Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas (the Second Sunday of Lent)

Icon from here

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Introduction

On the Second Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, the Wonderworker. The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14, however, he is commemorated on this Sunday as the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy.

Life of the Saint

Our holy Father Gregory was born in Constantinople in 1296 of aristocratic parents who had emigrated from Asia Minor in the face of the Turkish invasion, and were attached to the court of the pious Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282-1328). Despite his official duties, Gregory's father led a life of fervent prayer. Sometimes as he sat in the Senate, he would be so deep in prayer as to be unaware of the Emperor addressing him. While Gregory was still young, his father died after being clothed in the monastic habit; and his mother for her part wanted to take the veil, but delayed doing so in order to take care of the education of her seven children. Gregory, the eldest, was instructed by the most highly reputed masters of secular learning and, after some years, was so proficient in philosophical reasoning that, on listening to him, his master could believe he was hearing Aristotle himself. Notwithstanding these intellectual successes, the young man's real interest lay only with the things of God. He associated with monks of renown in the city and found a spiritual father in Theoleptus of Philadelphia, who instructed him in the way of holy sobriety and of prayer of the heart.

About the year 1316, Gregory decided to abandon the vanities of the world. His mother, two sisters, two brothers and a great many of his servants entered upon the monastic life with him. He and his two brothers went on foot to the holy Mountain of Athos, where they settled near the Monastery of Vatopedi under the direction of the Elder Nicodemus, who came from Mount Auxentius. Gregory made rapid progress in the holy activity of prayer, for he had put into practice since childhood the fundamental virtues of obedience, humility, meekness, fasting, vigil and the different kinds of renunciation that make the body subject to the spirit. Night and day he besought God ceaselessly with tears saying, "Lighten my darkness!" After some time, the Mother of God, in whom he had put his trust since his youth, sent Saint John the Theologian to him with the promise of her protection in this life and in the next.

After only three years, the early death of his brother Theodosius, followed by that of the Elder Nicodemus, led Gregory and his second brother, Macarius, to attach themselves to the Monastery of the Great Lavra. Gregory was appointed chanter. His conduct in the cenobitic life was beyond reproach, and the brethren admired his zeal for putting into practice all the holy evangelic virtues. He lived with such abstinence as to appear unburdened by the flesh to the extent of being able to go three months without sleep. At the end of three years of common life, his soul thirsting for the sweet waters of the wilderness, he retired to the hermitage of Glossia, under the direction of an eminent monk called Gregory of Byzantium. With the passions purified, he was now able to rise up in prayer to the contemplation of the mysteries of the Creation. Solitude and inner stillness enabled him to keep his intellect fixed at all times in the depths of his heart, where he called on the Lord Jesus with compunction, so that he became all prayer, and sweet tears flowed continually from his eyes as from two fountains.

The incessant raids of Turkish pirates soon obliged Gregory and his companions to leave their hermitage. Together with twelve monks, he wanted to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Places and to seek refuge at Mount Sinai; but this did not prove feasible. Instead, he spent some time in Thessalonica, where he joined the group around the future Patriarch Isidore, who was endeavoring to spread the practice of the Jesus prayer among the faithful so that they might profit from the experience of the monks. In 1326, Gregory was ordained a priest, having understood in a vision that this was indeed the will of God. He then departed to found a hermitage in the area of Beroea, where he practiced an even stricter ascesis than before. For five days of the week he remained alone, fasting, keeping vigil and praying with abundant tears. He only appeared on Saturdays and Sundays to serve the Divine Liturgy, share a fraternal meal, and converse on some spiritual subject with his companions in the ascetic life. He continued thus to rise up in contemplation and to enter into closer union with God in his heart.

When his mother died, he went to Constantinople to fetch his sisters, whom he settled in a hermitage near his own. But as Serbian raids in the region became more and more frequent, he decided to go back to Mount Athos. He settled a little above the Lavra in the hermitage of Saint Savas, where he lived in greater seclusion than before, and could converse alone with God. He went to the monastery only infrequently and would receive his rare visitors on Sundays and feast days. Going on from that contemplation which is still outward, Gregory then attained to the vision of God in the light of the Holy Spirit and to the deification promised by Christ to His perfect disciples.

