodoxy.

Interesting! The future bishop of Serbia falls in love with Russia, he learns and realizes the significance of world Orthodoxy, marking the beginning of the glorification of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II.