On beholding the strange childbirth, let us be estranged from the world, diverting our minds to Heaven; indeed, to this end, God on High appeared on earth as a lowly man, wishing to draw aloft those who cry to Him:
Alleluia!
The Paragon has changed.
Postings now have a longer inclusion and
new posts may be added during the day.
Whereas, in the past, posts were made
only once a day. (Pub.)
Whereas, in the past, posts were made
only once a day. (Pub.)
Today's Comment, just received:
"Thank you for including once more the wonderful reminder from St. Basil on "Time". What a delightful and delicious meal the Paragon is each day!"
Thank you for your comments.
Friday July 20/August 2 ns 202
† Holy Prophet Elias the Thesbite
He spent his whole youth in prayer and meditation, withdrawing often to the desert to ponder and pray in tranquility. At that time, the Jewish Kingdom was divided into two unequal parts: the Kingdom of Judah consisted only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with its capital at Jerusalem, while the Kingdom of Israel consisted of the other ten tribes, with its capital at Samaria. The former kingdom was ruled by the descendants of Solomon, and the latter by the descendants of Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon's. The prophet Elias came into the greatest conflict with the Israelite king, Ahab, and his evil wife Jezebel, for they worshipped idols and turned the people from the service of the one, living God. On top of this, Jezebel, being a Syrian, persuaded her husband to build a temple to the Syrian god, Baal, and appointed many priests to the service of this false god.
Elias performed many miracles by the power of God: he closed the heavens, that no rain should fall for three years and six months; called down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice to his God, while the priests of Baal were unable to do this; brought rain from the heavens at his prayers; miraculously multiplied corn and oil in the widow's house at Zarephath, and restored her dead son to life; prophesied to Ahab that the dogs would lick up his blood, and to Jezebel that the dogs would devour her - which came to pass; and performed many other miracles and foretold many events.
He talked with God on Horeb, and heard His voice in the calm after the great wind. At the time of his death, he took Elisha and appointed him his heir as a prophet; he parted the Jordan with his mantle and was finally borne to heaven in a fiery chariot drawn by fiery horses.
At the end of the world, Elias will appear again, to break the power of antichrist (Rev. 11).
Author's note: In the Greek Lives of the Saints, the following miracle of the holy prophet Elias is recorded: a certain Paisios, abbot of the monastery of St Elias in Jerusalem, went to Constantinople and from Constantinople to Belgrade at the time that Patriarch Paisios was staying there. At that time, there was an Orthodox Christian living in Belgrade, married to a Latin wife. On St Elias's day, the wife planned to make bread, but her husband said to her: 'You must not work.' His wife replied that the feast had been two days earlier (according to the Roman Calendar). And so a dispute arose between them. The stubborn woman kneaded the dough, but then a marvel! The dough became stone in her hands! At that, the neighbors gathered round, and each of them took a piece of the stone. Paisios took a piece of it, as a witness to God's miracle, and took it with him to Jerusalem. He laid this piece of stone in front of the icon of the holy prophet Elias in his monastery. (This is recorded in DosÃtheos Book XII, Ch. 11, Para. 2, p. 1192.)
Saint James 5:10-20 (KJV)
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Saint Luke 4:22-30 (KJV)
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
We are in the realm of "time" so lets make good use of it.
Consider:
The more time we spend, in obedience to His Commandments, attending services and preparation for and Communing of the Precious Body and Blood of our Creator, the more time we spend with Him in prayer, in reading the holy scriptures, in reading the lives and writings of the holy fathers and mothers, etc., a surprising thing happens.
Everyone knows the gifts and grace that come with it but there is something else: the distance we find ourselves away from our Lord by entertaining temptation, by attachments to and chasing after transitory things, become more and more apparent and as a result, if we love God, increases our desire to spend more "time" with Him.
A test: You may rise, say your morning prayers, eat breakfast and go to work. At some point, ask yourself how often you remembered Christ since then? You may realize the hours that have passed and in that time consider how much Christ forgot you. Did He keep you breathing? Did He keep you heart beating? Did He close access sight, sound, smell, touch or taste? And on and on! After reflection on it, ask: How could I forget His love?
The more time we spend, in obedience to His Commandments, attending services and preparation for and Communing of the Precious Body and Blood of our Creator, the more time we spend with Him in prayer, in reading the holy scriptures, in reading the lives and writings of the holy fathers and mothers, etc., a surprising thing happens.
