My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ON JANUARY 22ND OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLE TIMOTHEOS (TIMOTHY)
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Holy Apostle and the Righteous Martyr. Fourth Tone
Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and was vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries and having kept the Faith, thou didst finish a like course, O Hieromartyr and Apostle Timothy. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.
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Kontakion Hymn of the Holy Apostle and Righteous Martyr. First Tone
With hymns let us, the faithful, sing Timothy's praises as Paul's divine disciple and faithful companion; with him let us also laud Anastasius the godly-wise, who shone forth with splendor like a star out of Persia and doth drive away from us our bodily sickness and spiritual maladies.
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Holy Apostle Timotheos (Timothy) was one of the Seventy (70 secret Apostles), he was born in Lystra of Lycaonia of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. His mother and grandmother were praised by the Holy Apostle Paul for their sincere faith (2 Timothy 1:4-5). He met the great Apostle Paul for the first time in Lystra and was the only witness of Saint Paul's healing of the man lame from birth. Later, Saint Timothy was an almost constant traveling-companion of Saint Paul's, visiting Achaia, Macedonia, Italy, and Spain with him. A great zealot for the Faith, a superb preacher and of a gentle spirit, Timothy contributed greatly to the spreading and establishment of the Christian faith. Saint Paul called him his own son in the faith (I Timothy 1:2). After Saint Paul's martyrdom, Saint Timothy had Saint John the Evangelist as his teacher. But when Emperor Domitian exiled Saint John from Ephesus to the island of Patmos in Greece, Saint Timothy remained in Ephesus as bishop. At the time of an idolatrous feast called Katagogium, the pagans, resentful of the Christians, made a merciless, masked attack on Saint Timothy the Apostle and killed him, in about the year 93 A.D. His holy relics were later taken to Constantinople and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles by the graves of Saint Luke the Evangelist and Saint Andrew the First-Called.
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OUR HOLY FATHER, THE HOLY ANASTASIUS
He was a Persian by birth, with the pagan name of Magundat. When the Emperor Heraclius waged war against the Persians, Magundat deserted to the Christians and went to Jerusalem, where he was baptized and given the name Anastasios. It was not enough for him to be baptized; he also became a monk in order to give himself entirely to the service of God. Among other ascetic practices, he very early read the lives of the Most Holy Martyrs and, reading this, wetted the book with his tears, greatly yearning for martyrdom himself. The Lord finally crowned him with the wreath of martyrdom. He lay long in prison and was horribly tortured until king Chozroes condemned him to death. After this condemnation, Saint Anastasius was drowned, then taken out of the water and beheaded by the executioner, who sent his head to the king. Saint Anastasios suffered on January 22nd, 628 A.D., in the town of Bethsaloe near Nineveh. (Source: The Prologue from Ochrid)
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The First Epistle (Letter) of Paul the Apostle to Timothy
[The Guide for Faithfulness: An Early Creed - 1 Timothy 3:14-16]
"These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by Angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory."
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1 Timothy 6:11-16
[Pursue Spirituality Instead]
"But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."
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2 Timothy 3:1-7
"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
2 Timothy 4:1-5
"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His Kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George