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A fall is often an occasion of humility. The Feast of The Nativity: The Reason for the Season. Each according to his measure O Holy Cross Humility Everything you have is on loan. The rule of life for a perfect person is to be the image and likeness of God Kindness Do not Judge. Purify your Soul August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 +Christ is Risen+
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"If there is anything in life which sustains a wise man and induces him to maintain his serenity amidst the tribulations and adversities of the world, it is in the first place, I consider, the meditation and knowledge of the scriptures." Saint Jerome. "What joy is ours that the Lord not only forgives our sins, but allows the soul to know Him, so soon as she humbles herself. The poorest wretch can humble himself and know God in the Holy Spirit. There is no need of money or possessions in order to know God, only of humility. The Lord gives Himself freely, for mercy's sake alone. I did not know this before but now every day and hour, every minute, I see clearly the mercy of God. The Lord gives peace even in sleep, but with out God there is no peace in the soul." Sain Silouan the Athonite.
GOSPEL READING
The Gospel is also available in:
 11th Thursday after Pentecost The Reading is from Matthew 24:13-28 The Lord said to his disciples, "He who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come. "So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if any one says to you, 'Lo, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Lo, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Lo, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out; if they say, 'Lo, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together." The Epistle and Gospel readings are from the Revised Standard Edition as is published by Holy Cross Press in the Apostolos and the Holy and Sacred Gospel. "Flee from evil thoughts as from fire. Pay no attention to them so they do not grow roots within you. Futhermore, do not despair, Since God is great and forgives sinners. Only repent when you make a mistake, and thus force yourself not to commit the same sins again." Saint Joseph the Hesychast. "When the Lord is pleased to reveal to you the state of your soul, then you begin to see clearly, and to feel acutely, that -with all your virtues- your heart is corrupt and perverted, your soul defiled; and you yourself are only a slave of sin and passions, which have completely mastered you and do not allow you to draw near to God. You also begin to see that there is nothing truly good in you, and - even if you have some good works - they are all mixed with sin and are not the fruit of true love, but are the product of variouse passions and circustances. In all this, do not despair and do not be afraid; but with full submission and devotion to Him, have patience and pray." By Saint Innocent of Alaska. "Love can do all things, and if it ceases to be generous and sharing, it is no longer love." Saint Gregory the Theologian "The more one hurts, the more divine consolation he recieves, because otherwise it is not possible to stand the pain...God especially consoles those who hurt for others." Father Paisios Eznepides +1994 "Do you possess a lot of money? If so, give it away because the beauty of riches consists not in moneyboxes but in helping the poor. Are you short of money? Be careful not to envy the rich. And don't despair, because human affairs are always changing into their opposites." Saint Philo of Alexandria.
"We were created for enternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by Holy Baptism. And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful. For this reason your very first endeavor and care should be to receive it. Without it everything is as nothing, though you have the whole world under you." Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk "Do not hate evils in others when they exist in yourself. Rather, show hatred for the evils in your own person." Saint John the Solitary "The search for absolute truth has vanished; it has been swallowed up in worldliness" Father Seraphim Rose +1982 "Nothing in this world but God can fill our heart or fully satisfy our desires. A fire can not be put out with brushwood and oil, because only water will put it out. In exactly the same way, the desires of the human heart cannot be satisfied with the goods of this world, because only the Grace of God can quench the thirst of our desires." By Saint Innocent of Alaska
"It is in the renewing of the mind, and the peace of thoughts, and the love and heavenly attachment for the Lord, that the new creation-the Christian-is distinguished from all the men of the world. This was the purpose of the Lord's coming: to vouch safe these spiritual blessings to those who truly believe in Him. Christians have a glory and a beauty and a heavenly wealth which is beyond words, and it is won with pains, and sweat, and trials, and many conflicts, and all by the grace of God." By Saint Macarius the Great.
