St Herman of Alaska
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS AND IS AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ. ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
PRAYER OF DOXOLOGY TO THE THEOTOKOS
O Mary, Mother of God, we too send up a doxology and a hymn of praise to You, who are the most revered treasure of the whole world, the ever-burning lamp, the crown of virginity, the scepter of Orthodox Christianity, the space in which He who is altogether uncontainable was contained within You, who are both Mother and Virgin. You are the person for whom heaven rejoices, the Angels delight, the demons are banished and Satan is vanquished and fallen. Through You, O Theotokos, man, who had fallen into the depths of the abyss, is now able to once again rise to heaven. Through You all of creation has come to the knowledge of the truth. Through You all of the nations can be guided to salvation. Through You the Only-Begotten Son of God and our Savior Jesus Christ has shown a great light upon us who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death O Virgin Mary and Mother of God, who are full of grace, intercede for us now and forever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
TODAY'S SYNAXARION
On August 9th Our Holy Orthodox Christian Church commemorates, honors and entreats the holy intercessions of the following Saints, Forefathers, Fathers, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Preachers, Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, Ascetics and Teachers of Our Holy Orthodox Christian faith: Holy Apostle Matthias; St. Psoes of Egypt; Saint Anthony of Alexandria; Synaxis of All Saints of Solovki; Saint Macarius of Oredezh; Holy Martyr Patrikia.
THE HOLY APOSTLE MATTHIAS. Born in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah, he was a pupil of St. Simeon the host of God in Jerusalem. When the Lord began preaching the Kingdom of God, St. Matthias was among those who loved the Lord with all their hearts, heard His words and saw His works with delight. St. Matthias was at first included among the Seventy, lesser Apostles of Christ, but, after the Lord's Resurrection, because the place of Judas the betrayer fell vacant, the Apostles chose this Matthias by lot in Judas's place as one of the Twelve Great Apostles (Acts 1:23). Receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, St. Matthias began to preach the Gospel, first in Judea then in Ethiopia, where he suffered greatly for the sake of Christ. It is held that he preached also in Macedonia, where they tried to bind him, but he became invisible to his tormentors and thus escaped danger. When he was imprisoned, the Lord appeared to him, gave him courage and set him free. He finally returned to work in Judea. There he was arrested and taken for trial before Ananias the high priest, before whom he fearlessly witnessed to Christ. Ananias (the same who had earlier killed the Apostle James) condemned St. Matthias to death. They took St. Matthias out and stoned him to death, then cut off his head with an axe (the Roman way of executing those condemned to death. The hypocritical Jews used this method on the dead man, to prove to the Romans that he had opposed Rose). So died this great Apostle of Christ, and went to the eternal joy of his Lord. [The Prologue from Ochrid, vol. 3]
+By the holy intercessions of Your Saints and Holy Apostles and Martyrs, O Christ Our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
TODAY'S SACRED SCRIPTURAL READINGS ARE THE FOLLOWING:
Holy Epistle Lesson: Acts 1:12-17, 21-26
Holy Gospel Lesson: St. Matthew 21:43-46
FOR YOUR PERSONAL REFLECTION AND CONTEMPLATION
"It is impossible for a person to proceed without ever stumbling somewhere, because from all sides the devil, the world, and the flesh are continuously inserting obstacles into his life, and he stumbles in proportion to his carelessness. Therefore, when he falls, he should arise at once and seek forgiveness. When one repents in proportion to the gravity of his fall, his conscience, which used to bother him, stops reproving him". [Geronda (Elder) Ephraim of Arizona, the Philotheitis]
ON FASTING
By Saint John Chrysostom
Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail.
Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by.
In other words, not only should the mouth fast, but the eyes and the legs, and the arms. All the other parts of the body should fast as well. Let the hands fast, remaining clean from stealing and greediness. Let the legs fast, avoiding roads which lead to sinful sights. Let the eyes fast by not fixing themselves on beautiful faces and by not observing the beauty of others. You are not eating meat, are you? You should not eat debauchery with your eyes as well. Let your hearing also fast. The fast of hearing is not to accept bad talk against others and sly defamations.
Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other hand, we chew up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Saint Paul frightened us, saying, "If you chew up and consume one another be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves."
You did not thrust your teeth into the flesh (of your neighbor) but you thrust bad talk in his soul, you wounded it by spreading defame, causing inestimable damage both to yourself, to him and to many others.
If you cannot go without eating all day because of an ailment of the body, beloved one, no logical man will be able to criticize you for that. Besides, we have a Lord Who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and Who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because He neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast. But because human nature is indifferent and gives itself over mostly to comforts and gratifications, for this reason the philanthropic Lord, like a loving and caring Father, devised the therapy of the fast for us, so that our gratifications would be completely stopped and that our worldly cares be transferred to spiritual works. So, if there, are some who have gathered here and who are hindered by somatic ailments and cannot remain without food, I advise them to nullify the somatic ailment and not to deprive themselves from this spiritual teaching, but to care for it even more.
For there exist, there really exist, ways which are even more important than abstinence from food which can open the gates which lead to God with boldness. He, therefore, who eats and cannot fast, let him pray more, let him have a more intense desire to hear divine words. In this, our somatic illness is not a hindrance. Let him become reconciled with his enemies, let him distance from his soul every resentment. If he wants to accomplish these things, then he has done the true fast, which is what the Lord asks of us more than anything else. It is for this reason that He asks us to abstain from food, in order to place the flesh in subjection to the fulfillment of His commandments, whereby curbing its impetuousness. But if we are not about to offer to ourselves the help rendered by the fast because of bodily illness and at the same time display greater indifference, we will see ourselves in an unusual exaggerated way. For the fast does not help us when all the aforementioned accomplishments are missing as much is the case when we display greater indifference because we cannot even use the medicine of fasting. Since you have learned things from us, I pardon you, those who can, fast and you yourselves increase acuteness and praiseworthy desire as much as possible.
To the brothers, though, who cannot fast because of bodily illness, encourage them not to abandon this spiritual help, teaching them and passing on to them all the things we say here, showing them that he who eats and drinks with moderation is not unworthy to hear these things but he who is indifferent and slack. You should tell them the bold and daring saying that "he who eats for the glory of God eats and he who does not eat for the glory of God does not eat and pleases God." For he who fasts pleases God because he has the strength to endure the fatigue of the fast and he that eats also pleases God because nothing of this sort can harm the salvation of his soul, as long as he does not want it to. Because our philanthropic God showed us so many ways by which we can, if we desire, take part in God's power that it is impossible to mention them all.
We have said enough about those who are missing, being that we want to eliminate them from the excuse of shame. For they should not be ashamed because food does not bring on shame but the act of some wrongdoing. Sin is a great shame. If we commit it not only should we feel ashamed but we should cover ourselves exactly the same way those who are wounded do. Even then we should not forsake ourselves but rush to confession and thanksgiving. We have such a Lord Who asks nothing of us but to confess our sins, after the commitment of a sin which was due to our indifference, and to stop at that point and not to fall into the same one again. If we eat with moderation we should never be ashamed, because the creator gave us such a body which cannot be supported in any other way except by receiving food. Let us only stop excessive food because that contributes a great deal to the health and well-being of the body.
Let us therefore in every way cast off every destructive madness so that we may gain the goods which have been promised to us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[Abridged from St. John Chrysostom homilies "On Fasting"] source: Orthodoxy Today.org.
With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George