Everyone knows the gifts and grace that come with it but there is something else: the distance we find ourselves away from our Lord by entertaining temptation, by attachments to and chasing after transitory things, become more and more apparent and as a result, if we love God, increases our desire to spend more "time" with Him.
A test: You may rise, say your morning prayers, eat breakfast and go to work. At some point, ask yourself how often you remembered Christ since then? You may realize the hours that have passed and in that time consider how much Christ forgot you. Did He keep you breathing? Did He keep you heart beating? Did He close access sight, sound, smell, touch or taste? And on and on! After reflection on it, ask: How could I forget His love?
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On the Transfiguration of our Lord
by Saint Ephraem the Syrian
Suggestion: Read before attending the
The Great Feast of the Transfiguration
Monday, Aug. 6/19 ns
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Love: Experienced but Not Defined;
(anon)
|
The PARAGON Signpost
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Be Still and Know that I am God
|
L I N K S
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Eternal Life is for those
or An Explanation of the
who obey Christ
or An Explanation of the
Condition of our Souls and Bodies
An Excerpt from Saint Gregory Palamas
"Orthodox Christianity
and
Buddhism"
Seeker: I have heard Christians state that all other religions were being mislead by the devil.
"Understanding the nature of good and the nature of evil"
Teaser: Evil is corruptible because corruption is the nature of evil, which does not possess any true existence whatsoever.
by St. Maximos the Confessor
Read more
Here
Here
Saint Ephraem the Syrian
ON THE TRANSFIGURATION
Let us then draw near to this land and enjoy its life-giving furrows; and let us harvest from it grapes of life, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to his Disciples, ‘There are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in his glory’. ‘And after six days He took Simon Peter and James and John his brother to a very high mountain and he was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white like light’. Men whom He said would not taste death until they saw the image of his coming, are those whom He took and led up the mountain and showed them how he was going to come on the last day in the glory of his divinity and in the body of His humanity.
He led them up the mountain to show them who the Son is and whose He is. Because when He asked them, ‘Whom do men say the Son of man is?’ They said to him, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the Prophets. This is why he leads them up the mountain and shows them that He is not Elias, but the God of Elias; again, that He is not Jeremias, but the one who sanctified Jeremias in His mother’s womb; not one of the Prophets, but the Lord of the Prophets, who also sent them.
And he shows them that He is the maker of heaven and earth, and that he is Lord of living and dead. For He gave orders to heaven and brought down Elias, and made a sign to the earth and raised up Moses.
He led them up the mountain to show them that He is the Son of God, born from the Father before the ages and in the last times incarnate from the Virgin, born ineffably and without seed, preserving her virginity incorrupt; for wherever God wills it, the order of nature is overcome. For God the Word dwelt in the Virgin’s womb, and the fire of his divinity did not consume the members of the Virgin’s body, but protected them carefully by its nine month presence. He dwelt in the Virgin’s womb, not abhorring the unpleasant smell of nature, and God incarnate came forth from her to save us.
He led them up the mountain to show them the glory of the godhead and to make known to them that He is the redeemer of Israel (def. "those who see God"), as He had shown through the Prophets, and they should not be scandalized in Him when they saw His voluntary sufferings, which as man He was about to suffer for us. For they knew Him as a man, but did not know that He was God. They knew Him as son of Mary, going about with them in the world, and He made known to them on the mountain that He was Son of God and God. They saw that He ate and drank, toiled and rested, dozed and slept, things which did not accord with his divine nature, but only with His humanity, and so He took them to the mountain that the Father might call him Son and show that He is truly his Son and that He is God.
He led them up the mountain and showed them His kingship before his passion, and His power before His death, and His glory before His disgrace, and His honour before His dishonor, so that, when He was arrested and crucified by the Jews, they might know that He was not crucified through weakness, but willingly by His good pleasure for the salvation of the world.
He led them up the mountain and showed the glory of His divinity before the resurrection, so that when He rose from the dead in the glory of His divine nature, they might know that it was not because of His harsh toil that He accepted glory, as if He lacked it, but it was His before the ages with the Father and together with the Father, as He said as He was coming to His voluntary passion, ‘Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world existed’.
And so on the mountain He showed His Apostles the glory of His divinity, concealed and hidden by His humanity. For they saw His face bright as lightning and his garments white as light. They saw two suns; one in the sky, as usual, and one unusually; one visible in the firmament and lighting the world, and one, His face, visible to them alone. His garments white as light showed that the glory of his divinity flooded from His whole body, and his light shone from all his members. For His flesh did not shine with splendor from without, like Moses, but the glory of His divinity flooded from him.
