Kontakion in Tone Three:
Born at Lelich in Serbia
You served as archpastor at the church of Saint Nahum in Ohrid.
Taking your place on the throne of Saint Sabbas at Zicha,
You taught God’s people and enlightened them with the Gospel.
You brought people to repentance and the love of Christ,
And for Christ you endured suffering at Dachau.
Therefore we glorify you, a new Nicholas well–pleasing to God.
Gely Korzhev Chuvelyov- Temptation-1985
on Last Sunday’s Epistle:
“Instruct me, Father, how to protect myself from the terrible temptation of passions in general, and from tempting thoughts while praying at home or even in church.”
“The beginning of all these temptations,” the Elder responded, “Is pride. A man imagines that he is living piously, not judging his own sinfulness at all, but sometimes even judging others—then, the Lord allows the enemy to lay snares for him. Be attentive to your own way of life, check your conscience, and you will always come, however unwillingly, to the conviction that you have not yet fulfilled even one of the Lord’s commandments as a Christian should. Reasoning in this way, you will clearly see your spiritual weaknesses, which cause fleshly falls. In order to deliver yourself from these falls, you must acquire humility. As far as the sinful thoughts at church or while praying at home are concerned, since they are not caused by you, but by the enemy, you don’t have to be troubled. Try not to dwell on these thoughts, but turn to God instead with the prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ Here is an example for you: when parents take their little children out for a walk, they usually let the children go ahead, not letting them out of their sight. Suddenly, from out of some corner, a dog runs out and jumps at the children. What do they do? They rush right over to their parents, crying ‘Papa! Mama!’ With childish simplicity and pure faith, they expect their parents to help them. The same goes for you on the path of your temporal life. If our tempter, the devil, even starts laying snares for you, don’t be disturbed, and do not even think of getting through it on your own, but with childlike simplicity hurry to the heavenly Father with the cry, ‘Lord, I am Thy creation, have mercy on me!’ Finally, I’ll tell you that, in my opinion, it is hard to protect oneself from worldly temptations while living in big cities. How can a man who is still spiritually weak hold his ground against the temptations of the contemporary world? Take note that high society consists in part of people with other beliefs, and in part of Christians who, although Orthodox, have been so seduced by the customs of the world in their weakness, that they are Orthodox in name only, while in reality they have drifted far from true Orthodoxy. It’s hard to fight the passions, but it is incomparably more difficult to withstand continuous temptations. Finally, luxury, the pursuit of fashion, the goals of this way of life—all of this is so expensive that no financial means would suffice to satisfy all the demands of high society.
~Elder Macarius of Optina
hat tip: Sunday Bulletin of Holy Theophany Orthodox Church
“Fools for Christ” were distinguished by rare fearlessness. Blessed Nicholas ran throughout the streets of Pskov pretending insanity rebuking the people for their hidden, sins and prophesying that which will befall them. When Ivan the Terrible entered Pskov, the entire town was in fear and terror of the Terrible Tsar. As a welcome to the Tsar, bread and salt was placed in front of every home but the people did not appear. When the mayor of the town presented the Tsar with bread and salt on a tray before the church, the Tsar pushed the tray away and the bread and salt fell to the ground. At that time, Blessed Nicholas appeared before the Tsar in a long shirt tied with a rope, hopping around on a cane as a child and then cried out: “Ivanuska, Ivanuska, eat bread and salt and not human blood.” The soldiers rushed out to catch him but he fled and hid. The Tsar learning about this Blessed Nicholas, who and what he is, visited him in his scant living quarters. It was the first week of the Honorable Fast [The First Week of Lent]. Upon hearing that the Tsar was coming to visit him, Nicholas found a piece of raw meat and when the Tsar entered his living quarters, he bowed and offered the meat to the Tsar. “Eat Ivanusha, eat!” Angrily, the Terrible Tsar replied: “I am a Christian and I do not eat meat during the Fast Season.” Then the man of God quickly responded to him: “But you do even worse: you feed on men’s flesh and blood, forgetting not only Lent but also God!” This lesson entered profoundly into the heart of Tsar Ivan and he, ashamed, immediately departed Pskov where he had intended to perpetrate a great massacre.
