THE PARAGON Wednesday December 28 2023 / January 10 2024 ns • The 20,000 Holy Martyrs of Nicomedía, St. Simon the Myrrh-Gusher ~ No fasting St. James 3:11–4:6; St. Mark 11:22–26

Follower of Christ, Consider the following:

KNOW that God can give you prayer to offer to Him, not only the prayers of your prayer book, not only the prayers said and heard in the Church, but prayers given to you as having come forth from Him and as an offering to Him but, rewarding you.

If desire abides in the heart it can come forth 'then it will *inevitably appear outwardly...' as St Tikhon tell us below.  

Speak to God from your heart on your bed, expecting Him to grace you with words profound in honor of Him.   Consider the Psalmist and the beauty of his prayer, how it comes forth like a gushing spring and as effectual to the soul and Spirit as spring water refreshes the body.  

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Holy 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedía,

St. Simon the Myrrh-Gusher

During the reign of the wicked Emperor Maximian Hercules, the Christian Faith flourished in Nicomedia and increased day by day. At one time the emperor, staying in this city, learned of the large number of Christians and the progress of the Christian Church, and he became greatly embittered and conceived a plan of how to kill them all. The Feast of the Nativity of Christ approached, and the emperor, knowing that all the Christians gathered in the church for this feast, ordered that on that day the church be surrounded by soldiers and set afire. When all the Christians had gathered in the church after midnight and began the solemn celebration, the soldiers surrounded the church and would not permit anyone to leave. The emperor's envoy entered the church and announced to the Christians the emperor's command that they immediately offer sacrifices to the idols or be burned alive. Then the archdeacon, a heroic soldier of Christ, inflamed with divine zeal began to encourage the people, reminding the faithful of the Three Children in the furnace in Babylon. "Behold, brethren,'' he said, "the table of oblation in the sanctuary of the Lord, and understand that our true Lord and God was just now sacrificed for us on it; should we not then lay down our lives for Him in this holy place?'' The people were filled with zeal to die for Christ, and all the catechumens were baptized and chrismated. The soldiers then set fire to the church on all sides, and the Christians, twenty thousand of them in number, were burned in the flames while singing praises to God. The church burned for five days; and smoke with an intoxicating and wonderful fragrance rose from it. A certain marvelous, golden-rayed light manifested itself over this place. Thus, numerous men, women and children gloriously died and received the wreath of eternal glory in the Kingdom of Christ. They suffered and were glorified in the year 302.

The Venerable Simon, the Myrrh-gusher

Simon was the founder of the Simonopetra Monastery on the Holy Mountain Athos. He was glorified because of his asceticism, visions and miracles. He entered peacefully into rest and went to Christ in the year 1257.

Saint James 3:11-4:6 KJV

11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Saint Mark 11:22-26 KJV

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

JOURNEY TO HEAVEN

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

On Loving God

Beloved Christians, all Christians say, "How can we not love God?" Or, "Whom shall we love, if not God?" This is a true saying, "How can we not love God?" And likewise, "Whom shall we love, if not God?" God is the supreme good, uncreated, without beginning, without end, existent, and without change. As the sun always shines, as fire always warms, so God is by nature good; He is and always does good, since "there is none good, but One, that is God" (St Mt. 19:17). God even does good when He chastises us, for He chastises us so that He may correct us. He strikes us so that He may have mercy on us, He gives us sorrows so that He may truly console us. "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth; and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb.12:6). How then can one not love so great a good as God? God is our Creator. He created us out of nothing. We were not, and behold, we live, move, and have being. His almighty hands formed and created us. He created us, O men, not like other creatures, senseless and irrational. He created us by His own special divine counsel, "Let Us make man" (Gen. 1:26). Of other creatures it is said, "He spake, and they came to be, He commanded, and they were created" (Ps. 148:5), but not so with man. What then? Let Us, it says, create man.

O most holy, O most beloved counsel! The Tri-hypostatic God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, said of man, "Let Us create man." What sort of man? "In Our image," it says, "and likeness." 

O the marvelous goodness of God toward man! 

O the most exalted honor of man! Man was created by God in the image and likeness of God. 

On what creature has God bestowed such honor? We know none like it. It was bestowed on man and he was honored with the image of God. O the most beloved and beautiful of God's creation, man, the image of God! He bears it in himself as a royal seal. As the king is honored, so is his portrait. As to God the Heavenly King is due all honor, so to His image, man. God poured forth this goodness on us in our creation, O Christian. How then can we not love God?

We fell and we perished. We cannot mourn sufficiently over this: "And man being in honour did not understand, he is compared to the mindless cattle, and is become like unto them" (LXX-Ps. 48:13 [KJV-Ps. 49:12]). But even so, God Who loves mankind did not forsake us, but He found a wonderful means for our salvation. He sent us His only-begotten Son to save us and to gather us to Himself. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (St Jn. 3:16-17). How then shall we not love God, Who loves us so? As we all call Him, God is the Lover of Mankind; then man must be a lover of God. For nothing can be given in return for love but love and gratitude.

God is our provider. 

He takes thought for us and cares for us. 

He gives us our food, clothing, and home. 

His sun, moon, and stars give us light. 

His fire warms us and we cook our food with it. 

His water washes us and refreshes us. 

His beasts serve us. 

His air enlivens us and keeps us alive. 

In a word, we are surrounded with His blessings and love, and without them we are not able to live for a moment. Then how can we not love God Who loves us so? We love a man who does good; all the more should we love God Who does good, Whose we are and everything we may possess. All creation, and man himself is God's possession. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (LXX-Ps. 23:1 [KJV-Ps. 24:1]).

God is our Father. We pray to Him and say, "Our Father, Who art in heaven" and so on. How then can we not love God the Father? Good children necessarily love their father. If then we wish to be true children of God, and unhypocritically call Him Father, then we must also love Him as Father.

Truly is it said by all, "How can we not love God?" Love, like every other virtue, must also reside in our heart. For if love does not reside in the heart, then it does not exist. God does not say, "Love, be humble, be compassionate, pray, beseech, call unto Me," and so on, to our lips, but to our heart. Then love, humility, compassion, prayer, and the rest, must reside in the heart. And if it abides in the heart, * then it will inevitably appear outwardly like a belch from stomach. A hidden fire gives itself away by its heat, and a fragrant balm by its smell. Thus David showed the holy love which he had for God by his most sweet hymns to God, "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my foundation, and my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and I will hope in Him, my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper" (LXX-Ps. 17:2-3 [KJV-Ps. 18:2-3]), and in many other places. Though love may hide in the heart, nevertheless it cannot be concealed, but it gives itself away by outward signs.