Declaring Victory Over Fear, Panic and Viruses

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Our Only True God, and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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DECLARING VICTORY OVER FEAR, PANIC AND VIRUSES
By Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemesoy, Cyprus.

"...The Church in difficult times has always taught us and directed us to pray. This crisis will be dealt with--with prayer. We need people who have such great strong prayer, such that can turn the events of the world around. Because in truth, only prayer can turn around the development of events. Everything else is human. Of course, it is good to have the human approach and it is beneficial. But prayer can, in reality, and in a short time, turn around everything and can end this difficulty. However, this difficulty has a beneficial side to it. It teaches us many things. It shows us our weakness, the temporary nature of human things. It teaches that everything around us is ephemeral. Therefore, we must understand that our first need and our first longing should be the Kingdom of God. Just as the Lord says in the Holy Gospel, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be given to you." We will be given everything from our Lord, the Lord of Glory; we just need to seek the Kingdom of God.

This is our true necessity and need, this is what we truly need. Of course, all other things are necessary too, but God knows our needs and provides. The Church is calling us to struggle and pray, to struggle to gain more prayer--prayer that streams from repentance and humility. We must repent for our personal sins, for the sins of our brethren and for the sins of the whole world. We need to offer God strong prayers, gushing out of our humble and repentant heart; so that God can have mercy on us and overturn the difficult events. If we pray, everything will be overturned.  If we do not pray, then the events will take the human course of things; and we do not know how things will be and how things will develop.

Our Churches will remain open. The Worship of God will never stop. The priests and we [i.e., the hierarch himself] will be in the position that God placed us. And as shepherds of the Church, we offer our prayers and the services of the Worship of God and for Holy Communion and Thanksgiving. We offer these for the whole world, for the whole Adam.  Whoever wants to approach. Whoever feels difficulty and weak or anything else, they can act as their conscience directs them. We cannot judge any man. We are called to pray for the whole world, the whole Adam, for all the human race.

Maybe someone can question themselves and say, "We that come to Church, we will not ever get ill?" We will get ill and one day we will die. Who told us that we would remain immortal in this world? Did we need the coronavirus to remind us that one day we will die? We needed the coronavirus to tell us that we can fall ill? What did the forty martyrs say? "Our actions are in philotimo (good honor)."  

Since one day we will die, let us die honorable, and is pleasing to God. Let us also remember our Saint Neophytos who said, "What other thing exists above all but the fear of God and the remembrance of death?--to remind us of our exodus from this world and our presence in front of God.

What does the Church offer us? The strength to not fear; the victory against the fear of death. We will all go through biological death, without exceptions. However, the spiritual death is a death that a faithful person who believes in God will not undergo. He who believes in Me will never taste death, meaning spiritual death, because the biological death we all go through. And this is death that we fear--the spiritual death--the eternal separation from God.  We do not want this separation, it terrifies us, because this is eternal separation, eternal death--the eternal separation from our Lord Jesus Christ. The biological death is human nature and will arrive one day. Even if we are Saints, been if we are sinners, we will all go through the gate of the biological death.

The Resurrection of Christ, Who was victorious over death and Who destroyed the fear of death, and then we shall hear the night of the Resurrection: "No one fears death, because we are freed from death by our Savior. No one should fear death because our Savior released us from the fear of biological death, and we move on to live the resurrection. Death is conquered. There is no death. There is only eternal life. Christ is alive, the Kingdom of God is real and will be to the ages.

With this type of faith, we will walk through this difficult time that we currently face--without fears, without panic, without human reasoning. We will walk crying out the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that our life here has an end. We know that this life is just passing through, a journey through, from the temporary to eternal--to the eternal Kingdom of God.

In these times of crisis, our faith is tested, our way of life matters, our thoughts are evaluated, and the quality of our relationship with our Father, our God, is measured: our life, our strength, out time in works of repentance, our time in prayer and in the worship offered to God. The Church will remain in prayer, giving glory and worship to the Living God, without any human selfish act. With the wisdom of the Church, we will be given hope that God is above all things. I am not saying that we ignore the human side of things. Not at all. But we need to be victorious over fear, victorious over death which destroys love--the True Love, Who is Christ, the One Who destroys fears. He who loves God fears nothing. Nothing darkens his life, not even the most difficult moment. For God's love is victorious over the fear and gives us the taste of Eternal Life..."  (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

The Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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THE PRAYER OF THE CHERUBIC HYMN
By His Eminence Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotis of blessed memory.

