The Holy Martyrs Mark,
Bishop of Arethoúsa, et al.
We are told about Mark's suffering by St. Gregory the Theologian and by Blessed Theodorit. According to this report, Mark, during the reign of Emperor Constantine, destroyed a pagan temple and converted many to the Faith of Christ. When Julian ascended the throne and, shortly thereafter, apostatized from the Faith of Christ, a citizen of Arethusa then also denied Christ and reverted to paganism. Then they rose up against Mark because he destroyed their temple, seeking that he either rebuild the temple or pay a large sum of money. Since the aged Mark refused to do either of the two, he was flogged, mocked and dragged through the streets. After that they severed his ears with a thin but strong thread. They then stripped him, rubbed him with honey, and left him tied to a tree in the heat of summer so that he would be bitten by wasps, mosquitoes, and hornets. The martyr of Christ endured all without moaning. Mark was very old, but in his countenance he shone like an angel. The pagans reduced the price for their temple even more and finally sought from Mark an insignificant sum, which he could have easily given, but he refused to give even one coin for this purpose. His patience made an enormous impression on the citizens, and they began to admire him for it and to feel sorry for him. They then lowered the cost of the temple to practically nothing, in order to allow him to live. Finally, they permitted him to go free, and one by one they all received instruction from him and returned to the Faith of Christ.
At the same time, in the city of Heliopolis at the foot of Mt. Lebanon Cyril a deacon, suffered for a similar act. During the time when Christianity enjoyed freedom, Cyril destroyed some idols and under Julian the Apostate, was brutally tortured. So embittered were the pagans against him that when they killed him, they tore and ripped open his entrails with their teeth. The same day on which St. Cyril suffered, many others also suffered. The spiteful pagans carved up their bodies into pieces, mixed them with barley and feed it to the swine. Punishment reached them swiftly: all of their teeth fell out and an unbearable stench emitted from their mouths.
Saint Diádochos of Photiké
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HOW TO MASTER
THE INTELLECT
No one can master the intellect unless he himself is mastered by the Spirit. For the intellect is uncontrollable, not because it is by nature ever-active, but because through our continual remissness it has been given over to distraction and has become used to that.
When we violated the commandments of Him who in baptism regenerates us we separated ourselves from God and lost our conscious awareness of Him and our union with Him.
Sundered from that union and estranged from God, the intellect is led captive everywhere; and it cannot regain its stability unless it submits to God and is stilled by Him, joyfully uniting with Him through unceasing and diligent prayer and through noetically confessing all our lapses to Him each day.
God immediately forgives everything to those who ask forgiveness in a spirit of humility and contrition and who ceaselessly invoke His holy name.
As the Psalmist says, 'Confess to the Lord and call upon His holy name' (cf. Ps. 105: 1). Holding the breath also helps to stabilize the intellect, but only temporarily, for after a little it lapses into distraction again. But when prayer is activated, then it really does keep the intellect in its presence, and it gladdens it and frees it from captivity. But it may sometimes happen that the intellect, rooted in the heart, is praying, yet the mind wanders and gives its attention to other things; for the mind is brought under control only in those who have been made perfect by the Holy Spirit and who have attained a state of total concentration upon Christ Jesus.
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
Remembrance of the name of Jesus rouses the enemy to battle. For a soul that forces itself to pray the Prayer of Jesus can find anything by this prayer, both good and evil. First, it can see evil in the recesses of its own heart, and afterwards good.
This power can stir the snake to action, and this prayer can lay it low.
This prayer can expose the sin that is living in us, and this prayer can eradicate it.
This prayer can stir up in the heart all the power of the enemy, and this prayer can conquer it and gradually root it out.
The name of the Lord Jesus Christ as a descends into the depths of the heart will subdue the snake which controls its ranges, and will save and Quicken the soul.
Continue constantly in the name of the Lord Jesus that the heart may swallow the Lord and the Lord the heart, and that these two may be one. However this is not accomplished in a single day, nor in 2 days, but requires many years and much time. Much time in labor are needed in order to expel the enemy and instate Christ.
Comments:
BEAUTY AND JOY
It is said the beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and another said, continual joy is in the heart of one who has been awakened.
LIFE A simulation so incomprehensible and inexpressibly real, one must ask: Did it happen?
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