Find Jesus at the door of your heart
and you will discover Paradise.
+St. John Chrysostomos
SUGGESTION
If you wish to acquire extra profit to offer Christ,
Who prepares mansions in Heaven
for those who have denied themselves,
taken up their Cross and are following Him,
scroll down to PAGES and read from a saint.
Before doing so, ask for his or her intercession
Who prepares mansions in Heaven
for those who have denied themselves,
taken up their Cross and are following Him,
scroll down to PAGES and read from a saint.
Before doing so, ask for his or her intercession
before the Holy Trinity.
Today we honor with love
The Translation of the Relics
of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore
the Commander
and
The Holy Martyr Calliópe
The Holy Great Martyr Theodore is commemorated on February 8 and on that date his life is recounted. However, June 8 commemorates the translation of his relics from Heraklion to Euchaita.
Before his martyrdom, Saint Theodore left the following instructions in his will to Varus his servant: 'Bury my body in Euchaita on the estate of my ancestors.'
St. Anastasios of Sinai wrote about the miracle of the icon of St. Theodore: In the town of Karsat near Damascus, there was a church dedicated to St. Theodore Stratelates. When the Saracens conquered Damascus, a group of Saracens took up residence in this church with their wives and children. There was a fresco of the image of St. Theodore on the wall. One of the Saracens shot an arrow and struck the image of the saint in the face. At once blood flowed from the image. Soon after that, the entire group of those Saracens perished in the church. St. Anastasios said that he was personally in that church, saw the image of the saint on the wall and traces of congealed blood.
Ephesians 2:4-10 King James Version
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Saint Matthew 10:16-22 King James Version
16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
THE UNCREATED LIGHT
Based on Saint Gregory Palamas and Saint Neilos the Ascetic
[Also a PAGE]
What is the Uncreated Light and how can we experience it?
We must know that the divine light is not a natural phenomenon, like when we hit our head or other causes which generate electrical signals through the nervous system which our brain (more exactly our visual cortex) interprets as light.
Also, the divine light is not like an emanation from God – it is God itself, more exactly His energy. God is absolutely inaccessible in His nature (core) but perfectly communicable in His energies. This is an unspoken difference in the pure simplicity of God which overpasses any known complexity by us.
That’s why this light it is called “uncreated light”.
The main point in seeing the uncreated light isn’t the experience of the seeing of the light itself – even if this light is much more powerful than the light of the sun – routinely the saints said that it is “more powerful than 1,000 suns”. The main point is the absolute happiness and fulfillment provoked by this experience.
This happens when the intellect (mind, nous – νούς) has transcended intelligible realities and the concepts mixed with images, that pertain to them, and in a godly and devout manner has rejected all things, then it will stand before God deaf and speechless (cf. Ps. 38 : 13).
Now the intellect becomes simple {simplicity is often seen as undesirable by the carnal mind Pub.} in God’s hands and is unresistingly recreated in the most sublime way, for nothing alien intrudes on it: inner grace translates it to a better state and, in an altogether marvelous fashion, illumines it with ineffable light, thus perfecting our inner being. And when in this manner ‘the day breaks and the morning star rises in our hearts’ (cf. 2 Pet. 1:19), then ‘the true man’ – the intellect – ‘will go out to his true work’ (cf. Ps. 104:23), ascending in the light the road that leads to the eternal mountains.
In this light the mind miraculously surveys supramundane things, being either still joined to the materiality to which it was originally linked, or else separated from this materiality – this depending on the level that it has attained. For it does not ascend on the wings of the mind’s fantasy, in which case the mind always wanders about as though blind, without possessing an accurate and assured understanding either of sensory things not immediately present to it or of transcendent intelligible realities.
Rather it ascends in very truth, raised by the Spirit’s ineffable power, and with spiritual and ineffable apperception, it hears words too sacred to utter (cf. 2 Cor. 12:4) and sees invisible things. It becomes entirely rapt in this miracle, even when it is no longer there, and it rivals the tireless angelic choir, having become truly another angel of God upon earth. Through itself it brings every created thing closer to God, for it itself now participates in all things and even in Him who transcends all, inasmuch as it has faithfully conformed itself to the divine image.
The intellect’s proper state is a noetic height, somewhat resembling the sky’s hue, which is filled with the light of the Holy Trinity during the time of prayer. If you wish to see the intellect’s proper state, rid yourself of all concepts, and then you will see it like sapphire or the sky’s hue. But you cannot do this unless you have attained a state of dispassion, for God has to cooperate with you and to imbue you with His own-natural light.
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