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LIGHTS ON THE
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“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. (John 15:13)
Christ inwardly strengthens me ( St. Ignatius of Antioch ), Letters to the Smyrnaeans and to the Ephesians.
"He who is near to the sword is near to God; he that is among the wild beasts is in company with God; provided only he be so in the name of Jesus Christ. I undergo all these things that I may suffer together with Him. He who became perfect Man inwardly strengthens me.
Let us therefore do all things as having Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples and He may be in us as our God, which indeed He is, and will manifest Himself before our faces. Wherefore we justly love Him." ( St. Mark, Monthly Review, September 2005 )
JEROME:
“Nothing is more to be feared than too long a peace. You are deceived if you think that a Christian can live without persecution. He suffers the greatest persecution of all who lives under none. A storm puts a man on his guard and obliges him to exert his utmost efforts to avoid shipwreck.”
AUGUSTINE:
“The martyrs are perfected in righteousness, and they earned perfection through their martyrdom. For them the church does not pray: for the other departed faithful she prays, but not for martyrs. They have gone out of this world so perfected that instead of being our clients, they are our advocates”.
AMBROSE: “If you require my estate, you may take it; if my body, I readily give it up; have you a mind to lead me with irons or put me to death, I am content. I shall not fly to the protection of the people nor cling to the alter; I choose rather to be sacrificed for the sake of the alter.”
On the death of St. Agnes:
“In the midst of tears, she shed no tears herself. She stood still, she prayed, she offered her neck. You could see fear in the eyes of the executioner, as if he were the one condemned. His right hand trembled, his face grew pale as he saw the girl’s peril, while she had no fear for herself”.
ATHANASIUS: - Life of Anthony:
“When the holy martyrs were led into Alexandria, Anthony left his cell and followed, saying: “Let us go also, that we may enter the combat, or look upon who do.” He yearned for martyrdom, but because he did not wish to hand himself over, he served the confessors in the mines and in the prisons. In the law court, he showed great enthusiasm, stirring to readiness those who were called forth as contestants, receiving them as they underwent martyrdom, and remaining in their company until they were perfected”.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH:
“Now at last I begin to be a disciple! Let nothing visible or invisible hinder me, through jealousy, from attaining to Jesus Christ. Come fire, come cross, come whole herds of wild beasts, come drawing and quartering, scattering of bones, cutting off limbs, crushing of the whole body, all the horrible blows of the de Devil - let all these things come upon me, if only I may be with Christ”.
POLYCARP: (To the executioner)
“Leave me as I am. The one who gives me strength to endure the fire will also give me strength to stay quite still on the pyre, even without the precaution of your nails”.
FRANCIS OF ASSISI:
“Our friends, then, are all those who unjustly afflict upon us trials and ordeals, shame and injustice, sorrows and torments, martyrdom and death; we must love them greatly for we will possess eternal life because of what they bring upon us”.
THE PLACE OF SAINTS IN THE CHURCH..
If you wish, the Lives of the Saints are a sort of "Orthodox Encyclopedia of Applied Scripture". In the lives of saints can be found everything which is necessary for the soul which hungers and thirsts for eternal righteousness and eternal truth in this life, and which hungers and thirsts for Divine immortality and eternal life. If faith is what you need, in the Saints you will find examples of it in abundance: and you will feed your soul with food which will never make it hungry. If you need love, truth, righteousness, hope, meekness, humility, repentance, prayer, or whatever virtue or spiritual trial, in them, the lives of the saints, you will find a countless number of holy teachers for every trial and will obtain grace-filled help for every virtue.
If you are suffering for your faith in Christ, the lives of the saints will console you and encourage you and make you bold and give you wings, and your torments will be changed into joy. If you are in any sort of temptation, the lives of the saints will help you overcome it both now and forever. If you are in danger from the invisible enemies of salvation, the lives of saints will arm you with the "whole armor of God", and you will crush them all now and forever and throughout your whole life. If you are in the midst of visible enemies and persecutors of the church of Christ, the lives of the saints will give you the courage and strength of a confessor, and you will fearlessly confess the one true God and Lord in all worlds - Jesus Christ - and you will boldly stand up for the holy truth of His Gospel unto death, unto every death, and you will feel stronger than all deaths, and much more so than all visible enemies of Christ; and being tortured for Christ you will shout for joy, feeling with all your being that your life is in heaven, hidden with Christ in God, wholly above all deaths.