When the Cherubic Hymn, dearly beloved, is chanted, the priest stands before the Holy Altar Table and reads the following prayer:

"None is worthy, among them that are enslaved by carnal desires and pleasures, to approach or come near or minister before Thee, the King of Glory; for Thy Service is great and fearful even to the Heavenly Powers. Yet since, through Thine ineffable and immeasurable compassion, Thou hast without change or differentiation become man and taken the title of our High Priest, as Lord of All, Thou hast committed to us the celebration of this rite and of the Bloodless Sacrifice. For Thou, O Lord our God, alone dost govern all things in heaven and in earth, Thou Who sittest upon the Throne of the Cherubim and art Lord of the Seraphim and King of Israel, Who only art Holy and restest among Thy Saints. To Thee I persistently call, for Thou alone art righteous and ready to hear. Look upon me Thy sinful and unprofitable servant and purify my soul and heart

from an evil conscience; enable me by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, girt with the grace of the Priesthood to stand at this Thy Holy Table and to consecrate Thy Holy and Spotless Body and Thy Precious Blood. For to Thee I come near, bowing my neck, and Thee I beseech. Turn not away Thy Face from me, neither reject me from among Thy children, but consider me

worthy so that these Gifts may be brought near to Thee by me, Thy sinful and unworthy servant.  For Thou art the Offerer and the Offered, the Acceptor and the Distributor, Christ our God, and to Thee we ascribe glory, with Thine Eternal Father and Thy Most Holy, Righteous and Life-Giving Spirit, now and forever and from "all Ages to all Ages." Amen."

This prayer of the Cherubic Hymn is one of the most inspired and moving prayers of the Divine Liturgy. Pious celebrants of the Most High at the time when they read it become filled with so much emotion, that the shed tears and their sobbings will not let them finish this superb prayer.  How great is Christ, and how small and wretched is man! The Greatness of Christ and the wretchedness of man, who dares to approach the Holy Altar and offer the Holy Mystery--this prayer emphasizes these two things.

Christ! O Christ, Thou art the Master of All. Thou dost govern, Thou dost command all that is heavenly, all that is earthly. Thou art Lord of the Angels and Archangels, of the Cherubim and the Seraphim. Thou alone art Holy. Thou dost find gladness and Thou dost rest there where holiness is. Thou didst come from the heights of heaven here to earth. Thou didst come out of love for wretched man. A love which in the language of man cannot be expressed, and there is no measure to measure. Thy love is an endless ocean.

The priest, O Christ, what am I who ministers? I am thine unprofitable and worthless servant, who, even if I had kept all thy Commandments, even so I am not worthy to gaze upon the height of Thy Majesty. It is great and frightening thing for someone to serve Thee. With what hands can I touch Thee the Undefiled? With what tongue can I hymn and celebrate the sacred ceremony? I am afraid, Thou might reject me. Full of fear and reverence, Christ, I bend down, I worship Thee and beseech Thee...

The priest must feel always his unworthiness, especially during the time when he is celebrating and offering the Highest Mystery. He himself should not be in his place, nor any other man, regardless of how perfect he is, but one of the Angels and Archangels of the heavenly world.  And this could be done. Namely, every time when a Liturgy is about to be celebrated, an Angel could come down from heaven, come here to earth, and celebrate the Holy Mystery. Nothing is impossible to God. Has not God sent Angels many times here to earth to execute His Commandments and serve the people? It would be possible for the Angels and Archangels to be entrusted with such a task.

