• Fast day
Holy Hieromartyr Pancrátios,
Bishop of Taormina
After the Ascension of the Lord, both parents and Pancrátios were baptized in Antioch. Pancrátios withdrew to a cave in Pontus where the Apostle Peter found him and in agreement with the Apostle Paul he was appointed as the Bishop of Taormina in Sicily. In Taormina, St. Pancrátios worked many miracles, destroyed the idols, baptized the unbaptized, strengthened the baptized and governed well the Church of God.
A heathen commander by the name of Aquilinus heard that the entire city of Taormina became Christian and set out with an entire army against this city in order to destroy it. St. Pancrátios encouraged the faithful not to be afraid and he, alone, with the clergy went outside the city carrying in his hands the invincible weapon, the Honorable Cross. When the army approached the city, darkness befell them and the soldiers were overcome with great fear. A great confusion then began among them and the attackers turned against one another and pierced and slaughtered each other with their swords. Thus Pancrátios, the chosen one of God, saved the city and his flock by the power of his prayer before the Lord. In the end, Pancrátios was stoned to death by envious and evil heathens and found rest in the Lord. His holy relics repose in Rome.
Taormina near Sicily
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 1 Corinthians 4:5-8 KJV 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. Saint Matthew 13:44-54 KJV 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, 50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 51 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. 52 Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. 53 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. 54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? On The Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ St. Maximos the Confessor  "...the Scripture says, 'For our sake God made Him become sin who knew no sin' (II Cor 5:21). Having originally been corrupted from its natural design, Adam's free choice corrupted along with it our human nature, which forfeited the grace of impassibility*. Thus came sin into existence. The first sin, culpable indeed, was the fall of free choice from good into evil; the second, following upon the first, was the innocent transformation of human nature from incorruption into corruption. For our forefather Adam committed two 'sins' by his transgression of God's commandment: the first 'sin' was culpable, when his free choice willfully rejected the good; but the second 'sin', occasioned by the first, was innocent, since human nature unwillingly put off its incorruption. Therefore our Lord and God, rectifying this reciprocal corruption and alteration of our human nature by taking on the whole of our nature, even had in his assumed nature the liability of the passions which, in His own exercise of free choice, He adorned with incorruptibility. And it is by virtue of his assumption of this natural possibility that He 'became sin for our sake', though He did not 'know' any deliberate sin because of the immutability of His free choice. Because His free choice was incorruptible, he rectified our nature's liability to passions and turned the end of our nature's possibility - which is death - into the beginning of our natural transformation to incorruption. In turn, just as through one man, who turned voluntarily from the good, the human nature was turned from incorruption to corruption to the detriment of all humanity, so too through one man, Jesus Christ, who did not voluntarily turn from the good, human nature underwent a restoration from corruption to incorruption for the benefit of all humanity." "The saints will be welcomed by the Ineffable Light and will contemplate the holy and majestic Trinity that shines clearly and brightly and unites itself wholly to the entire soul. This alone I take to be the kingdom of heaven... The fullness of God permeates them wholly as the soul permeates the body, and they become, so to speak, limbs of a body, well adapted and useful to the Master. He directs them as He thinks best, filling them with His own glory (cf. II St. Pet. 1:3) and blessedness, and bestows on them unending life beyond imagining and wholly free from the signs of corruption that mark the present age.  Knock and it will be opened. Read the following description of your true self. He gives them Life, not the life that comes from breathing air, nor that of veins coursing with blood, but the Life that comes from being wholly infused with the fullness of God... so that the soul receives changelessness and the body immortality; hence the whole man, as the object of divine action, is divinized by being made a god by the grace of God who became man. He remains wholly man in soul and body by nature, and becomes wholly god in body and soul by grace and by the unparalleled divine radiance of blessed glory appropriate to him. Nothing can be imagined more splendid and lofty than this."*Impassibility: incapable of suffering or of experiencing pain  |
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