Homily on the Ecclesiastical New Year

[Maria]

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/50739.htm

Homily on the New Year

What is renewal? When will the new heaven and new earth we hope for come? The explanation is in the Apostle’s words, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (1 Cor. 5:17).

“Happy New Year,” we greet each other now. But has anyone given any thought as to how new this coming year is? And where would we get anything new from it? In what way does the present day differ from yesterday, or from the first day of the past year? And in the future, will there not be same interchange of days and nights, the same turn of months and seasons as there was before? Will the course of events not be new?

But Wisdom also rejects this, saying, What is that which has been? the very thing which shall be: and what is that which has been done? the very thing which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Who is he that shall speak and say, Behold, this is new? it has already been in the ages that have passed before us (Eccl. 1:9–10). ...

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[Maria]

Establish your thought in this teaching and you will see that in our present condition, one thing is seen from without, while another is working within, both in us and outside us. The present state—both ours and of the whole world—is a transient state, like the state of a sick man covered with bandages, or of a tree frozen for the winter, or a house under renovation and encompassed with scaffolding. When the time comes they will take the bandages off the sick man, and he will appear healed and healthy in a renewed life; the renovation will end, they’ll take away the scaffolding, and everyone will see the new house in all its beauty; the spring of a new age will come and the tree of the world’s existence, now bare, will put forth its leaves, flowers, and fruits.

-- see the above link in the OP

The renewal of our minds by prayer, fasting, and repentance is so important.

Now that my husband and I are reading The Way of a Pilgrim, we are trying to pray the Jesus Prayer as frequently as we can, even while posting of the Internet.

[Maria]

Enter, brothers, with the faith of your mind into the contemplation of this order of God’s economy on the meaning of time, establish yourself in it and stand there. For the sake of your faith, the Lord will give you the strength to withstand the calumny of the father of lies, who by corrupting those minds that believe his suggestions steals from them the ability to see renewal working amidst decay. They deceive themselves and lead others into deception, thinking that the seeming disorder around us is the natural (normal) state of things, and they allow themselves to make overly bold judgments against the creation of the Most Wise and the providence of the All-Good. Stand therefore in faith, brothers, and confirm yourselves in it!

A continuation -- cf. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/50739.htm

The father of lies is Satan and his New World Order, which would impose upon the world the Antichrist.
Note that the New World Order is not new, but the Old World Order with all its satanic lies.

We must stand firm in the faith and resist the lies of Satan by our unceasing prayers and groanings, especially our prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos as found in the Supplicatory Canon (Paracleisis). Please consider chanting the Paracleisis daily, especially in these dire times, for the Most Holy Theotokos has promised to come to the aid of those who honor her.

[Maria]

You already know that all the powers needed for new life are entrusted to the Holy Church, and all true sons of the Church are undoubtedly fulfilled by them and obtain renewal through them. This renewal begins with holy Baptism, in which we put off the old man and clothe ourselves in the new, or are reborn to a new life. The power of inner renewal does not cease to work in those who preserve the grace of Baptism. It ceases in those who fall into mortal sins after Baptism. But it begins to work once more, when they again partake in a godly life in Christ Jesus through the sacrament of confession. Whether one receives the grace of renewal in Baptism or in repentance, if he preserves it and acts according to its demands, the seed of new life no longer dies in him, but grows even more, from which the secret man of the heart grows and strengthens even more, becoming full of wisdom, spiritual reason, moral beauty, strength of character, and inner joy in the Holy Spirit—though he may be outwardly poor and naked. Inner beauty matures under an unsightly covering, like a beautiful butterfly in its unsightly cocoon. Reaching maturity, the butterfly breaks open its encasement and begins rejoicing in life on God’s earth. Once our hidden man has matured in his weak body, and when God judges it in time, he throws off this encasement, rises to the heights, and begins to live a fully renewed life at the very source of life.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/50739.htm

May we be renewed through repentance, and be victorious in the race toward Heaven.