What an astonishing phenomenon it would be, if upon entering the church we were to see an Angel celebrating at the Holy Sanctuary! But this task, which Angels and Archangels would tremble to perform, has been entrusted to priests. Christ gave them the power to conduct the Holy Mysteries. Saint John Chrysostom says that if we hypothesize that this spiritual power to remit sins and in general to perform the Mysteries were given to the Angels, because the Angels have no conception of sin and of the temptations which people experience, they would be unable fully to understand and feel the human tragedy; likewise the people would come into contact with Angels with great difficulty and reservations. But the priest, himself a sinful man who every day confronts temptations and fights the mighty fight against sin, sees on top of all that the weakness of people. He hears with great sympathy, as a fellow-sufferer, the sins of his fellow man, and is ready to give absolution to those who believe and sincerely repent.

Therefore let us thank Christ, because among the other benevolent acts toward mankind, He gave to men, to the priests, the spiritual power to forgive sins and to celebrate the Mysteries in general.

The priest as a man may not be rich and powerful, wise and learned, one who impresses worldly people; he may be humble and disdained. However, from the moment when he receives and wears, as the prayer says, "the grace of ordination," he receives authority which is higher than any other. For even the most powerful and rich and educated person, as a sinner, needs to have his sins forgiven. And only the priest can give this absolution in the name of Jesus Christ.  Having this kind of spiritual authority, he is above kings. He is superior to the Angels and Archangels, because God did not give to any of them this authority to forgive sins.  

These things indeed, which we write here about the priests, are spiritual matters, and only he who believes understands and feels them. And when he sees a priest, he honors him as he should, because the priest has spiritual power, as a representative of Christ on earth. Saint Cosmas the Aitolian used to say: "If you, my child, meet on your path both a priest and an Angel, first you must greet the priest and then the Angel, because the priest who performs and celebrates is superior to the Angels and Archangels." 

Today, unfortunately, in an age of anarchy, unbelief, and corruption, the priests of the Most High are not honored, and the majority of them are not even aware of the highness of their office.

May the Holy Spirit enlighten us, so that indeed the priests might feel Whose soldiers they are, and the people might not despise and disparage them, but might honor them like the Angels of the Lord, the Creator of All.  Amen.  (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

May 9 - Saint Christopher the Great Martyr

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord, and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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ON MAY 9th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER THE GREAT MARTYR

Saint Christopher, the holy and great Martyr of Christ, was vouchsafed the crown of martyrdom during the reign of the unjust pagan Roman emperor Decius (249-251 A.D.). From his youth, the Saint had been called Reprobus. During that epoch, the rulers were possessed by a frenzied madness against the pious Christians. The lawless emperor had issued an outrageous decree. His foul command urged the ill use of the righteous and godly slaves of the Christians, with the application of violence, if they could not be coerced into eating meats offered and sacrificed to idols. These foods had been defiled by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrificial victims. Those who consented not to deny Christ were to be subjected to ten thousand torments, which led to death in a most horrifying manner. All the rulers and governors of the cities of the realm made it a point to appear compliant and obedient to the crown. The impious, as a result, were afforded no small protection by law while the pious were being persecuted.

One of the emperor's military commanders, at that time, who was engaged in a campaign against other nations, encountered the blessed Reprobus. The latter hailed from the tribe of the dog-faced, whom the general apprehended. (The dog-faced, according to the Greek compilers, must signify that the Saint was not comely but rather had an ill-favored facial appearance...Although he had a look that was displeasing to the senses, and even frightening and wild-looking, yet his inner man was Christ-like.) The blessed Reprobus did not bear the least character resemblance to his countrymen. Indeed, he may be described as prudent and noble-minded, and as one who kept the divine words in his heart. The man of God observed how the idol-worshipers were torturing each of the Christians, which was ushering in no small grief for such a one as Reprobus who was predisposed toward sympathy. With such a compassionate turn of mind, his fellow-feeling toward the sufferers stirred him. Since, however, he was ignorant of the language of the idol madmen who had captured him, he was unable either to reason with or to rebuke the benighted ones. There was no one with whom he could speak and come to an understanding. He prostrated himself to the ground, supplicating the Lord with tears that he might be endowed with the power to converse with his pagan captors. He noetically offered up this prayer:  

"O Lord God, the Almighty, hearken to my low estate and humiliation.  Show Thy compassion to me, the unworthy one. Open my lips and grant me to speak as the men of this place that I might be able to reprove the tyrant."

