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SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
Our Holy Father Paul of Thebes (January 15)
Our Holy Father John Kalyvites (The Hut-Dweller) (January 15) Our Holy Father Gabriel of Lesnov (January 15) The Holy Martyr Pansophius (January 15) |
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Never think that God does not hear you when you pray to Him. He hears our thoughts as we hear one another's voices and words. And if He does not act at once in response to your prayer, that is either because your prayer was unworthy, or you were seeking something that would be dangerous for you, or, again, because He, by His wis- dom and providence, delays the fulfilling of your request until the right moment. Father John of Kronstadt writes: `As we are able to communicate quickly by means of the electric telegraph with people far away from us, so, through a living faith, as through such a tele- graph, we are quickly in contact with God, the angels and the saints. Send your requests to God and the saints by the telegraph of faith, and you will immediately get an answer.' And again, in another place: `God and His created souls and spirits, the living and the dead, are thinking beings, and thought is swift and somehow omnipresent. Think about them with your whole heart, and they will be present with you. God will ever be with you, and, by His gift and power, the others will be also.' Let me ponder on the purity of the Lord Jesus, on: I. The purity of His mind. 2. The purity of His heart. 3. The purity of His will. 4. The purity of His speech. 5. The purity of His gaze and of all His senses. - on the faith that brings victory. `This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith' (I Jn. 5:4). Christ the Lord conquers the world, and that victory, my brethren, is ours also. The apostles conquered the world, and that victory is ours also. There is nothing of greater power in the world, my breth-ren, than the Christian faith. The swords that cut off this Faith are blunted and broken, but the Faith has remained; kings who fought against this Faith suffocated under the anathema for their crime; kingdoms which waged war against this Faith were destroyed; cities which cast out this Faith lie thrown down in their destruction; here-tics who perverted this Faith perished in soul and body and went out of this world under the anathema, but this Faith remained. When the world rushes upon us, my brethren, with its illu-sions; with the illusion of exterior beauty, the illusion of riches, of plcasurc, of transitory glory, with what shall we resist and by what shall we be the victors but by this Faith? Truly, by nothing but this invincible Faith, which knows of something better than any of the good things of this world. When all the illusion of this world reveals its other face; when beauty turns to ugliness, health to sickness, riches to poverty, glory to dishonour, power to degradation and all the flowering of physical life to filth and pollution; by what shall we overcome that misery, that filth and pollution and keep ourselves from despair but by this Faith? Truly, by nothing but this invincible Faith, which teaches us enduring and unchanging values in the Kingdom of God. When death shows its destructive power over our neighbours, our relatives and friends, over our flowers, our crops, over the work of our hands, and when it turns its irresistible teeth on us ourselves, by what shall we conquer the fear of death and by what unlock the door of life, that life that is stronger than death, if not by this Faith? Truly, by nothing but this invincible Faith, which knows resurrec-tion and life without death. O Lord Jesus, Thou Conqueror of the world, help us also to conquer the world by faith in Thee. To Thee be glory and praise for ever. Amen. |
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SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net * From "The Prologue from Ochrid", by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic - Lazarica Press - Birmingham 1985 Four Book Edition - Translated by Mother Maria - Dates based on old church calendar. Please see our calendar for conversion between old and new calendar dates. |