Read more of Blessed Nicholas’ hagiography at OCA Lives of the Saints
St Justin the Martyr
One of these, I think, I must now mention, because it will help to give you a better understanding of Jesus, whom we acknowledge as Christ the Son of God, who was crucified, arose from the dead, ascended into heaven and will come to judge every person who ever lived, even back to Adam himself. You certainly know that when the tabernacle of testimony was carried off by the enemies who inhabited the region of Ashdod, and a dreadfully incurable plague had broken out among them, they decided to place the tabernacle upon a cart to which they yoked cows that had recently borne calves, in order to determine whether they had been plagued by God’s power because of the tabernacle, and whether it was God’s will that it be returned to the place from which they had taken it. In the execution of this plan, the cows, without any human guidance, proceeded not to the place from where the tabernacle had been taken but to the farm of a man named Hoshea (the same name as his whose name was change to Jesus [Joshua], as was said above, and who led your people into the promised land and distributed it among them by lot.). When the cows came to this farm, they halted. Thus it was shown to you that they were guided by the powerful name [of Jesus], just as the survivors among your people who fled Egypt were guided into the promised land by him whose name was changed from Hoshea to Jesus [Joshua].
~Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (132:4), as quoted in “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture”
hat tip: Daily Dynamis~Church Fathers Wisdom
St Nikolai of Japan
St. Nikolai Kasatkin was an Orthodox priest serving Christ in Japan during the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, in the Edo period (1603-1868). Foreigners were distrusted, even hated, and it was illegal to promote any foreign faith. In the early years of his ministry, St. Nikolai was fiercely confronted by a samurai warrior and Shinto priest by the name Takuma Sawabe. Armed with his katana sword, Sawabe faced the young priest Nikolai with the intent of killing him before he did any preaching.
Fr Pavel Takuma Sawabe
With a fierce look on his face, the samurai stepped in front of Father Nikolai. What business had this man, coming into the samurai’s beloved homeland and preaching a strange faith? He would tell this young priest a thing or two! If words would not convince him, perhaps other steps must be taken.
There wasn’t much Father Nikolai could do. He knew many Japanese were against the Orthodox religion. And here in front of him stood this proud samurai, a heathen, a priest of the city’s most ancient Shinto temple, staring coldly at him and expressing his contempt of the Christian faith. Father Nikolai could not simply ignore or avoid the priest. The situation demanded initiative, and because he had been prepared by years of work, study, and hardships early in his life, Father Nikolai was able to meet even this difficult challenge. Showing loving concern, he brought about a calm discussion with the irate man. The hatred the samurai had felt could no longer hold up. He became serious and thoughtful.
Samurai of Japan
St. Nikolai continues in his own words:
“Beginning the next day, I penned to him the sacred history of the Old Testament. He produced paper and brush and proceeded to take down everything that was spoken to him. My speech was interrupted at nearly every word by objections which, in their turn, necessitated explanations. As the days passed, there were fewer and fewer objections, and he continued to record every thought and name. The process of a man’s rebirth into a new life by the hand of God was unravelling before my eyes.”
The samurai warrior-priest Takuma Sawabe was, by the grace of God, baptized in April 1868 alongside two of his friends, Sakai and Urano. He took the name Paul in baptism – and the three men became the first Japanese converts to Orthodox Christianity. In 1875, Takuma (Paul) was ordained to the Holy Priesthood, and became the first native Japanese priest ever to be ordained. Father Paul Sawabe continued to serve his new faith as his church grew over the following decades. He was to survive his mentor and bishop Nikolai by a year, dying in 1913.
May the memory of this holy warrior for Christ be eternal!
