PARAGON Saturday June 16/29 ns 2024 • Apodosis of Pentecost • St. Týchon, Bishop of Amathoús in Cyprus • No Fasting • UNSEEN WARFARE: The Spiritual Combat and Path to Paradise of Lorenzo Scupoli, St. Theophan the Recluse and St. Nicodemos of Athos • QUESTION: Is mankind what it could be?

Get thee behind me, Satan: 

thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

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No Fasting today

Apostles' Fast Begins

Monday June 18/July 1 ns

The Apodosis of Pentecost 

&

St. Týchon, Bishop

of Amathoús in Cyprus

Saint Týchon was a miracle-worker. Following the death of Blessed Mnemonius, Týchon was unanimously elected a bishop and consecrated by the renowned Epiphanius for the Diocese of Amathous. His purity of life and zeal for Orthodoxy recommended him for this office. There were still pagans on Cyprus at that time. With apostolic zeal St. Týchon undertook to convert the unbelievers into believers. In that, he had great success. After lengthy labor in the vineyard of the Lord, Týchon took up habitation in blessed eternity about the year 425 A.D. He was called a miracle-worker because of the many miracles he worked during his life. Týchon father was a baker. When his father left him alone in the store, he would distribute bread free of charge to the poor. Once, his father reproached him for this. Týchon prayed to God and their granary was so filled with wheat that the door could not be opened without difficulty. Again, at another time, he planted withered branches of a vine and the vine became green and, in due time, brought forth fruit.

• Romans 1:7-12 King James Version

7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

• Saint Matthew 5:42-48King James Version

42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 

St Matt 24:13 KJV

Endure what?  If this is your question, you're already losing.

Carefully read UNSEEN WARFARE

➕

Unseen Warfare
The Spiritual Combat
and Path to Paradise
of Lorenzo Scupoli

(Who is this?)

&
St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Nicodemos of Athos

It is required in our warfare, dear brother, that we not rely on ourselves. Without this, truly you will not only fail to obtain the sought after victory, but you will be incapable of resisting the slightest assault of your foe. Etch this deep in your mind and heart. 

From the first sin of our forefather, in spite of our weakening spiritual and virtuous abilities, we often highly esteem ourselves. Even though our daily experience proves the untruthfulness of his opinion, in our puzzling self-delusion we do not stop believing that we are certainly not unimportant. 

But this spiritual sickness, which is so difficult to see and recognize, is more distasteful to God than everything else in us, as being the primary offspring of our self-love and the root of all our desires and failures and evil-doing. It shuts the door of our mind or spirit, by which Divine grace alone can come in, and provides this grace no entrance to abide in us. And thus it leaves. Because how is grace, which aids and enlightens, able to enter that person, who supposes that he is great, that he understands all things and requires no help beyond himself? May God keep us from this sickness and desire of Lucifer! God harshly reproves those who are afflicted with this vice of vainglory and self-regard declaring by the prophet, "Woe to those that are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight" ( Isa 5:21 ) The apostles also says, "Do not be wise in your estimation" ( Rom 12:16 ). 

Even though God hates this evil arrogance in us, there is nothing more He loves to see in us than a genuine understanding of our nothingness and a steadfast confidence that any goodness we might have in us has its source in Him alone, for He is the root of all goodness, and nothing genuinely good can ever be from ourselves, whether that be a virtuous thought or a good deed. So He is careful to plant this divine seed in the hearts of His most beloved friends, encouraging them not to highly esteem themselves and not to depend on themselves. At times He does this with grace and inner illumination, and at other times by external strokes and affliction. At other times He does this with unanticipated and nearly unbeatable temptations. While at other times using other means that we cannot always understand. But, even though expecting no virtue from ourselves and not depending on ourselves is the action of God within us, for our part we must make a concentrated effort to obtain this disposition, doing everything we can. And thus, dear brother, I offer here to you four exercises by which, with the assistance of God, you may obtain a distrust of yourself, and learn not to depend on yourself for anything.

(1) Understand your worthlessness and keep in your mind the fact that by yourself you are unable to do anything which would make you worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Hear the testimony of the wise fathers. 

 St. Peter of Damascus reassures us saying, "there is nothing better than to understand your own feeble nature and ignorance, and there is nothing worse than not to be conscious of them."

 St. Maximus the Confessor teaches us, "The foundation of each virtue is the understanding of the weakness of human nature." 

 St. John Chrysostom tells us, "Only the one who thinks of himself as being nothing, really understands himself." 

(2) Ask for assistance from God with meek and warm prayer, because this is His gift. And if your desire is to obtain it, you should first plant in yourself the assurance that not only have you no such understanding of yourself, but that you are unable to obtain it with your own efforts. (pub. can you admit it?)  Then boldly standing before God Almighty, in a steadfast belief that from His great compassion He will give you this understanding of yourself at the right time, and in a way that He Himself knows, do not let the smallest doubt creep in that you will obtain it. 

(3) Get used to being wary and fearful of your numerous foes whom you are unable to withstand even for a brief period of time. Be afraid of their considerable experience in warring against us; their cleverness and ambushes; their power to take on the guise of angels of light; their innumerable tricks and nets, which they covertly put in the way of your virtuous life. 

(4) If you fall into sin, immediately realize your weakness and be conscious of it. Because God permits you to fall with the aim of making you more conscious of your weak nature, in order that you might thus not only learn to hate it in you, but on account of your overwhelming weakness might desire to be scorned by others also. Understand that lacking such desire it is impossible for this helpful self-distrust to be born inside you and really take root. This is the corner-stone and start of genuine humility, because it is founded on the understanding, through experience, of your impotence and undependability.

QUESTION: One may ask, how many instructors do we have among the saints of Christianity and how much instruction do we need?  Even if isolated from or ignorant of mans inhumanity to man, one should inherently surmise that something is wrong - very, very wrong!

Do you find horrific the various tragedies, disasters, hatred, wars, murders, slavery, human trafficking (need we list more?)  found in this life/world?  I think it pales in comparison when one sees what mankind could & should be and not what mankind is.

But is it even possible to see and know what mankind should be?  

 Do you ever ask this question?