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.
+
THE VALUE OF TIME (Part II)
By Metropolitan Augoustinos (Kandiotis), of blessed memory, Florina, Greece (+ 2010), from the weekly bulletin "Kyriaki"
This year's 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. During this time, were there any hours or days of fasting? There are certain days such as Wednesdays and Fridays, and others that are even more significant, such as Holy Friday, that must be days such as Wednesdays and Fridays, and others that are even more significant, such as Holy Friday. A politician dedicated 15 straight days for his campaign and visited several towns. When he returned to his office, he pridefully announced: "I traveled for 15 days straight and toured 15 different towns, in every single one I was treated and fed as royalty; freshly slaughtered meat every single day..." And one of the villagers that heard him, a shepherd, asked him in a soft tone: "Your Excellency, how can there be no Wednesday and no Friday for 15 days straight? Was every day a Pascha?..." You see, my brethren, fasting is nowadays not even a "custom" among many of our faithful--there is no desire or will to fast even on Great Friday! Satan has gotten hold of the special eraser and wiped out fasting from the daily lives of Christians.
This year's 8,760 are ending. Among these hours was time set aside for repentance and confession? These hours would have been the year's most blessed ones for that is the time that we placed the devil on the ground and stampeded him while Angels in Heaven are singing divine victory hymns. It was during those hours that we the sinful ones, full of contrition and in utmost humility, knelt in front of our spiritual father and opened up our lips to whisper not words of criticism and condemnation but the one that our Lord thrives to listen to: "I sinned my Lord, please, grant Your mercy upon me the wretched one..." and all of us have so many sins to repent for and confess...So, I ask all of us, during this last year, did we manage to spend time with our father confessor, to open our heart, to tearfully confess our sins and then say "God be merciful to me a sinner" and "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom"? (Luke 18:13; 23:42).
Did we do this? If not, we better ask ourselves why not.
This year's 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. Is it possible that we might have also forgotten the other golden hours of the year that are coming to a close? Which hours are these, you ask? These are the hours of almsgiving and mercy (charity) toward our fellow man. Did you reach into your pocket and silently, secretly, and with as little attention as possible place a few crumbs from your many blessings into the hands of a less fortunate man? Did you dedicate a few moments of prayer for a neighbor or a colleague who was in a moment of crisis? Did you spend a few dimes from your earthly blessings towards a Christian mission or cause? Never forget that the hands that spread goodness and alms (philanthropy) are the hands of God, the hands of Christ!
This year's 8,760 hours are rapidly coming to an end. During these hours were any of the most significant and spiritually highest moments, the moments of receiving Holy Communion, our Lord's Holy Body and Most Precious Blood? These are indeed blessed moments once we repent and confess our sins, once we are cleansed with tears of true repentance, once we embrace and make peace with our enemies, we approach the Royal Gate with the look of the thief on the cross and receive the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments): "Take, eat this is my body...Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament (Covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (St. Matthew 26:28). These are the moments that carry a unique and incomparable weight and significance; there is no price for them and can neither be purchased nor sold. They are truly above all other hours of our life.
So now we all need to ask: Were there such hours for any of you my brethren, and most pointedly for me the wretched one? I am greatly afraid that in reality, we have no such hours. Our hours are almost exclusively hours of sin, the devil's hours; they are everything and anything except one thing: hours of God. Let us not kid ourselves; we waste each year's hours like all those who threw gold coins into the river. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)
(To be continued)
___________________________
"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
+++
With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George