“glorious beyond compare”.
Friday October 3
October 16 ns
2026
2026
~ Fast day ~
Dionysios is numbered among the Seventy Lesser Apostles. This wonderful man was the scion of a distinguished pagan family in Athens. Having completed the school of philosophy in Athens, he went to Egypt to study further. While he was there the Lord Christ died on the Cross, the sun was darkened, and there was darkness in Egypt for three hours. Then Dionysius cried out: “Either God the Creator of the world is suffering, or this world is coming to an end.” Returning to Athens, he married a woman named Damaris and had sons by her. He became a member of the highest court among the Greeks, the Areopagus, and thereafter he was known as the “Areopagite.” When the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel in Athens, Dionysius was baptized with his entire household. Paul consecrated him Bishop of Athens. He left his wife, children and his position for the love of Christ. He traveled with Paul for a long time and met all the other apostles of Christ. He traveled to Jerusalem especially to see the Most-holy Theotokos, and described his encounter with her in one of his written works. He was present at the burial of the Holy and Most-pure One. When his teacher, St. Paul, suffered martyrdom, Dionysius also desired such a death for himself, and went to Gaul, with his presbyter Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius, to preach the Gospel among the barbarians. He suffered much but also succeeded much. By his labors many pagans were converted to the Christian Faith. Dionysius built a small church in Paris, where he celebrated the divine services. When he was ninety years old, he, Rusticus and Eleutherius were seized and tortured for Christ; then all three were beheaded. The severed head of St. Dionysius rolled a long distance, to the feet of Catula, a Christian, who honorably buried it with his body. Dionysius suffered during the reign of Dometian in the year 96 A.D. He wrote several famous works: on the Divine Names of God, on the Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies, on Mystical Theology, and on the Most-holy Theotokos.
Acts 17:16-34 KJV
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Saint Luke 6:17-23 KJV
17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.
19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
by The Holy Hieromartyr
Dionysius the Areopagite
Even those who seem to be "devils," derive their existence from the Good, and are naturally good, and desire the Beautiful and Good in desiring existence, life, and consciousness. And they are called evil through the deprivation and the loss whereby they have lapsed from their proper virtues. Hence they are evil only insofar as they lack [true] existence; and in desiring evil, they desire non-existence. Even so, we say that the air is darkened around us by a deficiency and absence of the light; while yet the light is itself always light and illumines the darkness. Therefore, evil inheres not in the devils or in us, as evil, but only as a deficiency and lack of the perfection of our proper virtues. Thus evil has no being, nor any inherence in things that have being. Evil is nowhere as evil; and it arises not through any power but through weakness. In a word, evil is weakness, impotence, and deficiency of knowledge.  The Great and Holy Apostle John the Evangelist introduced St. Dionysios, his disciple, to the Mother of God. This was his reaction: I tell you as if I were standing in front of God, for me, our great leader, it was beyond any doubt, that aside from the Most High God, there could be nothing, which is so filled with heavenly power and marvelous grace [as Mary], and still it is impossible for a human mind to perceive what I saw with my own eyes. It was not with the eyes of my soul only but with my bodily eyes – I, with my own eyes, saw the most beautiful, the most holy Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ who exceeds all the heavenly hosts in her holiness. This gift was granted to me by the grace of God, as an honor by the company of the apostles, and also as an unspeakable kindness and compassion of the merciful Virgin herself. And again I testify in front of the omnipotence of God, in front of the grace of the Savior, and in front of the great glory of the Virgin, His Mother. When I, with John—the first among the evangelists and the prophets, who, while living in the flesh, shines like the sun in the sky—was led inside to the beautiful and the most pure Virgin, then a great heavenly radiance that enlightened my soul, poured over me, at the same time I sensed such wonderful fragrance that my spirit and body were hardly able to bear this manifestation of glory and foretaste of eternal bliss. My heart and my spirit were enervated from Her heavenly grace. Let God, who abode in the most pure womb, be my witness, that I would have recognized her for the true God and venerated Her with worship appropriate only to God if the newly illumined soul of mine would not have preserved inside you heavenly instructions and laws. No honor and glory of men who were glorified by God can be compared with the bliss that I, the unworthy one experienced and was honored with at the time. This time was a time of the greatest bliss for me. I thank my most high and most blessed God, the heavenly Virgin, John, who is great among the Apostles, and you as well who is the adornment of the church and the invincible leader, who all so mercifully showed me such a great favor. |
VIGNETTEs
St. Luke 6:23
from today's Holy Gospel
Saint Theophylactos lived in
Constantinople in the eighth century
The Lord, having ordained the disciples, through the Beatitudes and teaching brings them into a more spiritual state. For He speaks with direct address to them. And first, He blesses the poor; if you will, understand by this the humble-minded, or if you prefer, those living free of avarice. In general, all the Beatitudes teach us moderation, humility, lowliness, and endurance of reproaches.
FREE WILL
Free will is a gift from God. It allows one to make choices. But far beyond the choices we make and have made, it allows us the freedom to exchange our will for God’s Will. In doing so, entirely and completely, and to God and God alone, our will is miraculously, by our Father's love for us, not lost but *retained. Once this occurs faith is fulfilled; acquisition confirmed. As our Lord said:
* '...I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.'
His voice is infinitely quieter than
a single particle of dust floating in the air;
His voice is louder than a trillion galaxies
crashing together when heard by the soul.
When we wander off in pursuit
of the temporal and we wish to return
Simply Yearn!
1962
