THE PARAGON Tuesday June 12/25 ns 2024 • St. Onoúphrios of Egypt, St. Peter the Athonite • No Fasting • Quotes from The WISDOM OF ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN and JOURNEY TO HEAVEN BY ST TIKHON OF ZADONSK - SPECTATOR OR CONTESTANT - Which are YOU?

T H E   W I S D O M 
 O F

S A I N T   I S A A C 

T H E   S Y R I A N

The ladder to the Kingdom is hidden within you, and within your soul. Dive down into yourself, away from sin, and there you will find the steps by which you can ascend.

Today we honor and glorify 

Our Holy Father

Saint Onoúphrios of Egypt

&

Our Holy Father

Saint Peter of the Holy Mountain Athos

No Fasting 

APOSTLES' FAST BEGINS 

Monday June 18/July 1 ns

 

His appearance was cadaverous.

Saint Onoúphrios had been living a whole sixty years in the desert when the monk Paphnoutios visited him. His hair and beard reached down to the ground, and long hair, as white as snow, had grown all over his body during his years of nakedness. His appearance was cadaverous, unearthly and awe-inspiring. Seeing Paphnoutios, he called him by name and then recounted to him his life in the desert. His guardian angel had appeared to him and taken him to that place. He had for a long time only eaten earth, which it was hard to find in the desert, and, after that, when he had survived an intensive struggle with diabolical temptations and when his heart had become utterly established in love for God, an angel had brought him bread to eat. And besides that, through God's gracious providence, a palm tree grew up at one side of his cell, that gave good dates, and a spring of water began to flow there. 'But especially,' said Onoúphrios, 'my food and drink are the sweet words of God.' To Paphnoutios question about his receiving of Communion, the hermit answered that the angel of God brought him Communion every Saturday. [Great art Thou O Lord and marvelous are They works; and words cannot suffice to sing the praises of Thy wonders]

On the next day, the old man told Paphnoutios that it was the day of his departure from this world; then he knelt down, prayed to God and gave his spirit into God's hands. Then Paphnoutios saw a heavenly light that illumined the body of the departed saint, and heard a choir of the angelic hosts. He buried Onoúphrios body with honor and returned to his own monastery, there as a living witness to narrate to the brethren, for their edification, the wonderful life of the man of God and the greatness of God's providence towards those who give themselves wholly to His service. Onoúphrios died in the year 400.

Awaken!  Everyone has been given a specific amount of virtue!  

Awaken!  God expects us to increase it!

Awake!  When we meet Christ, He will require the profit on what He invested in each of us.

Awaken!  Have no doubt, if we have no profit for Him, He will take what He gave and give it to another.
(St. Matt. 25:14-30).

Much like financial advisors, our Savior has appointed advisors on ways for us to increase virtue - increase that He will expect from us one day! 

Access virtue advisors by clicking
HERE

Saint Peter of the Holy Mountain Athos was a Greek by birth, and a soldier by profession. Being once engaged in battle against the Arabs, he was captured, chained and thrown into prison. Peter spent a long time in imprisonment in the town of Samara on the Euphrates, and prayed God with all his being to free him and take him to some desert place where he could devote himself to prayerful asceticism. 

St Simeon the God-Receiver appeared to him in the prison, together with St Nicolas, and touched the iron of his chains which melted like wax. Peter suddenly found himself in the open outside the city. He immediately set out on the road for Rome, where he was tonsured as a monk by the Pope Gregory III (Pope from 731-741 under the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna) at the tomb of St Peter. 

He then set out by ship to return to the East. The most holy Mother of God appeared to him in a dream, talking with St Nicolas, and she told St Nicolas that she had set Mount Athos apart for Peter to live on in asceticism. Peter had at that time not heard of Mount Athos. Disembarking, then, at the Holy Mountain, Peter settled in a cave, where he spent fifty-three years in strict asceticism, in struggles with hunger and thirst, with heat and cold and especially with diabolical powers, until he had overcome them all by the help of God. 

When he had undergone the first temptations and succeeded in the first test before God, an angel of God began to bring him bread every forty days. The tempter appeared to him several times in the guise of an angel of light, but Peter drove him away with the sign of the Cross and the name of the most holy Mother of God. A year before his death, a deer-hunter passed that way and learned of the saint's life from his lips. He died in 734, and his relics were taken to Macedonia.

 Romans 1:1-7, 13-17 King James Version

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

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.

13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.


Saint Matthew 4:23-5:13 King James Version

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

All pass by . . .
We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. 

Christian! So does our life. . .

I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!

Our Father awaits us
with great zeal and desire, and with love He will see us returning from afar, and He will look upon us with compassionate eyes, and we shall be dear to Him, and He will fall on our neck running and embrace us and kiss us with His Holy Love. He will not reproach us, and He will no longer remember our sins and iniquities, and all the holy angles and all His elect will begin to rejoice over us.

Spectator or Contestant?

Ask yourself if you are a spectator Christian or a contestant and be honest, which can be difficult when two voices (#1 your prideful inner voice and #2 a very, very nasty and slick fallen angel) whisper lies, telling you that you are doing all that is necessary.   A contestant gains and feels strength from participation, a spectator is present for the contest but only cheers for the contestants.

Jesus said unto him,

Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with ALL thy heart,

and with ALL thy soul,

and with ALL thy mind.

He is neither fooled nor mocked!