"The spirit of meekness settles not where wrath or passion exists." by Saint John Chrysostom "Afflictions bring blessings to men; self esteem and sensual pleasure, evil. To accept an affliction for God's sake is a genuine act of holiness; for true love is tested by adversities. Without affliction, virtue has not been tested." By Saint Mark the Ascetic "Events which now seem like misfortunes later on prove to be God's Blessings. By Father Epiphanios Theodoropoulos (+1989)
GOSPEL READING
The Gospel is also available in:
9th Monday after Pentecost The Reading is from Matthew 18:1-11 At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the Gehenna fire. "See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of man came to save the lost." The Epistle and Gospel readings are from the Revised Standard Edition as is published by Holy Cross Press in the Apostolos and the Holy and Sacred Gospel. "Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." By Saint Philo of Alexandria
"Arise my soul, and review your deeds which have preceeded from you. Scrutinize them closely, and shed the rain of your tears, declare openly to Christ your thoughts and deeds, so that you may be justified. By Saint Andrew of Crete. "Any circumstance in which a man finds himself unwillingly is a prison for him. So be content with whatever circumstances you may now be in, lest by being ungrateful you punish yourself unwittingly." by St. Anthony the Great. "Contuinally forgive others. Forgive AT ONCE, not one second later, because if you hesitate to forgive, jealously comes in the door, then hatred and envy. Forgive instantly as Christ forgives instantly." & nbsp; &n bsp; &nb sp; Gerontissa Makrina 1. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST In the third year of His preaching, the Lord Jesus often spoke to His disciples of His approaching passion but at the same time of His glory following His suffering on the Cross. So that His impending passion would not totally weaken His disciples and that no one would fall away from Him, He, the All-wise, wanted to partially show them His divine glory before His passion. For that reason, He took Peter, James and John with Him and, with them, went out at night to Mt. Tabor and there was transfigured before them: "And His face shone as the sun and His garments became white as snow" (St. Matthew 17:2). There appeared along side Him, Moses and Elijah, the great Old Testament prophets. And, seeing this, His disciples were amazed. Peter said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if You will, let us make here three tabernacles; one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah" (St. Matthew 17:4). While Peter still spoke, Moses and Elijah departed and a bright cloud overshadowed the Lord and His disciples and there came a voice from the cloud saying: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear Him" (St. Matthew 17:5). Hearing the voice, the disciples fell to the ground on their faces as though dead and remained that way, lying in fear, until the Lord came near to them and said: "Arise and be not afraid" (St. Matthew 17:7). Why did the Lord take only three disciples on Tabor and not all? Because Judas was not worthy to behold the divine glory of the Teacher, Whom he will betray and the Lord did not want to leave him [Judas] alone at the foot of the mountain so that the betrayer would not, by that, justify his betrayal. Why was our Lord transfigured on a mountain and not in a valley? So as to teach us two virtues: love of labor and godly-thoughts. For, climbing to the heights required labor and height represents the heights of our thoughts, i.e., godly-thoughts. Why was our Lord transfigured at night? Because, the night rather than the day is more suitable for prayer and godly-thoughts and because the night, by its darkness, conceals all the beauty of the earth and reveals the beauty of the starry heavens. Why did Moses and Elijah appear? In order to destroy the error of the Jews, as though Christ is one of the prophets; Elijah or Jeremiah or some other that is why He appears as a King above the prophets and that is why Moses and Elijah appear as His servants. Until then, our Lord manifested His divine power many times to the disciples but, on Mt. Tabor, He manifested His divine nature. This vision of His Divinity and the hearing of the heavenly witness about Him as the Son of God, should serve the disciples in the days of the Lord's passion, in strengthening of an unwavering faith in Him and His final victory. HYMN OF PRAISE THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST There, where Israel defeated Sisar There also condescended, the Heavenly King Prayer, to go and to nightly vigils, The glory of His Transfiguration, to manifest, And the faith of His followers, to confirm In the eternal victory of Him the Victor. There, divine light from Himself, He released Dispels the thick darkness, and illuminated Tabor; The Light, for a long time, which in Himself contained From which, to the world, a little at a time dispensed Abundant rays, now released, Jubilant rays, sweet rays. The glow of humanity, to reveal to heaven, To earth and to men, the Divine Truth. Let the firmament, its Representative see, Let the earth recognize God, the Savior. REFLECTION Why did our Lord not manifest His divine glory on Tabor before all the disciples instead of before three of them? First, because He Himself gave the Law through the mouth of Moses: "At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established" (Deuteronomy 19:15). Therefore, three witnesses are sufficient. These three witnesses represent three main virtues: Peter Faith, for he was the first to confess his faith in Christ as the Son of God; James Hope, for, with faith in the promise of Christ, he was the first who laid down his life for the Lord, being the first to be slain by the Jews; John Love, for he reclined on the bosom of the Lord and remained beneath the Cross of the Lord until the end. God is not called the God of many but rather the God of the chosen. "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6). God often valued a faithful man more than an entire nation. Thus, on many occasions, He wanted to destroy the entire Jewish nation, but because of the prayers of righteous Moses, spared that nation to live. God listened more to the faithful Prophet Elijah than to the entire unbelieving kingdom of Ahab. Because of the prayers of one man, God towns and people. Thus, the sinful town of Ustiug was to be destroyed by fire and hail had it not been saved by the prayers of the one and only righteous man in it, St. Procopius, the "fool for Christ" (July 8). CONTEMPLATION To contemplate the Providence of God, which rewarded the virtue of Ruth and Boaz (The Book of Ruth): 1. How Ruth, being left a widow, remained faithful to Naomi, her aged mother-in-law and, by her labors, fed both, Naomi and herself; 2. How the wealthy Boaz was merciful and helped these two poor women; 3. How Boaz and Ruth entered into marriage from