One day in a dream, he saw that he was full of a milk from heaven which, as it overflowed, changed into wine and filled the surrounding air with a wonderful scent. This was a sign to him that the moment had come to teach his brethren the mysteries that God revealed to him. He wrote several ascetic treatises at this time, and, in 1335, was appointed Abbot of the Monastery of Esphigmenou. But the two hundred monks who lived there understood neither his zeal nor his spiritual expectations so, after a year, he returned to his hermitage.

At that time, Barlaam, a monk from Calabria, won a great name for himself as a speculative thinker in Constantinople. He was particularly fond of expounding the mystical writings of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, which he interpreted in an entirely philosophical way, making knowledge of God the object of cold reason and not of experience. When this refined humanist learned of the methods of prayer of some simple monks of his acquaintance, who allowed a place to the sensory element in spiritual life, he was scandalized. He took occasion to calumniate then and to accuse them of heresy. The hesychast monks appealed to Gregory who then wrote several polemical treatises in which he answered the accusations of Barlaam by locating monastic spirituality in a dogmatic synthesis.

He showed that ascesis and prayer are the outcome of the whole mystery of Redemption, and are the way for each person to make the grace given at Baptism blossom within himself. He also defended the authenticity of the methods which the Hesychasts used to fix the intellect in the heart; for since the Incarnation we have to seek the grace of the Holy Spirit in our bodies, which are sanctified by the Sacraments and grafted by the Eucharist into the Body of Christ. This uncreated grace is the very glory of God which, as it sprang forth from the body of Christ on the day of the Transfiguration, overwhelmed the disciples (Matthew 17). Shining now in the heart purified from the passions, it truly unites us to God, illumines us, deifies us and gives us a pledge of that same glory which will shine on the bodies of the Saints after the general Resurrection. In thus affirming the full reality of deification, Gregory was far from denying the absolute transcendence and unknowableness of God in His essence. Following the ancient Fathers, but in a more precise manner, he made a distinction between God's imparticipable essence and the eternal, creative and providential energies by which the Lord enables created beings to participate in His being, His life and His light without, however, introducing any division into the unity of the divine Nature. God is not a philosophical concept for Saint Gregory: He is Love, He is Living Person and consuming fire, as Scripture teaches (Deuteronomy 4:24), Who does everything to make us godlike.

Saint Gregory's brilliant answer to Barlaam was first accepted by the authorities of Mount Athos in the Hagiorite Tome and then adopted by the Church, which condemned Barlaam (and with him the philosophical humanism that would soon inspire the European Renaissance), during the course of two Councils at the Church of Saint Sophia in 1341.

Barlaam's condemnation and his departure for Italy did not bring the controversy to an end. No sooner had Gregory returned to his Athonite hermitage from Thessalonica where he had been writing his treatises in seclusion than Akindynos, an old friend of his, restated the substance of Barlaam's arguments and condemned Gregory's distinction between essence and energies as an innovation. Akindynos, who at first aspired to be an umpire between Barlaam and Gregory, was the kind of rigid conservative who does no more than repeat set phrases without seeking to enter into the spirit of the tradition. At the same time, a dreadful civil war broke out as a result of the rivalry between the Duke Alexis Apokaukos and Saint Gregory's friend, John Cantacuzenus (1341-47). The Patriarch, John Calecas, sided with Apokaukos and encouraged Akindynos to bring a charge of heresy against Gregory, which led to the excommunication and imprisonment of the Saint.

During the four years of Gregory's confinement, there was no slackening of his activity. He carried on a huge correspondence, and wrote an important work against Akindynos. When John Cantacuzenus gained the upper hand in 1346, the Regent, Ann of Savoy, came to the defense of the Saint and deposed the Patriarch on the eve of Cantacuzenus' triumphal entry into the City. He nominated Isidore as Patriarch (1347-50), and summoned a new Council to vindicate the Hesychasts. The controversy was not finally resolved until 1351, at a third Council which condemned the humanist Nicephorus Gregoras. In the Synodal Tome the doctrine of Saint Gregory on the uncreated energies and on the nature of grace was recognized as the rule of faith of the Orthodox Church.

Among Isidore's new episcopal appointments, Gregory was named Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1347; but he was unable to take possession of his see as the city was in the hands of the Zealots, the party opposed to Cantacuzenus. After finding shelter for a while in Lemnos, where he showed heroic devotion during an epidemic, Gregory was eventually able to enter the city acclaimed as if Christ Himself were coming in triumph, with the chanting of Paschal hymns.

During a voyage to Constantinople, he fell into the hands of some Turks, who held him for a year in Asia Minor (1354-55), but allowed him a measure of freedom. This, and his openness of spirit, enabled him to engage in amicable theological discussions with the Muslim doctors of religion and with the son of the Emir Orkhan. When he was set free, thanks to a ransom from Serbia, he returned to Thessalonica to take up his activity again as pastor and wonderworker. He suffered a long illness and, some time before his death, Saint John Chrysostom appeared to him with the invitation to join the choir of holy hierarchs immediately after his own feast. And, indeed, on November 14, 1359 the Saint gave up his soul to God. When he died, his countenance was radiant with a light like to that which shone on Saint Stephen (Acts 6:15). In this way God showed, through the person of his servant, the truth of his doctrine on the reality of deification by the uncreated light of the Holy Spirit. The veneration of Saint Gregory was approved by the Church in 1368. The Saint works many miracles even to the present day and, after Saint Demetrios, is regarded as the Protector of Thessalonica.

Orthodox Commemoration of the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas

The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14, the day of his repose, however the Orthodox Church commemorates the Saint on the Second Sunday of Lent. As a Sunday of Great Lent, the commemoration is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, which is preceded by a Matins (Orthros) service. A Great Vespers is conducted on Saturday evening.

Hymns of the Feast

Apolytikion (Plagal of Fourth Tone)

O Gregory the Miracle Worker, light of Orthodoxy, support and teacher of the Church, comeliness of Monastics, invincible defender of theologians, the pride of Thessalonica, and preacher of grace, intercede forever that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion (Plagal of Fourth Tone)

With one accord, we praise you as the sacred and divine vessel of wisdom and clear trumpet of theology, O our righteous Father Gregory of divine speech. As a mind that stands now before the Primal Mind, do you ever guide aright and lead our mind to Him, that we all may cry: Hail, O herald of grace divine.

Seasonal Kontakion (Plagal of the Fourth Tone) - Sung during Divine Liturgy

O Champion General, we your faithful inscribe to you the prize of victory as gratitude for being rescued from calamity, O Theotokos. But since you have invincible power, free us from all kinds of perils so that we may cry out to you: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded. (Translated by Father George Papadeas)

References

Meyendorff, John. A Study of Gregory Palamas. London: Faith Press, 1964.

The Lenten Triodion. Translated by Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 1994), pp. 52-53, 314-333.

Schmemann, Alexander. Great Lent: Journey to Pascha (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1969), pp. 73-75.

Barrois, Georges. Scripture Readings in Orthodox Worship (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1977), pp. 62-63.

Farley, Donna. Seasons of Grace: Reflections on the Orthodox Church Year (Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 2002), pp. 103-105.

Icon of Saint Gregory Palamas provided by Theologic and used with permission.

ON THE REMEMBRANCE OF ADAM’S EXILE FROM / Our Journey to Pascha (Easter) 2021!...

 

Orthodox Metropolis of Zambia

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

The events that we remember today determined very much in the life of all humankind and for each of us. Adam’s exile, his exile from Paradise, is what the Church calls that terrible event. It relates directly also to us, and to our very close relatives—Adam and Eve. They truly are closely related to us—after all, their blood flows in our veins. Each of us has them as his ancestors. From them came the whole human race, and all the peoples of the world.

Back then, very long ago, something happened that caused a complete change in the life of all mankind—the fall into sin and the subsequent exile from the place our Heavenly Father, the Lord God, had originally appointed the entire human race to live, perfect itself, and ascend to God. In the Bible this beautiful place is called Eden. It was located on the territory of today’s Iraq, between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is from there that our ancestors Adam and Eve were supposed to fill the whole world with their offspring.

But something happened that was—I wanted to say, “irreversible”, but no, it is not irreversible but it is a terrible and tragic event in the history of the family of man throughout the world. Adam was created free; as the image and likeness of God he could choose the path of life he considered best. This was either the path offered to him by God—the path of filial, grateful obedience proceeding from trust, love, and the contemplation of divine beauty and the beauty of the primordial world, is indescribable in human words. This was the path of striving for God.

But there was also something else. It was also obedience—because youthful man could not but be in the disciple stage—but obedience to a deceiver, a murderer and evil-doer, the devil.

The Lord God bestowed free will upon Adam, as He also has upon you and me. This is a very great but also very responsible gift. As a test of free will, as a confirmation of faithfulness to the Father, in Paradise grew the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course it was also intended for man, but the Lord foretold that the time had not yet come for young Adam to know about good and evil. He was not strong enough yet, had not achieved perfection, and therefore if he were to eat of that tree he would die.

Adam lived in a world of divine perfection, in communion with his Father and Creator, and really did not know anything about an incomparably lower word—about another, as we now understand, variation in the development of human history, where alongside the good would triumph evil, sickness, sorrow, injustice, deceit, and suffering.

Satan, the devil, offered him and his wife: If you eat of this tree you will be like gods. Immediately! And Adam in fact had that goal, to be like God. He was created in the image and likeness of God, and in perfecting himself he was going in that very direction. But satan said, “Why wait? Do it now. Eat of the forbidden fruit and you will immediately be like god!” The heirs to that temptation and falsehood are right next to us now.

But then in Eden happened something that was of course incomparably more that that. People not only not only disobeyed God, they chose, be it rashly or be it unthinkingly, but they chose the most terrible path that can possibly be imagined on this earth—opposition to the will of God. And what in this world can go against God’s will? Nothing—it’s impossible to go against the will of God! Going against the will of the All-Sovereign, Almighty God is death. And that is what our ancestors, our fore-parents Adam and Eve condemned us to: death.

The devil knew very well about this; he himself was already in a state of eternal death, eternal corruption and evil, and therefore his main goal was to draw the first people and the entire future race of man into his death.

But contrary to the fallen spirits, goodness remained in the human soul. Goodness no longer exists with the fallen spirits. There are completely dedicated to evil, to opposing God. Goodness remained in man even after the fall, but opposition to it and evil were introduced into our essence. The apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says, “I am a wretched man; the good that I want to do, I can’t do, I don’t have the strength for it or the will; although I understand with my mind that I love and want to do good. But my passions and my flesh dispose me toward doing the evil that I do not want to do” (cf. Rom. 7:15–24).

So, people should inevitably have perished, crashed to their death against the crag of resisting God’s will. But the Lord, who desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, out of His infinite love for man whom He created, for the future human race, for each of us (after all, the Lord having created Adam, in His omnipotence and omniscience also created and loved all of his multitudinous descendants), chose a different path for people. Although it was was long, difficult path, it was the mankind’s salvation from eternal death. How did this salvation begin?

In the Bible we read that the Lord clothed them in garments of skin and cast them out of Paradise. What is this? How should we understand this “exile from Paradise?” Well, that is just how our salvation began. But what are the “garments of skin?” Just lower your eyes and take a look at yourselves. Our body is that very garment. Man’s current body is completely different from that subtle spiritual body in which the first Adam was clothed, as the holy fathers of our Church write. And now let’s take a look at our souls… We will see them filled with passions and sins. As it turns out, our physical and spiritual countenance is that very state of “exile from Paradise”. But when man was in Paradise he had a completely different body and a different, undamaged soul.

When Adam let the spirit of rebellion into his heart, the spirit of the devil, he could no longer live as he did before the face of God. This duplicity, this communion with the devil and death simply began to tear him apart. Remember, in the Bible is described how after Adam and Eve had tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they literally broke their heads running and hiding when they heard the voice of God. They could not bear the presence of God, and essentially cast their own selves out of Paradise before the Lord God exiled Adam from the Garden of Eden.

The Lord sent man, His creation, on a long road with one aim—to save him from eternal death. And He Himself, in the person of His only Son of one essence with the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, also sets off on the road to meet the that prodigal son, so that albeit not right away, perhaps after a long time, at the price of the Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering and death—that is of His own Self—to bring that salvation to completion.

This is what we are remembering today. In the hymns at the Vigil we sing: Adam sat outside of paradise and wept over his fall, weeping with belated tears. Each one of us has also had no few incidents after Adam when we have had to weep over our sins. However, fortunately we see how the Lord Himself in his mercy turns even these sins to our salvation. And the Lord God uses the very falls of mankind themselves for man’s repentance and transformation. Adam of course wept not just for himself alone but for his multitudinous descendants, amongst whom are you and me. He saw to what he had condemned billions of people, and that not all of them, not even thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, will be saved.

To this ancient and yet personal history that is repeated with each one of us, in our own personal fate, the Holy Church returns on the eve of Great Lent. Our entrance into fasting and repentance begins from this point of the fall into sin when we cast our own selves out of Paradise and into our common grievous, fallen state.

We will yet talk much more about the fast, about how to pass through it profitably. But today we read the Gospel where in simple words it spoke of how if we forgive our neighbor his sins with all our heart, then the Lord will forgive us. it is simple, that’s true. But this commandment is divine. Just look—the Lord demands very much from us, He invites us to do something that each one of us is capable of doing—forgive with all our heart, and by this to be like God. The Lord out of His mercy forgives each person who repents of any sin.

Also in today’s Gospel we heard: Do not gather treasures on earth, treasures for our garments of skin, which get sick and old, torment us and are tormented themselves over the whole course of our lives. Do not gather treasures for them—gather treasures there, in Eden, in that country of which we really are the heirs but have simply forgotten about it our didn’t know. In that country out of which our ancestors where exiled but where we are intended to settle. And not only in Eden, but in the infinitely more perfect than Eden New Jerusalem, as it is called in the New Testament. Each person who makes the effort should return not only to the original state before fall, but even more, should become the heir of God Himself. This is what the Lord God created man for. It is no accident that Adam was tempted by the promise to become “like god”. For this is after all God’s aim for man—to raise each one filled with faith in Christ to infinite divinity. This is the very goal of creation.

We can’t say everything about this all at once. But Great Lent is a marvelously convenient time to delve into the questions of spiritual life. Let us labor, make an effort to gain knowledge, to repent, and to change our lives, for the salvation of our souls and to unite with God; to correct our errors to the best of our ability, and through this, to at least some extent correct the error of our Forefather.

This evening will be the rite of forgiveness at what will already be Great Lenten Vespers. Each of us should spend Great Lent according the rule of the Church. The goal of the fast is not the harsh fulfillment of the rules, but rather the struggle with our passions. It is to cast the spirit of resistance out of our souls—that same spirit that entered into us in Eden.

We will be serving the Passion service on Sunday evenings this Lent beginning from the second Sunday. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts will be served each Wednesday and Friday. I will remind you that the first Liturgies of the Presanctified Gifts during the coming week are intended for the sick. Not everyone should receive Communion on those days, but only those who unable to fast strictly until Saturday. But those Orthodox Christians who are healthy and able to fast strictly until Friday may go to confession on Friday, and the whole Orthodox world receives Holy Communion on Saturday and Sunday. I will remind you once again that that the first week of Great Lent is a time designated for very strict fasting, repentance, and preparation for Communion. In ancient times, only very ailing people fasted only the first two days, and received Communion on the third, because they were simply physically unable to fast until Friday. It was for them that the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was instituted on Wednesday. But if you are able to stand through seven hours of services each day for a week, and at home to read five kathismas of the Psalter and all the canons and rule before Communion, then thank God for your excellent health and dedicate this week to nothing other than repentance. Receive Communion at the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom or St. Basil the Great [on Saturday or Sunday]. Then next week, any of you can receive Communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

Greetings with the feast! Greetings with the beginning of Great Lent! 

Forgive as You Wish to Be Forgiven

“If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

This is how today’s Gospel today begins. Why does it begin this way? You may ask: what has this to do with fasting? It is linked, very closely, as there is also a very close link between fasting and the end of this Gospel, where fasting is not spoken of, but the amassing of riches, not on earth but in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not steal. For when fasting is understood in a true, Christian sense, and not in a legalistic, pharisaical way, then the forgiving of insults and abstaining from covetousness are a fast, and this most important fast, or, if you wish, the greatest fruit of fasting. For indeed, there is very little value in abstaining from food without abstinence from returning of insult for insult and the illusion of earthly riches.
The Lord does not order us, with the power of authority: forgive men their sins! He leaves it to our free choice, to forgive or not. He will not violate our freedom, to force us to do something, for then, our action would not be ours but His, and, it would not have the value that it would have if we did it freely and willingly. It is true that He does not command with the power of authority, but he does point out to us what will otherwise overtake us:
“Neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” And who will forgive us our sins if God won’t? No-one, either in heaven or on earth; no-one at all. Men will not forgive us, because we do not forgive them, and God will not forgive us because men do not forgive us.

(Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, Homilies: Volume I, pg 127)

Catechetical lessons in the Orthodox Church of Zambia

Maphunziro a katekisimu mu Tchalitchi cha Orthodox waku Zambia. 

(Orthodox Christian Metropolis of Zambia)

13th March 2021

FRIDAY OF CHEESE FARE - Chirundu

With the blessings of Archbishop of Zambia Ioannis , today Friday on the week of Cheese - fare Catechetical lessons continued in Chirundu to prepare the community for Great Lent.
Continue praying for us as we go into this period of repentance that the Lord our God to be with us.

Father Arsenios
Father Antonios

CHEESEFARE WEEK

Cheesefare week, the last full week before Great Lent .
This week, we read the readings and attend the services, to get-us ready for Great Lent.
We fast all week, but in the most unique way of the entire year, fasting from meat only, with all other foods being allowed. We are fasting every day, but only “partially” and we even eat cheese and other milk products on days we normally would not throughout the year, such as Wednesday and Friday.

We are using the Triodion in Vespers and Matins at all services, and its content definitely is Lenten in tone.

On Wednesday and Friday, we do not celebrate the Divine Liturgy, just as in Great Lent we do not celebrate it on most weekdays. The readings on Wednesday and Friday are of a Lenten character; we do not read the usual Epistle and Gospel, but instead read from the Old Testament. We follow the Lenten format of having a reading during the Sixth Hour and Vespers.
Daily Vespers on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday begin in a “non-Lenten” way just as during the rest of the year, but the end of Vespers is ”Lenten” with the usual prayers with bows after the Aposticha, and the prayer of St Ephrem.
Wednesday and Friday Vespers are Lenten in tone, with an Old Testament Reading, and the prayer of St Ephrem, but the ending is non-Lenten in tone.
The quintessential prayer of Great Lent, the “Prayer of St Ephrem”, is said at every weekday Vespers beginning on Tuesday evening.
Another aspect of the week that makes it seem more “Lenten” is the content of the Gospel readings. They are all concerning the day of the Lord’s passion. We will return to these readings during Holy week.

Faithful, let us receive with joy the divinely-inspired announcements of lent!

let us prepare ourselves through fasting for the master’s communion in zion!

Let us wash ourselves with tears of purification; Let us pray to behold the fulfillment of pascha, the true revelation!

Let us prepare ourselves to adore the cross and resurrection of Christ our God!

Do not deprive us of our expectation, Lover of mankind!