While Reprobus was praying in this manner, he found before him a certain light-bearing youth who addressed him and said, "Thine entreaty has been heard, O Reprobus. So then, rise up and receive grace from the Lord."

The holy man rose up, at which point the light-bearing being touched Reprobus' lips.  Straightway, as the Angel breathed upon his mouth, Reprobus was enabled to speak freely.  He then, at once, marched into the city. He viewed the Christians undergoing punishment, which sight pained his heart. It was as if he were receiving those scourges. He, thereupon, directed his words to the idolaters, speaking on behalf of his fellow Christians, saying, "O guides of the darkness and those full of every transgression, does it not suffice to surrender your own souls to Satan, but must you compel even us, who fear the one, God, to perish along with you? I am a Christian and I do not condescend to venerate your vain gods and useless abominations." As the holy Reprobus was speaking, Vachthios, one of the pagan officers, happened to be near him. He struck Reprobus on the mouth. The blessed man, not giving reign to anger, turned to him and said modestly, "My Savior Christ is preventing me from retaliating; thus, I shall not render a fitting recompense. But should I become angry, all of thy perverse kingdom would not be able to vanquish me."

Vachthios, goaded by this statement, turned on his heel and departed for the city where the emperor was abiding. He submitted his report to the emperor, adding the following verbal declarations: "Sir, a few days ago, while the authorities were punishing the Christians, in accordance with thy divine command, there appeared a young man in the midst of the people.  He can only be described as a huge and dreadful giant. He has the form and looks of a wild man.  His teeth jut out from his mouth, even as a swine. He has a head like a dog. Simply put, he is so unsightly that he defies description. Now this very tall fellow was blaspheming both the gods and thy realm. Decius deemed it prudent to investigate the matter. He, immediately, summoned two hundred soldiers and dispatched them with these words: "Bind this giant, named Reprobus, and conduct him here before me. In the event, he should resist, cut him into a thousand pieces. Only bring forward his head that I may see for myself if he is the frightening ogre that this coward claims."

Now the soldiers, whom Decius dispatched to arrest the righteous man, arrived there the very moment Reprobus was engaged in prayer outside the church. From a distance, they decried his features and became frightened. As a result, they did not dare to draw near. But one of the soldiers plucked up courage and rallied his comrades, saying, "Why should we fear one lone man who is unarmed?" Thus, they approached and questioned him in this wise: "Whence comest thou and why weepest thou?" Reprobus gave an answer, speaking with a humble tone, "I weep for the sake of men who are wanting in understanding. Such ones have left off venerating the True God for senseless graven images". When the soldiers, therefore, heard him speak to them with meekness, they became bold and declared unto him: "Our emperor has commissioned us to bind you and lead you before his presence because you will not pay homage to the ancient gods but rather a new one."

Reprobus replied, "If you will let me, I will come of my own volition; for you shall not be able to drag me bound before him. The reason for this is that my Master Christ loosed the bonds of my iniquities and delivered me from Satan, your father." 

The most wicked and unrighteous Decius was thinking of diverse methods to inflict a violent death upon Christ's witness. He, thereupon, ordered that a huge stone--necessitating thirty men to drag it--be brought to him. A hole was bored into the stone, through which a chain was passed.  One end of the chain was tied around the neck of the Saint. After they fettered the hands and feet of Christopher, he was cast inside a deep well. The idolaters thought it impossible that he should ever exit from that darkest of places. But in vain did they meditate these things. This is because an Angel of the Lord descended and led forth the Saint, alive and unwounded. Decius, beholding such an extrication, became demonized from his own perniciousness. Why? Because he saw he was unable to put to death one naked and unarmed man. Decius then asked the Saint, "Until when shall thy magic arts keep thee intact? Is it not possible, then, to blot thee out of existence by the many tortures to which I have thrown upon you?" The Saint replied, "Christ sustains me to the end of this life, my temporal one; for I have Him for my helper. While I am in this life, I despise your inventions."

