PARAGON Comment
"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!"
Readers: Thank you for your comments.
Saturday July 21/August 3 ns 202
St. John and St. Symeon the Fool for Christ;
St. Parthenios, Bishop of Radobísdios
St. Parthenios, Bishop of Radobísdios
Saint John and Saint Symeon, the Fool-for-Christ
were Syrians, and they lived in the sixth century at the city of Edessa. From childhood they were bound by close ties of friendship. The older of them, Symeon, was unmarried and lived with his aged mother. John, however, although he was married, lived with his father (his mother was dead) and with his young wife. Both friends belonged to wealthy families.
When Symeon was thirty years old, and John twenty-four, they made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord. On the journey home the friends spoke of the soul’s path to salvation. Dismounting their horses, they sent the servants on ahead with the horses, while they continued on foot.
Passing through Jordan, they saw monasteries on the edge of the desert. Both of them were filled with an irrepressible desire to leave the world and spend their remaining life in monastic struggles. They turned off from the road, which their servants followed to Syria, and they prayed zealously that God would guide them to the monasteries on the opposite side. They besought the Lord to indicate which monastery they should choose, and they decided to enter whichever monastery had its gates open. At this time the Lord informed Igumen Nikon in a dream to open the monastery gates, so that the sheep of Christ could enter in.
In great joy the friends came through the open gates of the monastery, where they were warmly welcomed by the Igumen, and they remained at the monastery. In a short while they received the monastic tonsure.
After remaining at the monastery for a certain time, Symeon desired to intensify his efforts, and to go into the desert to pursue asceticism in complete solitude. John did not wish to be left behind by his companion, and he decided to share with him the work of a desert-dweller. The Lord revealed the intentions of the companions to Igumen Nikon, and on that night when Saints Symeon and John intended to depart the monastery, he himself opened the gates for them. He prayed with them, gave them his blessing and sent them into the wilderness.
When they began their life in the desert, the spiritual brothers at first experienced the strong assaults of the devil. They were tempted by grief over abandoning their families, and the demons tried to discourage the ascetics, subjecting them to weakness, despondency and idleness. The brothers Symeon and John remembered their monastic calling, and trusting in the prayers of their Elder Nikon, they continued upon their chosen path. They spent their time in unceasing prayer and strict fasting, encouraging one another in their struggle against temptation.
After a while, with God’s help, the temptations stopped. The monks were told by God that Symeon’s mother and John’s wife had died, and that the Lord had vouchsafed them the blessings of Paradise. After this Symeon and John lived in the desert for twenty-nine years, and they attained complete dispassion (apatheia) and a high degree of spirituality. Saint Symeon, through the inspiration of God, considered that now it was proper for him to serve people. To do this, he must leave the desert solitude and go into the world. Saint John, however, believing that he had not attained such a degree of dispassion as his companion, decided not to leave the wilderness.
The brethren parted with tears. Symeon journeyed to Jerusalem, and there he venerated the Tomb of the Lord and all the holy places. By his great humility the holy ascetic entreated the Lord to permit him to serve his neighbor in such a way that they should not acknowledge him. Saint Symeon chose for himself the difficult task of foolishness for Christ. Having come to the city of Emesa, he stayed there and passed himself off as a simpleton, behaving strangely, for which he was subjected to insults, abuse and beatings. In spite of this, he accomplished many good deeds. He cast out demons, healed the sick, delivered people from immanent death, brought the unbelieving to faith, and sinners to repentance.
All these things he did under the guise of foolishness, and he never received praise or thanks from people. Saint John highly esteemed his spiritual brother, however. When one of the inhabitants of the city of Emesa visited him in the wilderness, asking for his advice and prayers, he would invariably direct them to “the fool Symeon”, who was better able to offer them spiritual counsel. For three days before his death Saint Symeon ceased to appear on the streets, and he enclosed himself in his hut, where there was nothing except for bundles of firewood. Having remained in unceasing prayer for three days, Saint Symeon fell asleep in the Lord. Some of the city poor, his companions, had not seen the fool for some time. They went to his hut and found him dead.
Taking up the dead body, they carried him without Church singing to a place where the homeless and strangers were buried. While they carried the body of Saint Symeon, several of the inhabitants heard a wondrous Church singing, but could not understand from whence it came.
After Saint Symeon died, Saint John also fell asleep in the Lord. Shortly before his death, Saint Symeon saw a vision of his spiritual brother wearing a crown upon his head with the inscription: “For endurance in the desert.”
Romans 9:1-5 KJV
9 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Saint Matthew 9:18-26 KJV
18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.
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Time?
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We are in the realm of "time" so lets make good use of it.
Consider:
The more time we spend, in obedience to Christ's Commandments, attending services and preparation for the reception 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 with obedience 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 your heart beating? Did He close access sight, sound, smell, touch or taste? Where do we stop? After reflection on it, shamefully ask: How could I forget His love? Practice this and soon, your time away will grow shorter and His love and joy will be felt ceaselessly.
The more time we spend, in obedience to Christ's Commandments, attending services and preparation for the reception 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 with obedience 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 your heart beating? Did He close access sight, sound, smell, touch or taste? Where do we stop? After reflection on it, shamefully ask: How could I forget His love? Practice this and soon, your time away will grow shorter and His love and joy will be felt ceaselessly.
About joy: Temporary life can be pleasant, fun and joyful, but compared to what? You may say compared to the opposites. But, there is another joy. If you don't know it, then you haven't truly repented and felt the joy that God gives when He forgives. Because when it is given, the closest description we carnal people can comprehend is that it is like water from which we never thirst again, because it takes us into the realm infinitely beyond ecstasy - a realm that cannot be spoken of but can be given.
Featured Quote
On Guarding the Intellect
by Saint Isaiah the Solitary
On the Transfiguration of our Lord
by Saint Ephraem the Syrian
{Pub.} The Great Transfiguration of our Lord was a gift to
the Holy Apostles Peter, James and John
and to all the apostles and to you!
Just as our Lord revealed only a portion
of His Divinity on Mt. Tabor,
which sent them to the ground on their faces,
its fullness will be revealed to each of us
one day, when we meet Him face to face.
We should be afraid. Why?
As St. John the Wonderworker
of San Francisco and Shanghai
warns, if we have not loved Him
with all, yes all, our being, while in this life -
when we meet him we will
be filled with indignation with ourselves and it will
prevent us from approaching Him
and receiving the fullness of
His Love that is Eternal!
the Holy Apostles Peter, James and John
and to all the apostles and to you!
Just as our Lord revealed only a portion
of His Divinity on Mt. Tabor,
which sent them to the ground on their faces,
its fullness will be revealed to each of us
one day, when we meet Him face to face.
We should be afraid. Why?
As St. John the Wonderworker
of San Francisco and Shanghai
warns, if we have not loved Him
with all, yes all, our being, while in this life -
when we meet him we will
be filled with indignation with ourselves and it will
prevent us from approaching Him
and receiving the fullness of
His Love that is Eternal!
Have you requested time from work
to attend the Feast? Or do you only
request time off for vacations?
Suggestion: Read before attending the
The Great Feast of the Transfiguration
Aug. 6/19 ns
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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