BEYOND THE TRANSIENT
Most Glorious, Ever-Virgin, Blessed Theotokos, offer up our prayer to thy Son and our God, and entreat Him, that through thee He may save our souls.
“Abba John said, ‘Who sold Joseph?’ A brother replied saying, ‘It was his brethren.’ The old man said to him, ‘No, it was his humility which sold him, because he could have said, “I am their brother” and have objected, but, because he kept silence, he sold himself by his humility. It is also his humility which set him up as chief in Egypt.’”
+ Saint John the Short of Egypt
FROM ST NIKOLAI
on SAVING GRACE
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Holy Martyrs Onesiphóros &
Porphýrios;
St. Nektarios of Ǽgina, Metropolitan of Pentápolis;
St. John the Short of Egypt;
St. Theoctíste of Lesbos;
St. Symeon the Translator
~ Fast day ~
St. Nektarios of Ǽgina, Metropolitan of Pentápolis;
St. John the Short of Egypt;
St. Theoctíste of Lesbos;
St. Symeon the Translator
~ Fast day ~
Holy Martyrs Onesiphóros & Porphýrios
These two wonderful men were martyred for the name of Christ in the time of the Emperor Diocletian (284-305). They were harshly beaten, and then burned in iron coffins, and after that tied to horses' tails and dragged over stones and thistles. They were thus broken to pieces and gave their holy souls into God's hands. Their relics were buried in Pentapolis.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 KJV
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Saint Luke 12:48-59 KJV
49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
54 And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.
55 And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.
56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
57 Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?
58 When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.
ABOUT SAVING GRACE
"For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:5,8)
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovich
Who can comprehend and acknowledge that we are saved by grace? That we are saved, not by our merits and works but rather by God's grace. Who can comprehend and acknowledge that? Only he can comprehend acknowledge that, who comprehended and who saw, on the one hand, the bottomless pit of death and corruption in which man was hurled by sin and, on the other hand, the height of honor and glory to which man is raised to the heavenly kingdom, in the immortal world, in the house of the living God - only such a one can comprehend and acknowledge that.
A child was traveling by night and stumbling and falling from hole to hole, from pit to pit until finally it fell into a very deep pit from which, in no way by itself, it could come out. And, when the child gave itself over to the hands of fate and thought that its end was here, suddenly someone stood over the pit and lowered a long rope to the child and cried out to it to grab and hold firmly on the rope. This was the king's son who took the child, bathed him, clothed him and brought him to his court and placed him alongside himself.
Was this child saved by his own deed? Never and by no means. His entire merit was that he grabbed for the end of the rope that was lowered to him and that he held on to the rope. By what then was the child saved? By the mercy of the king's son. In God's relation toward men, this mercy is called "grace."
"By grace you have been saved." The Apostle Paul repeats these words twice in a short span so that the faithful would know and remember them.
Brethren, let us know and remember that we are saved through grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. We were in the jaws of death and were given life in the court of our God.
O, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
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