The tyrant, whose thoughts were bent to contrive means to be rid of Christopher, responded by giving instructions for the making of the garment of copper. After it was constructed, it was mightily heated. Christopher was fitted with the shirt. The heat of red-hot copper, nonetheless, never touched Christopher; thus, he remained unscathed. Decius, therefore, handed down his final decision when he said, "Since this most incorrigible and useless fellow foolishly slights my own commands, I command the severing of his revolting and ugly head."

The beheaders, thereupon, drew him to the place of execution. A multitude of people, both idolaters, and Christians followed after the Saint. When they arrived at the site, Saint Christopher requested leave from the headsman that he might first pray. Having received permission, Saint Christopher prayed to God in the hearing of the whole company. He uttered these words: "O Lord Thou also come now as my enemy together with his minions. Therefore, do Thou also come as my supporter and flank me, O All-Good Lord. Receive my spirit in peace and number me with the least of Thy slaves. As for the unjust Decius, render to him the deserving reward of his irreverence. May he be delivered up to Satan for the devouring and destruction of the flesh..."

After the Saint prayed in this manner, there came forth a voice out of the heavens, saying, "All, of whatsoever thou didst ask of Me, was My will to fulfill that I do not sorrow thee...Do you, therefore, come that you mightest enjoy the good things and gladness which have been prepared for you." Saint Christopher, hearing these promises, rejoiced and said to the executioner, "Child, do that which you have been charged to perform." The decapitator, drawing near to Saint Christopher with much fear and reverence, then swung his sword and severed that honorable head. It should be noted that, after the execution, the same executioner took his own life and died upon the sacred body of the martyr. The day of the martyrdom was the 9th day of May.  (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

May 8 - Saint John the Theologian

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord, and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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ON MAY 8th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES

THE SYNAXIS OF THE DISPATCH OF HOLY DUST, THAT IS, THE MANNA, FROM THE TOMB OF THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN.

Saint John the Theologian, the divine Apostle and Evangelist, the beloved Disciple of the Lord, was born in Bethsaida of the Galilee. He was translated to the Lord, while preaching the word of God at Ephesus, in deep old age during the days of Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.). When the blessed John was about to depart from this present life, to what which is perpetual and eternal, he foreknew it by the indwelling of divine grace. He took his Disciples and went outside of the city of Ephesus, St. John, according to Prochoros his disciple, had assembled seven of his disciples:  Prochoros and six others. Saint John said to them, "Take spades in your hands and follow me." They followed him outside the city to a certain place, where he said, "Sit down." He then went a little apart from them to where it was quiet and began to pray. It was very early in the morning; the sun had not quite risen. After his prayer, he said to them, "Dig with your spades a cross-shaped trench as long as I am tall." This was done while the Evangelist prayed.  After he had finished his prayer, he set himself down in the trench that has been dug. Saint John then to Prochoros, "My son, thou shalt go to Jerusalem. That is where thou must spend thy days." The Evangelist then gave them instructions and embraced them, saying, "Take some earth, my mother earth, and cover me." The disciple embraced them again and, taking some earth, covered him only up to his knees. Once more, he embraced them, saying, "Take some more earth and cover me up to the neck." So they embraced him again and then took some more earth and covered him up to his neck." Then he said to them, "Bring a thin veil and place it on my face, and embrace me again for the last time, for you shall not see me any longer in this life." So they, stricken with grief, embraced the holy Apostle again. As he was sending us off in peace, the disciples, lamenting bitterly, covered his whole body. The sun rose just then, and he surrendered his spirit.

The disciples returned to the city and were asked, "Where is your teachers?" So they explained what had just occurred in great detail. The Ephesians begged them that they show them the site.  They, therefore, went back to the grave with the brethren, but Saint John was not there. Only his shoes were left behind. Then they remembered the words of the Lord to the Apostle Peter, "If I wish him to tarry while I am coming, what is that to thee?" (John 21:22). And they all glorified God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to Whom is due glory, honor, and worship, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Each year, on the 8th day of May, the grave of the Saint was decorated with roses.

