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 AUGUST 20th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF THE HOLY PROPHET SAMUEL
The fifteenth and last of the Judges of Israel, he lived eleven hundred years before Christ. He was of the tribe of Levi, born of Elkanah and Hannah in a place called Ramatha or Arimathea, where noble Joseph was later born. The barren Hannah besought Samuel of the Lord with tears and dedicated him to God when he was three years old. Living in Shiloh near the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel, at the age of twelve, had a true revelation from God of the punishment which would come upon the house of the High Priest, Eli, because of the worthlessness of his sons Hophni and Phineas. This revelation was swiftly fulfilled: the Philistines routed the Israelites, slew both of Eli's sons, and captured the Ark of the Covenant. When the messenger brought these bad tidings to Eli, he fell dead on the ground, breathing his last at the age of ninety-eight, and the same thing happened to his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas. Israel was under the Philistine yoke after this for twenty years. When this time had elapsed, God sent Samuel to the people to preach repentance to them as the one means of their salvation from their enemies. The people repented and cast out the foreign idols which they had served, accepting Samuel as Prophet, Priest, and Judge. Then Samuel set out with the army and slew the Philistines and, with God's help, put them to confusion and slew them, freeing the land and the people. After that, Samuel judged the people in peace to old age. Seeing him growing old, the people asked him to give them a king in his place. In vain, Samuel urged the people against this, saying that God was their only King, but the people remained adamant in their desire. Although this desire was not pleasing to God, He commanded Samuel to anoint Saul the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, as king. Saul reigned a short time, and God rejected him for impudence and disobedience, and then commanded Samuel to anoint David the son of Jesse as king in Saul's place. At the time of his death, Samuel gathered all the people together and took leave of them, and when he died all Israel wept for him and buried him solemnly in his house at Ramah.
FOR CONSIDERATION
Repent before death closes the door of your life and opens the door of the Judgment. Repent before death, and, because you do not know the hour of your death, repent today, this instant, and stop repeating your sins. Saint Ephraim the Syrian prayed to God:
"Before the wheel of time comes to a stop in my life, have mercy of me! Before the wind of death blows, and sickness, the herald of death, appears in my body, have mercy on me! Before the majestic sun in the heavens becomes darkened for me, have mercy on me, and may Thy Light shine for me from the heavens and drive out the fearful darkness of my mind. Before the earth returns to earth and becomes corruption, and before the destruction of all the features of its beauty, have mercy! Before my sins are revealed at the Judgment to my shame before the Judge, O Most Gracious Lord, have mercy on me! Before the armies come forth, escorting the King's Son, to gather our miserable race together before the Judge's Throne, have mercy! Before the sound of the voice of the trumpet heralds Thy coming, spare Thy servant and have mercy, O our Lord Jesus! Before Thou shuttest Thy door to me, and before I become food for the unquenchable fires of Gehenna, have mercy on me!"
(Source: The Prologue from Ochrid)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George