In the lives of the saints are shown numerous but always certain examples of the ways of salvation, enlightenment, sanctification, transfiguration, "christification," deification; all the ways are shown by which man conquers sin, every sin; conquers passion, every passion; conquers death, every death; conquers the devil, every devil. There is a remedy there for every sin: from every passion - healing, from every death - resurrection, from every devil - deliverance; from all evils - salvation. There is no passion, no sin for which the lives of the saints do not example how the passion or sin in question is conquered, mortified, and uprooted. St. Justin Popovich
The Soldier that Pierced Jesus' Side قصة الصليب
"...and through His Wounds we were healed." ( Is 53:5 )
Do you remember in the story of the crucifixion the soldier who wanted to make sure that Jesus is dead? To make sure, he took a spear and pierced His side. Out of Jesus' Side came blood and water. Do you know that this soldier later became a martyr? This soldier's name was Longinus. He was nearly blind and was healed when drops of blood and water from the Lord fell into his eyes. It was then he said "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mk 15:39). Then, Longinus converted, left the army, and preached the Name of Jesus Christ. When Pontius Pilate heard about this, he ordered that his head be cut off, and St. Longinus received the crown of martyrdom.
The Pentecost, (May 30 ) and the Birth of the Church
"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them." ( Acts 2:1-4 )
The day of Pentecost is one of the Lord's major Feasts. It was the 50th day fulfilling Jesus' promises, "You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit...and receive power" (Acts 1:5,8; John 16:7).
The coming of the Holy Spirit was the day of the consecration of the Church and the beginning of its practical life. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit; three in One, and One in three. The Church started and spread mightily from that day on. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, He filled them and the place they were meeting, in the form of divided tongues of fire accompanied by mighty wind (Acts 2), and rested on the disciples. God's presence was expressed in a way similar to when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. St. Anthony described it as "The Fiery Spirit".
The Holy Spirit Has other names: He is the Spirit of God, and was called also the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Power, the Counselor, the Helper and Comforter (Rom. 1:4, 8:9; John 1:26 & Isa 11:1-4). There are at least five major symbols of the Holy Spirit: 1 - The Dove (Matt. 3:17). 2 - The Fire (Acts 2:3). 3 - The Water (John 7:38). 4 - The Wind (Acts 2:2). 5 - The Seal (Eph. 4:30).
The Holy Spirit has 9 Fruits (Gal. 5:22) and 9 gifts (1 Co 12). We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit to get the fullness of the fruits and gifts. The fruits are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are different kinds of service given for the common good. These are: wisdom, faith, knowledge, healing, prophecy, miraculous power, (speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues), and distinguishing between spirits. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines.
"The Holy Spirit's coming upon the disciples...was the sign of Christ receiving the headship of the Church and the inauguration of the body of Christ to proclaim the renewed creation in Him. The Eucharist began on the first day: "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Ac 2: 46,47).This is how the Church was built"
The Holy Spirit
And we, who with
unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his
likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the
Spirit (2 Co 3:18). The Spirit does not take up His abode in someone's life through
a physical approach; how could a corporeal being approach the Bodiless one?
Instead, the Spirit comes to us when we withdraw
ourselves from evil passions, which have crept into the soul through its
friendship with the flesh, alienating us from a close relationship with God.
Only when a man has been cleansed from the shame of his evil, and has returned
to his natural beauty, and the original form of the Royal Image has been
restored in him, is it possible for him to approach the
Paraclete. Then, like the sun, He will show
you in Himself the image of the invisible, and with purified eyes you will see
in this blessed image the unspeakable beauty of its prototype." ( St. Basil the Great. )
You have most
certainly already seen the beauty of Jesus in one of his humble servants. This
insight awakens something inside you. Suddenly you also long to become a better
person - a saint. Of course you wouldn't express this
desire openly. You would be inclined to set the thought aside jokingly, in the
knowledge that you aren't a saint at all. This may be true, but you certainly
possess the potential to become one. Andrew Murray once said, "Perfection slew
thousands, but imperfection tens of thousands!"
A saint isn't someone who is cut off from the world, immune
to sin. A saint takes his or her place in the world:
in the family, the business world, and the office, on the sports field and in
the place of worship. Consecrated people do their
utmost to allow the beauty of Christ to flow through
them. Even if they were to stumble and fall along the spiritual path and
disappoint their Lord, after each failure they will be enabled to pick
themselves up, to renew their loyalty to their Master, and through his power to
persevere in striving towards ultimate victory. Yet true consecration is not achieved through the zeal with which we
strive, but through opening our lives to the influence of Christ and His Holy Spirit. That
is the secret of the consecrated life!
Holy Spirit
of the living God, make my life a channel through which you may freely flow!
(From St. George & St Joseph Church, ca.
)
Paul VI, Pope from 1963 to 1978
Evangelii nuntiandi, ch. 7, §75
“When the Advocate comes, the Spirit of truth, he will testify on my behalf”
It is in the "consolation of the Holy Spirit" that the Church
increases. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is He
who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of
Jesus and of His mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just
as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who
allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit
places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself,
and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the
hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the
kingdom being proclaimed.
Techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most
advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit.
The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect
without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the most
convincing dialectic has no power over the heart of man. Without
Him the most highly developed schemas resting on a sociological
or psychologi! cal basis are quickly seen to be quite valueless.
We live in the Church at a privileged moment of the Spirit.