Saint Bede remarks that "Jesus did not love John alone in a singular way to the exclusion of others, but He loved John beyond those whom He loved, in a more intimate way as one whom the special prerogative of chastity had made worthy of fuller love. Indeed, Jesus proved that He loved them all when before His Passion He said to them, 'Even as the Father loved Me, I also loved you; abide in the love, that which is Mine' (John 15:9). But beyond the others, He loved the one who, being a virgin when chosen by Him, remained forever a virgin. Accordingly, when Christ was about to die on the Cross, He commended His Mother to John (John 19:26-27), so that virgin might watch over virgin; and when He Himself ascended to heaven after His death and Resurrection, a son would not be lacking to His Mother whose chaste life would be protected by his chaste services." Furthermore on, Saint Bede writes: "Mystically speaking, we can take these things which are predicted by the Lord to Peter and John, as designating the two ways of life in the Church which are carried out in the present, namely the active and the contemplative...Christ saying this about John suggests the state of contemplative virtue, which is not to be ended through death, as the active life is, but after death is to be more perfectly completed with the coming of the Lord."

As we said, after the Evangelist's falling asleep in the Lord, his tomb was shown to be another pool of Siloam. Since our all-good and man-befriending Lord not only glorifies the Saints--that is, those who for love of Him engaged in struggles such as the disciples and Apostles, the Prophets, and Martyrs, and all those who led God-pleasing lives--accounting them worthy of the Kingdom of the Heavens and those everlasting good things, but also grants, by the free gift of divine gifts of grace, manifold and splendid miracles then and now and forever.

We, therefore, at the empty tomb of Saint John the Theologian celebrate the great Evangelist.  He was granted Christ's grace by which he is adorned with many wonderworking. His tomb, yearly and to the day of this writing, in a sudden and mysterious manner, spouts up dust.  The natives have named the dust, "Manna." The dust has been called so because it is used for the deliverance and recovery from every disease. It is employed for the health of both souls and bodies, to the glorification of God and His servant John.

The Holy Apostle John remained with the Theotokos until the holy Dormition (Koimisis).  Afterward, he left Jerusalem and went to Asia Minor; for when the lands of the earth were divided among the Holy Apostles, Saint John chose the last lot--that of Asia Minor. He, therefore, repaired to Ephesus and other places. Ephesus was the most important Greek city in Ionian Asia Minor. The colossal Temple of Artemis, or Diana, to which Ephesus owed much of its fame, was demolished by the lever of Saint John's prayers. The idol worshipers, thereupon, were delivered from their error as they were guided to the light of the knowledge of God by Saint John. The number of them was forty myriads, that is to say, four hundred thousand people who worshiped the false goddess Artemis. At length, they built and named a church after Saint John the Theologian. The church is situated atop a mountain that the Ephesians called Elivaton, which was situated in ancient Ephesus.

The Synaxis of the Holy Apostle John the Apostle and Evangelist is celebrated in his august Apostolic church, which is located at Evdomon (Hebdomon).  (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George

May 7 - The Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross Over Jerusalem

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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ON MAY 7th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE APPEARANCE OF THE SIGN OF THE PRECIOUS CROSS OVER JERUSALEM.

The sign of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross appeared in the sky over Jerusalem during the day of Emperor Constantius (337-361 A.D.), the son of Saint Constantine the Great. The apparition took place during the episcopacy of the holy Patriarch Kyril of Jerusalem. Throughout the days of the Pentecost, the Honorable sign of the Cross, filled with Divine Light, was made manifest over Jerusalem.

Saint Kyril, in his epistle to Emperor Constantius, speaks of the miraculous appearance of a luminous cross in the sky over the city of Jerusalem. The epistle (letter) is dated the 7th day of May, in the year 351. "In these holy days of the Paschal season, on the 7th of May at about the third hour, a huge cross made of light appeared in the sky above holy Golgotha (Calvary) extending as far as the holy Mount of Olives. It was not revealed to one or two people alone, but it appeared unmistakably to everyone in the city. It was not as if one might conclude that one had suffered momentary optical illusion; it was visible to the human eye above the earth for several hours. The flashes it emitted outshone the rays of the sun...It prompted the whole populace at once to run together into the holy church, overcome both with fear and joy at the Divine vision. Young and old, men and women of every age, even young girls confined to their chambers at home, natives and foreigners, Christians and pagans visiting from abroad, all together as if with a single voice raised a hymn of praise to God's Only-Begotten and Wonderworking Son. They had the evidence of their own senses that the holy Faith of Christians is not base on the persuasive arguments of philosophy but on the revelation of the Spirit and power; it is not proclaimed by mere human beings but testified from heaven by God Himself. Accordingly, we citizens of Jerusalem, who saw this extraordinary wonder with our own eyes, have paid due worship and thanksgiving to God the Universal King and to God's Only-Begotten Son--and shall continue to do so."