His light dawned and was drawn together in Him. Nor did depart somewhere else and leave Him, because it didn't come from another place and adorn Him, nor was it for His use. And He did not display the whole depth of his glory, but only as much as the limits of their eyes could encompass. ‘And there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with Him’. And the words that they said to him were such as these: they were thanking him that their words and those of all their fellow Prophets had been fulfilled by His coming. They offered Him worship for the salvation which He had wrought for the world for the human race; and that He had fulfilled in reality the mystery they had only sketched. There was joy for the Prophets and the Apostles by this ascent of the mountain. The Prophets rejoiced when they saw his humanity, which they had not known. The Apostles also rejoiced when they saw the glory of His divinity, which they had not known, and heard the voice of the Father bearing witness to his Son; and through this they recognized His incarnation, which was concealed from them. And the witness of the three was sealed by the Father’s voice and by Moses and Elias, who stood by Him like servants, and they looked to one another: the Prophets to the Apostles and the Apostles to the Prophets. There the authors of the old covenant saw the authors of the new. Righteous Moses saw Simon the sanctified; the steward of the Father saw the administrator of the Son. The former divided the sea for the people to walk in the middle of the waves; the latter raised a tent for the building of the Church. The virgin of the old covenant saw the virgin of the new: [Elias and John;] the one who mounted on the chariot of fire and the one who leaned on the breast of the flame.
And the mountain became a type of the Church, and on it Jesus united the two covenants, which the Church received, and made known to us that he is the giver of the two. The one received his mysteries; the other revealed the glory of his works. Simon said, “It is good for us to be here, Lord”. “Simon, what are you saying? If we remain here, who fulfils the word of the Prophets? Who seals the sayings of the heralds? Who brings to perfection the mysteries of the just? If we remain here, in whom are the words, ‘They dug my hands and my feet’ fulfilled?
To whom do the words, ‘They parted my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing’ apply? To whom does, ‘They gave me gall as my food, and with vinegar they quenched my thirst’ relate? Who confirms, ‘Free among the dead?’ If we remain here, who will tear up the record of Adam’s debt? And who will pay his debt in full? And who will restore to him the garment of glory?
Love - Experienced but Undefined
Anyone who has fallen in love knows that once it happens, it needs no reminding, no prompting, no reasoning, no examination because it is unfathomably simple and constantly experienced/treasured and, without any doubt, inexplicable by anyone. You wake in it, you sleep in it, it never wavers. And in many cases, it is mutual.
Such it is with Christ. However, when we seek with all our heart to love Him, it turns to the ecstasy of worship and is always mutual.
If and again if desired, a taste is given and one is on the way. (Anon)
T H E
PARAGON
What is the Paragon? It is a Signpost
As a signpost, what direction does it give? It indicates: "This way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
What are the directions? Read the Paragon and find out. Until then, know that it points the way through the Epistles, Prophecies and Gospels taken from the Holy Bible; it provides accounts of the lives and deeds of those who through renunciation of this temporal life for Him, by breath or by blood, and thereby the Father is revealed by the Son so they have come to "know" and become one with Him (Theosis); it contains detailed assistance, provided by God Himself, directly to the tongues and pens of His true followers.
I often don't understand the readings! If you believe God, then you know He is omniscient and you therefore trust Him. He knew we would disfigure His image in us before He created us, hence He instructs the soul directly according to its needs required for salvation. And when the soul responds with genuine love and sincere desire for healing, it is enlightened and brought out of the darkness of a disfigured mind. Reflect, contemplate and pray to know more clearly who He is speaking to when He makes the command: "Physician, heal thyself" Isn't the conscience the small Christ within us, warming our hearts?
Does the Paragon provide anything else? Yes, encouragement to trust that one can transcend from "belief" to "knowing" {Theosis}. If one forsakes all loves for the love of God, denies his or her very self, takes up the Cross and follows, Christ may be pleased to reveal the Father, Who is Everlasting Life.
Be Still and Know that I am God
A cashier, puzzled by Atheism and the existence of God,
says to an Orthodox priest who is at the register:
I don't really believe in God but may I ask you a question?
Certainly! responds the priest.
Why does God speak only to you?
God speaks to everyone!
Aha! says the cashier! Then why can't I hear him?
If you cannot hear Him it's because you have
3 voices in your head and His is the meekest.
The other two are much louder.
Ha! And what are the other two?
Your self-centered voice and Satan's tempting you.
Great Art Thou O Lord and Marvelous are Thy works....
Save O Lord Thy people and bless Thin inheritance.
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