whom was born Obed, the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. HOMILY About the exaltation of the Church of God "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it" (Isaiah 2:2). This prophecy pertains to the Church of Christ. However much of this prophecy could seem to be mysterious to the Jews before Christ, so much more is it completely clear for us today. Mountain or height: the house of the Lord is truly established "in the top of the mountains", i.e., in the heights of the heavens, for the Church of Christ, first, is not sustained by the earth but rather by the heavens and finally, one part of the members of the Church (and now, a greater part) is to be found in heaven, while the other part is still on earth. Further, the Church of Christ is "exalted above the hills", i.e., above all earthly and human greatness. Human philosophy and art and all the cultures of people as well as all earthly values represent only the low hills in comparison to the infinite heights of Christ's Church. For it was not difficult for the Church to create all of those hills, while neither one of them, nor all of them together, in the course of many thousands of years, was able to create the Church. Finally, the prophet says: "all nations shall flow into it." To what, truly, up to now, have all the nations flowed if not into the Church of Christ? The Temple of Jerusalem was inexcessible to the Gentiles under the penalty of death. The Church, however, from the beginning called all nations on earth, obedient to the command of the Lord: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations" (St. Matthew 28:19). This is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, a vision from afar, a vision truthful and wonderful. O Wonderful Lord, we give You unceasing thanks that You have made us worthy to be the children of Your Holy and True Church that is exalted above all the worldly heights. To You be glory and thanks always. Amen. By St. Nikolai Vilimirovich I wanted to share this article written by a Orthodox Priest in Mississipi. It was posted on a private site so I can't just give you a link and must re post the whole thing. Enjoy;D Ramblings of a Redneck Priest
Thanks a lot, St. John! You may have heard the saying, “He is a well-rounded person.” This is a compliment and means that a person has many good qualities and a lot of knowledge and experience. Basically, you don't detect any “rough edges” like ignorance, or crudeness, rudeness, or prejudice-things that make a person difficult to deal with. Sometimes, I think of salvation as a matter of losing my rough edges. God knows I’ve had many of them. In fact, most of my edges I honed myself into razor sharpness. My dad often told me that to make it in this world, a man had to be sharp. But instead of making a success of myself because of my sharpness, I cut people, even people that I love, and made a mess of most things. Sin creates many rough and sharp edges. Pride, ego, lust, fear, anxiety-all of these sinful passions erode my soul. Unchecked, these passions turn me into a rock- a hardheaded and hardhearted man with rough and sharp edges. So, how then do we attain salvation? How do we become well rounded? Believe it or not, but an ancient monastic, St. John of the Ladder, described the way. He said that life is like stones placed in a tumbler. The stones may be hard and have sharp edges, but as the tumbler is turned, the stones became smoother and rounder as they tumble and bump into each other. Oh no! Tell me you don’t mean it, Saint John! If this is true, then every part of my life is the tumbler and God has placed me in it with a bunch of rocks. This means that when I bump into my wife, its meant to smooth me out. When I bump into my boss, its meant to smooth me out. When I bump into my teacher, or my principal, or the policeman that gave me a ticket last week for not wearing my seat belt, it isn't as Shakespeare said, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." It's God at work, so that everywhere I go, I’m going to be in the tumbler. Is this really how God is going to save me? See, I had something more dramatic in mind. Queue the background music (a piece by John Williams would be good, something in the Star Wars genre!) and bring the cameras in for a closeup of me as I stand on a rock on top of the mountain obviously emaciated from months of heroic prayer and fasting. Suddenly, the sun breaks through the clouds and a beam hits me as I come into full enlightenment. Ah...yes, can't you just picture it? (I'm sorry, St. Seraphim. I'm not worthy to even tie your shoes.) No, nothing so dramatic for me. It’s in the rough and tumble of life that God will save me by smoothing out my rough edges. Therefore, the so-called hassles in my life are not about being punished, but about being saved. I can count on hassles: stop lights and taxes and flat tires and dead batteries, and burnt toast. Even in Church, there will be hassles like obnoxious church members and inconsiderate and indifferent priests. Yes, it’s a real tumble in here. Does God really expect me enjoy the tumble? Probably not, but I’ve got to quit railing against the rocks. Does the stoplight change when I yell at it for catching me once again? No, it doesn’t seem to hear me, but in fact seems to stay red just a little longer than before. And what about the people who just seemed determined to bump me? Well, they are rocks just like me. They are in the tumbler with me being saved. When we bump, its forgiveness and humility that will smooth the edges. I've got to learn to quit blaming the other rocks. Maybe this is why the saints were so peaceful in the tumbler of life. They saw it all is God’s attempt to save them. Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic was a man who had been in the tumbler. Listen to his words! “Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than friends have. friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world. Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul. Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf. Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me in to the background. Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand. Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep. Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out. Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Your garment. Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me: so that my fleeing to You may have no return; so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger, so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life. Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends. It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, 0 Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands. For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he lively steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.” Now that’s a well-rounded man! Still, I'm still dreaming of that mountaintop scene with the dramatic music. |