The sign of the Cross, shining more brilliantly than the sun and stretching a distance of about five and one-half miles, lasted for an entire week over the Holy City. This appearance, together with confirming the articles at Nicaea, also led many pagans and Jews to Christianity. "With the Light that shone in the form of Thy Cross, O compassionate Savior, Thou didst triumph over the lawless daring of the God-slayers."

The apparition of the Cross should also bring to our minds that final one, at the Second Coming of Christ. "And then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in the heaven, and then the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory. Saint John Chrysostom comments: "And then shall the Sign of the Son of Man appear in the heaven (εν τω ουρανώ); that is, the Cross, being brighter than the sun--since the latter shall be darkened and hide itself--will appear...far brighter than the rays of the sun" (Homily 76," Matthew, P.G. 58:736 (col. 698). Blessed Theophylact: "What need is there for such a sensory light, since there is no night and the Sun of Righteousness has appeared? But even the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, that is, they shall be astounded and shudder seeing creation.] And He shall send forth His Angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost parts of the heavens unto their extremities (Matthew 24:30-31). (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

May 6 - Holy Prophet Job

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord, Only True God, and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

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ON MAY 6TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE HOLY PROPHET JOB.

Job, the righteous and wise man, was living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia. He was the grandson of Esau and fifth from Abraham. In the Old Testament book of his name, we learn how he loses wealth, large family of ten children, and health. Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740) writes: "Once Job sat upon a throne, but now he sits upon a dunghill, naked and covered with sores (Job 2:7-8). Once he was blessed with many children and admired by all, but suddenly he is childless and homeless. Yet he counted the dunghill as a palace and his sores as pearls. The book records a number of debates, an extraterrestrial one between God and Satan, and an earthly one between Job and three of his acquaintances (Eliphaz the king of the Minaeans). Job, in the end, acknowledges the sovereignty of God, and he is restored. God blesses Job, and the man of God receives more than what he had lost in cattle, sheep, camels, oxen, and she-asses. He also begot other children, three of whom were daughters. And he (Job) called the first Day, and the second Casia, and the third Amalthaea's horn. And they were not found, in comparison with the daughter of Job, fairer women than they in all the world. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren (Job 42:14).

Satan's idea of theology is that if Job were to be blessed by God, then Job would be faithful. If Job is not blessed by God, then he would be unfaithful. Job's friends believe that only when Job is faithful, shall he be blessed; but if he is unfaithful, he shall be punished. At God's challenge, Job could only humble himself. He was absent at creation and cannot explain the forces of nature. Conspicuously, Job admits his ignorance and keeps silent. Job also admits that neither can he overrule God's ways nor can he control the forces of nature. Thus, he confesses his presumption and repents. Saint Ambrose (339-397) observes that the devil knows that when the book of Job is explained, "the power of his temptations is shown and made clear."

Saint Ambrose describes the holy man thus: "Job, also, in prosperity and adversity, was blameless, patient, pleasing, and acceptable to God. He was harassed with pain, yet could find consolation." And, speaking of how fortitude should be used in struggling for virtue, he writes: "What of all this wanting in holy Job, or in his virtue, or what came upon him in the way of vice? How did he bear the distress of sickness or cold or hunger? How did he look upon dangers which menaced his safety? Were the riches from which so much went to the poor gathered together by plunder? Did he ever allow greed for wealth, or the desire for pleasure, or lusts to rise in his heart? Did ever the unkind disputes of the three kinglets, or the insults of the slaves, rouse him to anger? Did glory carry him away like some fickle person when he called down vengeance on himself if ever he had hidden even an involuntary fault, or had feared the multitude of the people so as not to confess it in the sight of all? His virtues had no point of contact with any vices but stood firm on their own ground. Who, then, was so brave as holy Job? Can he be put second to any, on whose level hardly one like himself can be placed?"