Hat tip: Opuscula Theologica (original hat tip: Dr. David C. Ford)
The highest prayer is that in which a person forgets all his needs, even the loftiest ones, burning with a single desire – to get as close as possible to the Lord, to place himself at His feet, to give Him all his heart. This is sublime love and sublime prayer, when one wishes to live only in the Lord, to love Him, to hide in His nearness, to be filled with His indescribable love.
Rejoice, O Valaam, God’s dwelling,
for thou hast raised up a wondrous struggler for Christ,
who, like a candle upon a candle-stand has shone upon the islands of Alaska,
a land new and unknown, and has brought unbelieving people to the right Faith.
With them, then, let us glorify God, wondrous in His saints.
Reflection from The Prologue of Ohrid:
In icons of St. Nicholas, the Lord Savior is usually depicted on one side with a Gospel in His hands, and the Most-holy Virgin Theotokos is depicted on the other side with an episcopal omophorion in her hands. This has a twofold historical significance: first, it signifies the calling of Nicholas to the hierarchical office, and second, it signifies his exoneration from the condemnation that followed his confrontation with Arius. St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople, writes: “One night St. Nicholas saw our Savior in glory, standing by him and extending to him the Gospel, adorned with gold and pearls. On his other side, he saw the Theotokos, who was placing the episcopal pallium on his shoulders.” Shortly after this vision, John the Archbishop of Myra died and St. Nicholas was appointed archbishop of that city. That was the first incident. The second incident occurred at the time of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. Unable to stop Arius through reason from espousing the irrational blasphemy against the Son of God and His Most-holy Mother, St. Nicholas struck Arius on the face with his hand. The Holy Fathers at the Council, protesting such an action, banned Nicholas from the Council and deprived him of all emblems of the episcopal rank. That same night, several of the Holy Fathers saw an identical vision: how the Lord Savior and the Most-holy Theotokos were standing around St. Nicholas-on one side the Lord Savior with the Gospel, and on the other side the Most-holy Theotokos with a pallium, presenting the saint with the episcopal emblems that had been removed from him. Seeing this, the fathers were awestruck and quickly returned to Nicholas that which had been removed. They began to respect him as a great chosen one of God, and they interpreted his actions against Arius not as an act of unreasonable anger, but rather an expression of great zeal for God’s truth.
Saint Nicholas pray to God for us!
Last Photo Taken of Bishop Raphael (1914)
(Feast Day is celebrated on the first Saturday of November)
Saint Raphael was devoid of self-love, that passion of the soul that destroys our ability to love and to be loved. His heart was filled only with love for God and for all men. His eye was single, filled only with light (Mt 6:22). Like his Master, he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28). Like the great apostle Paul, he was ready to be poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of the faith of his people (Php 2:17). Accepting the complete destruction of self, Saint Raphael had experienced the purification of his soul and the illuminating rays of God’s deifying grace. He stood before his people as a Man of God, carrying on his chest the Cross of Christ, by whom the world had been crucified to him and he to the world (Gal 6:14). The love of the Syrian people for Saint Raphael and his love for them impressed Saint Tikhon immensely. He saw in Saint Raphael the image of a true shepherd: one who served not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, one who was not a lord over those entrusted to him but an example (1 Pt 5:2,3).
“The Life of Saint Raphael,”in Our Father Among the Saints, Raphael Bishop of Brooklyn
hat tip: Dynamis
Time passes without stopping and, my body, even during my lifetime, constantly changes and passes on, and the whole world as is seen in its motion, also passes on, as though it were hurrying to its appointed end, like a machine in motion. Where, then is constancy? Constancy is that which moves and directs all this to its purpose. God, the first Cause of all that is complex and created is constant, being Himself not complex, and therefore not passing but eternal. The souls of angels and men, created after the image of the first Cause, are also constant.
Everything else is like a soap bubble.
~St John of Kronstadt
