A Simple Gospel Word

Sermons of Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko Contents Preface Preface to the reissue We had the following motivations for publishing this book. Firstly, no such collection has yet been published that would contain stories and articles of a public nature, arranged according to the Gospel readings on Sundays and Feasts of the entire year, and would serve as a pedagogical aid in the hands of the pastor-preacher when conducting extra-liturgical interviews on the subject of the Gospel readings or the entire Gospel history. Reading after or during a conversation a short story, which, due to its vividness and clarity, would be accessible to ordinary listeners and would help them better remember the proposed explanation, as well as serve as some rest and variety after a tiring strain of attention, is a technique whose benefits hardly need to be said much. Suffice it to say that the collection is recommended by the Holy Synod, practiced by the majority of pastoral preachers and received with extreme sympathy by listeners who eagerly listen to such stories. It is very inconvenient to look for a suitable story or article every time, often given the poverty of a rural parish library and the lack of sufficient time for a pastor, burdened with teaching the law in a parochial school, and often correcting demands in a scattered parish, and church writing, and running his own household. That is why we think that our present book, which meets this need, will not be superfluous. This is especially true since, with a fairly significant number of collections of spiritual and edifying stories, not a single one has been published so far, adapted to the Gospel readings, both Sunday and Holiday, and, moreover, throughout the year. This collection of stories and articles is the first experience of this kind. Secondly, we are convinced that such a collection of spiritually edifying stories and articles, containing and clarifying not only some, but all the most important dogmatic and moral truths, clearly teaching a person his duties to God, neighbors and himself, showing in a living and accessible presentation the strength and greatness of the Christian faith, the beauty and power of Christian love for people - for enemies and friends - and for everything to those around us, the saving power of Christian hope, which gives the strength of the spirit to endure all the hardships of life, to patiently bear the cross sent by the wise and all-good Providence of God, not to despair and not to be faint-hearted in anticipation of eternal, heavenly blessings in the future life - that such a collection will be timely and useful for simple, literate people as a means of distracting them from unclean and unworthy Christian pleasures during the days of holiday rest, The government, the clergy, and all good people who are jealous of the religious and moral development of the people as a guarantee of their well-being are concerned about the rational implementation of which. We tried, if possible, not to include articles of a gloomy nature in the proposed collection. Exceptions, very rare, were allowed when it was necessary to indicate God’s formidable admonition to violators of His holy law. For every Sunday and holiday, we have given so many stories and articles full of edification and lively interest that reading them may well occupy the holiday leisure of a Christian and give him high spiritual pleasure and undoubted benefit. In conclusion, we consider it our duty to say that this collection of spiritually edifying stories and reflections can be useful for pastors not only when conducting extra-liturgical conversations on the Gospel story, as we mentioned above, but also in explaining the catechism of the Orthodox Church and in general, in our opinion, when conducting conversations and teachings of all kinds, for any edification coming from the church pulpit should not be abstract reasoning, little accessible to the understanding of listeners, but should stimulate virtue by pointing to the examples of holy people of God (see: Definition of the Holy Synod in the Church Gazette for 1890 No. 26), and there are quite a sufficient number of similar examples taken not only from the life of ancient Christians, but also from the life of the Orthodox Russian people, living examples of Christian piety of which spent their lives in the same conditions in which their listeners live. This last circumstance should, it seems to us, give our book the character of special edification, persuasiveness and lively interest. May the Lord help that the seeds of Christian faith and piety contained in this book will fall on good hearts and bear abundant fruit to the glory of God! 1890 February 1st day. Priest Grigory Dyachenko The spiritual and moral heritage of Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko is known to many Orthodox readers. As the rector of the Trifonovsky Church in Moscow, he surprised his contemporaries with the abundance of published works, which were distinguished by their particular simplicity in explaining the Holy Scriptures and presenting the Gospel story. Many pastors wanted to have them as a tool for lively, visual, short, simple, edifying, but at the same time meaningful church sermon. His books were reprinted several times and sold in huge editions throughout Russia. The foundation for preaching as church teaching was laid by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. While completing the work of saving people, He left a commandment to the apostles: go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all the things given to you in commandments (Matthew 28:19-20). In these words, the apostles, and through them and their successors, the shepherds of the Church, are indicated with three main ministries: to teach (teach), to officiate (baptizing), and to lead (oversee). Teaching is placed in first place by Jesus Christ, because it is the first to awaken faith in God in the souls of people. The Lord’s instructions on the importance of church teaching, the examples of the holy apostles and fathers of the Church, the rules of the Universal Church - everything speaks of the importance of church preaching. The works of Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko served as such a tool for pastors to preach in the form of a lively church conversation with a wide range of Orthodox believers. The stories, reflections and articles collected in them had, first of all, a religious and moral educational purpose. This collection was compiled with the purpose of explaining the Gospel principles read during holiday and Sunday services. These Gospel readings reveal the essence of the Orthodox faith and are offered by the Church for the teaching and edification of her children in piety. When working on this book, Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko, taking into account the particular complexity of explaining the Gospel readings, where any inaccuracy can lead to dangerous misunderstandings, adhered to authoritative interpreters of the Word of God, such as St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, St. Theophan the Recluse, Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt, Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson, Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, Archpriest Rodion Putyatin, a famous pastor-preacher, and many others who published their preaching works. In addition, a significant part of the teachings was compiled from Words, teachings and conversations published in the magazines “Soulful Reading”, “Christian Reading”, “Sunday Reading”, “Guide for Shepherds”, “Wanderer”, “Helmsman” and some others. Separate articles are written based on the Words and conversations of the holy fathers of the Eastern Church, for example St. John Chrysostom, and the Russian Church, mainly St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and St. Demetrius of Rostov. The completeness of the stories and reflections contained in the collection contributed to a deepening of the understanding of the spiritual foundations of Orthodoxy among the compiler’s contemporaries. And today, after many decades, the book continues to help the reader to be enlightened by the Gospel light and to gain the desire to walk together with the Church of Christ along the path of salvation - to resist the destructive spirit of our time. Taking into account that the book is being reprinted after a century, the publishers took the liberty of changing the previous title of the book, “A Christian's Holiday Rest,” to “The Simple Gospel Word.” In the process of preparing the collection, the editors made the following changes: – spelling and punctuation are generally close to modern; – the text has been edited, some archaic words and expressions have been replaced; – in some stories, outdated historical facts and realities are omitted; – stories and teachings explaining the Gospel readings have been supplemented with new ones; – the Gospel concepts are placed at the beginning of each Week. When preparing quotations from the Holy Scriptures, the editors adhered to the following requirements: a) the punctuation of the texts of the Holy Scriptures is reproduced from the text of the publication: The Bible in Church Slavonic. Russian Bible Society. M., 1993; b) the spelling of lowercase and uppercase letters of the texts of the Holy Scriptures is given according to the edition: The Bible. Russian Bible Society. M.: 1995. [In Russian. language; c) if the text of the quotation and the Bible completely coincide, a link is given, for example: (Mark 6:12). If the text does not completely coincide, then a link is indicated: (cf. Mark 6:12). By republishing this collection, we hope that it will prove to be very useful for pastors as a tool for sermons, for conducting interviews on Gospel history and for explaining the catechism of the Orthodox Church, as well as for a wide range of readers, especially since there are not many such collections of stories on the Gospel readings on Sundays and Feast Days, and, moreover, throughout the year. You might be interested in: