One reason I began studying St. Dionysius was to better understand the context of St. Gregory Palamas’ writings. Today I thought I might read a bit from this Saint and found that my copy of The Saving Work of Christ, Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas begins with a sermon on Christmas. Not wanting to read that too soon in this season, I thought that the next sermon, On the Presentation, would be a good one at this time as we on the New Calendar just celebrated the Presentation of the Theotokos into the temple. St. Gregory was speaking on Christ’s presentation, but I thought there should be some corresponding insights. The opening teaches concerning Christ’s Incarnation, and thus Nativity, with a wonderful description of Christ’s healing human nature, and how each person must be healed by baptism into His Body, and a corresponding life of obedience. Then the topic switches to Saints Simeon and Anna who received Him in the temple.

I believe we can receive an Advent message from these two Saints in how they waited for Christ to come in the flesh to them. Saint Simeon’s prophesies about Christ’s and his mother’s sufferings are included, and then Saint Anna is described thusly,

The prophetess Anna, widow of Phanuel, was about eighty-four years old. Devoted to fasts and prayers, she never left the Temple. At that moment, more than ever in the power of the Holy Spirit, she gave thanks to God and announced the good tidings, that redemption, which she declared to be this infant, had come to those who were waiting for it (cf. Luke 2:38).

The Holy Spirit sent this dovelike pair into the Temple beforehand to meet Christ when He came, teaching us what sort of people those who receive Christ should be, and what sort of people women who have lost their husbands and men who have lost their wives should be. For this Anna, Phanuel’s widow, was both a widow and a prophetess. How was this possible? Because she renounced the worldly cares of everyday life and did not leave the Temple. She spent her days and nights in fasts, vigils, prayers and psalmody, and her life was blameless. So it stands to reason that she recognized the Lord, whom she served by her actions when He came. As the psalmist and prophet says of Him, “I will sing and I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me?” (Ps. 101: 1-2)

He spends the rest of the sermon on the virtue of not getting married a second time.

Men and women who choose, after being honourably widowed, to draw near to a life of virginity or to live with someone else, should be like this. If you altogether despise second marriages as something base, then hold fast to your purpose and follow in the footsteps of those who stayed unmarried all their lives.

He uses Peter as an example of how a person once married suffers no impediment to a virtuous life, and how he in some ways surpassed “the virgin John.” But if a person is widowed,

When desire is redirected from the flesh to the spirit it raises us to such heights. [I've talked about these type statements compared to gnosticism before, most memorably to me in St. Maximus' 400 Chapters on Love. I don't want to focus on that in particular right now.]

Be careful not to stand aloof from marriage as from something vulgar whilst at the same time failing to remain chaste because it is too difficult. In that case, you will drift away and fall unawares, for you are following neither what is according to the law nor what is superior to the law, but what is against the law. We regard widowed people who do not live chastely as worthy of condemnation, and even if they are lawfully joined in a second marriage we do not deem them completely blameless – for Paul says that they have cast off their first faith (cf: 1 Tim. 5:11-12, 1 Cor. 7:27, 39-40). So how much more to be condemned are those who prefer illicit pleasure to lawful marriage, and who live with their wives but do not abstain from fornication.

He goes on to give many examples of the evils of illicit pleasure and the consequences of such indulgence.

I have not hidden the fact that George and I were both married before. Five of our six, seven if you count our stillborn son, Isaac, were from previous marriages. I wish there were more passages in the Bible that address the needs of parents, single or otherwise, like turning the other cheek, which is much easier to do if children aren’t involved. Do what you want to me, but woe unto the person who touches my child. Anyway, in the passages above, St. Gregory at first “despises” second marriages, but then when he incorporates the Scriptures he downgrades it to “we do not deem them completely blameless”. Here are the scriptures he points to,[I'll be lazy and paste the Bible Gateway NIV ones]

^{1 Tim. 5:11}As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. ¹²Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. ¹³Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. ¹⁴So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. ¹⁵Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

^{1 Cor. 7:27}Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. ²⁸But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

³⁹A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. ⁴⁰In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

I was divorced before I found the Orthodox Church, and as a Sola Scriptura Christian, I took the above and the following verse in the same passage to heart,

¹⁵But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.

I do not know what I would have done if I had been Orthodox. If I hadn’t had children I may have joined a monastery, but I may have had too many youthful passions to have been ready for such a commitment at that time. I believe the Orthodox Church will support a pure, virginal life more than a Protestant one would. The Church with her monasteries and full schedule of prayers has more barriers and safeguards available, not that we employ them enough, against secular and material temptations.