Saint Ambrose continues: "The three royal friends of Job declared him to be a sinner because they saw that he, after being rich, became poor; that having many children, he had lost them all, and that he was now covered with sores and was full of welts, and was a mass of wounds from head to foot. But holy Job made his declaration to them, 'If I suffer thus because of my sins, why did the wicked live? They grow old also in riches, their seed is according to their pleasure, their houses are prosperous, but they have no fear; there is no scourge from the Lord on them' (Job 21:7-9). A faint-hearted man, seeing this, is disturbed in mind, and turns his attention away from it."

Let us close with the counsel of Saint Basil the Great, who speaks on detachments from world goods. This homily was prompted when a devastating fire had occurred in the neighborhood of the church. "Recall to your mind the patience of Job. No one should be led by his sufferings to think or to say that no providence rulers our affairs. Nor should any man cast aspersion upon the government and decree of the Lord. Let him contemplate the athlete just mentioned and provide himself with an adviser of wiser counsel. Let him review in his mind all the trials, once after another, in which Job distinguished himself and reflect that, for all the many shafts aimed at him by the devil, he did not receive a mortal blow. The devil took from him his domestic prosperity and planned to overwhelm him with reports of disasters, following closely upon one another. While the first messenger was announcing a heavy misfortune, another came, bringing news of more serious calamities, Evils were linked, one with another, and the catastrophes were like onrushing waves. Before the first lamentation had ceased, cause for another was at hand. That just man, however, stood firm as a rock, receiving the blasts of the tempest and reducing to foam the dash of the waves...He deemed worthy of tears none of the evils which were befalling him. But, when one came to report that, while his sons and daughters were feasting, a violent wind had blown down the chamber where the merrymaking was going on, he rent his garments, showing his natural sympathy and proving by the action that he was a father who loved his children. But even that moment he set a limit and measure to his grief. And he graced with words of piety the misfortune that had occurred, saying that 'the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as if hath pleased the Lord, so also is it done' (cf. Job 1:21).  

"Thus, Job repulsed the devil's attack and brought upon Satan the disgrace of total defeat. What happened then? His malady left him as if it had visited him to no avail and had gained no advantage. His flesh regained the health of a second youth. His life prospered again with all the good things of his former wealth and doubled riches flowed in from all sides upon his house. One-half consisted of his former wealth as if he had lost nothing, and the other half represented the reward of patience which is bestowed upon a just man. But why did he receive in double measure houses, mules, camels, sheep, fields, and all the accouterments of wealth while the number of children born to him remained equal to those who had died? It was because brute beasts and riches of all kinds are completely destroyed when they perish. Children, on the other hand, even if they are dead, live on in the best part of their nature. Therefore, when he was favored by the Creator with other sons and daughters, he possessed this portion of his goods also in a double measure--one family abiding with him to give joy to their parents, the other children gone before to await their father. All of them will stand about Job when the Judge of human life will gather together the universal Church, when the trumpet, which is to announce the coming of the King, alls loudly to the tombs and demands the bodies which have been entrusted to their charge. Then, they who now appear to be dead will take their place before the Master of the whole world more quickly than will the living. For this reason, I think, the Lord allotted to Job a double portion of his other wealth, but judged that he would be satisfied with the same number of children as before? Do you see how many blessings the just Job reaped from his patience? Therefore, you too, bear patiently any harm enkindled by a demon's treachery. Alleviate your feelings of distress over your misfortunes with more courageous thoughts, in accordance with the words of the Holy Scripture: "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He will nourish thee" (Psalm 54:25). To Him is due glory everlasting. Amen."

We read in the Septuagint that "Job lived after his affliction a hundred and seventy years. And all the years he lived were two hundred and forty. And Job saw his sons and his sons' sons, the fourth generation" (Job 42:16). 

And, "Sickness and health, riches and poverty, are become the glory of thy life, O blessed Job; for through all things thou art shown to be illustrious." (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in Our Risen Lord,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George