MAKE NO
MISTAKE:
The bearing of a cross is absolutely necessary for every Christian for his salvation ...
➡➡➡ {scroll down to THE CROSS and read more}
GREAT ART THOU O LORD AND MARVELLOUS ARE THY WORKS; AND WORDS CANNOT SUFFICE TO SING THE PRAISES OF THY WONDERS
Rejoice, Height hard to scale for human thoughts; Rejoice, Depth hard to fathom, even for the eyes of Angels. Rejoice, much-proclaimed Marvel of Angels; Rejoice, much-bewailed Wound of demons.
Hearken O daughter and incline thine ear and forsake thine own people and thy father's house and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty.
Never forget, we are experiencing someone else's love, the love He shares with us.
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The Holy Martyrs Akepsimás, Joseph, and Aïthalás;
Translation of the Relics of the Holy Great Martyr George and the founding of his Church in Lydda
❉ The eighty-year-old Akepsimás, filled with every Christian virtue, was sitting one day in his home with guests. Just then a child, filled with the Spirit of God, ran up to the aged bishop, kissed him on the head and said: "Blessed is this head, for it will receive suffering for Christ.'' This prophecy was soon fulfilled.
King Sapor raised a bitter persecution of Christians throughout Persia, and St. Akepsimás was apprehended. He was brought before a prince who was also a pagan priest. As the bishop was arrested and bound, a member of his household asked him what should be done with his home if he were martyred. The saint replied: "It is no longer my home. I am going to a home on high and will not return.'' After prolonged interrogation he was thrown into prison. The following day Joseph, a seventy-year-old presbyter, and Aïthalás, a deacon, were also imprisoned. After three years of imprisonment and many tortures, Akepsimás was beheaded. Joseph and Aïthalás were buried up to their waists in the ground, and the soulless pagans forced Christians to stone them. That night, by God's providence, Joseph's body disappeared, and a myrtle tree grew over Aithalas's body that healed every kind of disease and pain of men. This tree stood for five years before the wicked and envious pagans cut it down. These soldiers of Christ suffered in Persia in the fourth century, during the time of the pagan King Sapor.
1 Thessalonians 4:18-5:10 KJV
5 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Saint Luke 11:47-12:1 KJV
48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:
54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
12 In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
T H E C R O S S
THE VENERABLE FATHERS OF OPTINA HERMITAGE
Spiritual Disciples of St. Paisius (Velichkovsky)
It has been so arranged by the Lord God, that in His care for the salvation of our soul, each person in this life has a cross which he must humbly carry to our Heavenly Father, calling to Him from the depth of his soul: “Our Father! May Thy Holy Will be done in all things, only do not deprive me of Thy Heavenly Kingdom.”
+ St. Anthony
To bear the cross does not mean only visible, external sorrows, but also internal spiritual ones. One must endure darkness, faintheartedness and similar things as well. For God sends this for the destruction of our pride and acquiring of humility.
We seek and desire sweet, spiritual enjoyment; I do not argue, it is pleasant—but it is lower than the cross. It is granted to us through the cross and without the cross it cannot last. It comes to us and leaves us according to the degree that we travel the way of the cross and humility.
+ St. Macarius
Everyone bears his cross, and you bear your cross, even though it is only the size of a finger; you still bear it. The bearing of a cross is absolutely necessary for every Christian for his salvation. Yes, everyone bears a cross, and has borne a cross; even the Incarnate God bore a cross, and His Cross was the heaviest, as if combining in itself all the crosses of mankind. And take note: God is carrying the cross and a man (Simon the Cyrenian) helps Him. He takes the cross from Him and carries it himself. This means that by bearing our crosses we help the Lord to carry the cross, i.e., we are preparing to be His servants in heaven in the choir of bodiless Spirits…. What a high calling!
+ St. Barsanuphios
Translation of the Relics of the Holy Great Martyr George, and the consecration of his Church in Lydda
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