Everywhere people are trying to know Him better, as the
Scripture reveals Him. They are happy to place themselves under
His inspiration. They are gathering about Him; they want to let
themselves be led by Him. Now if the Spirit of God has a
preeminent place in the whole life of the Church, it is in her
evangelizing mission that He is most active. It is not by chance
that the great inauguration of evangelization took place on the
morning of Pentecost, under the inspiration of the Spirit.
It must be said that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of
evangelization: it is He who impels each individual to proclaim
the Gospel, and it is He who in the depths of consciences causes
the word of salvation to be accepted and understood. But it can
equally be said that He is the goal of evangelization: He alone
stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which!
evangelization is to be the result, with that unity in variety
which evangelization wishes to achieve within the Christian
community. Through the Holy Spirit the Gospel penetrates to the
heart of the world, for it is He who causes people to discern
the signs of the times — signs willed by God — which
evangelization reveals and puts to use within history.
Historical Evidence of the Lord's Instructions Taught to the Nations
through the Twelve Apostles:
The
Didache
The Didache may be the oldest of known
documents of Christian antiquity. It has been said to be undoubtedly the
most ancient church "manual" in mankind's possession. In the early church,
historically recorded, particularly in the nation of Egypt the Didache was
held worthy of great respect and is documented as often quoted from by St.
Clement of Alexandria as well as St. Athanasius the Apostolic.
The Didache entails educational teaching and church order specifically
Christian in characterization. This means there is no evidence of Jewish
indoctrination, nor does it address Judaism as the first problem
encountered within the early Christian Church's conception. The Didache's
language is simplistic which places it written at a time period very close
to the Apostolic Era. This is postulated to be the initial period of
change from the writings of the New Testament to those writings of the
Church. Many theologians date the book written in its entirety sometime
about the last third of the first century making its accuracy of teaching
valid.
The Didache further refers to the stability of the Church, which had been
realized as the Apostolic Era drew to a close, as well as it makes
reference to many quotes from the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew.
It has no known author, nor does the Didache directly point to apostolic
authorship. Rather the inner writer writes about the doctrine of the Lord
Jesus Christ as taught to the nations by the apostles. Therefore, it can
be correctly surmised that the Lord's teachings to the apostles were
shared with the Gentiles through evangelistic efforts.
Its place of origin is stated by many scholars to be Alexandria, Egypt.
What evidence concurs with this? Alexandria, Egypt was said to use the
apostolic church order (the Egyptian church order) which is found under
the Christian church ethics section of the Didache, statements within the
Didache were quoted by Egyptian authors such as St. Clement of Alexandria
with history recording this, and further evidence supporting this is the
Egyptian Bishop Serapion in the 4th century used it in His Grace's
Eucharistic Prayers.
What purpose does this document give to
the Christians today? It gives evidence pointing to the apostolic
beginnings of our Church first and foremost. It did not reveal
evangelism's teaching of the day but rather revealed the treasures of the
Christian life at the end of the first century and in the second century
with the rituals of that time, instructions of organization, and
regulations for liturgical functions. It gives rise to the human
imagination of how church law in the East and in the West originated.
Specifics are astounding such as baptism was undeniably practiced by
immersion (it spoke to running water in the rivers and immersion). Baptism
by pouring water from a vessel or from the hand was allowed only in cases
of scarcity of water or to sick persons who could not leave their beds.
Fasting was necessary on Wednesdays and Fridays. Receiving the Holy
Eucharist regularly was essential.
The Didache is not considered a book of the New Testament. Pope Athanasius
emphasized that it was not canonized. Its purpose to us may lie in the
fact that the Lord's teachings to the apostles were simply recorded by an
inner unknown writer as a result of the apostles' evangelistic efforts
following the Pentecost. It gives us perhaps a look into how the Lord
Jesus Christ shaped His disciples for church greatness.
The discovery of the Didache was only a whisper of the teachings and the
extraordinary talents which lay within the apostles. The disciples were
twelve ordinary men similar in human likeness to many of us today. The
disciples were twelve men who could not fathom the power of God, who
struggled with their own sins, had difficulty with absolute commitment,
yet, who found faith.
With this ever challenged faith a handful
of common fishermen, a despised tax collector, and a political zealot-
together comprising twelve men- become a force that would forever impact
the world. This is not fiction or myth. They were not earthly prophets or
saints. They were not priests or religious scholars of the day. They were
not even educators or orators.
They were unremarkably human, but with faith and obedience to the Lord
Jesus Christ they conquered the world in His Name and that's an
undeniable, undisputable historically recorded fact!
May we all give homage to those who did
what He wanted them to do and ask to be worthy to pray:
"Just as You were with Your disciples, O Savior, and gave them peace, graciously come also and be with us, and grant us Your peace, and save us, and deliver our souls" (2nd Watch, Midnight Prayers).
May we humbly ask that His blessings be upon us all,
H.G. Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States
Diocese Web Site:
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