Our spiritual food

What we eat, what we drink, the Holy Spirit expresses to you saying, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him,” Psalm 34:8.  Christ is in that sacrament, because the body is Christ’s.  So, the food is not corporeal, but spiritual. 

A prayer of St. Ambrose of Milan

May God grant us our prayer:  to sail on a swift ship under a favorable breeze and finally reach a haven of safety; that we may not be exposed to spiritual obstacles too great to overcome; that we may not meet with shipwreck to our faith.  We pray also for a peace profound and, if there be anything that may arouse the storms of this world against us, that we may have as our ever-watchful pilot our Lord Jesus, who by His command can calm the tempest and restore once more the sea’s tranquility.  To Him be honor and glory in perpetuity, both now and forever, and for all ages to come.  Amen. 

 





On the acquisition of humility

 

You always ask that the Lord would grant you humility.  But you see, it is not given as a gift from the Lord.  The Lord is always ready to help people to acquire humility, as well as all good things, but it is necessary that the person work on himself.  As the Holy Fathers say, "Give blood, and receive spirit."  This means you have to labor to the spilling of blood, and then you will receive spiritual gifts.  You seek and request spiritual gifts, but you are stingy about spilling your blood; that is, you do not want anyone to touch you or disturb you.  How can you obtain humility in an undisturbed life?  For humility consists in seeing yourself as below all creatures.  When people bother you and you see that you cannot endure it, and get angry with them, then you will have to consider yourself lower.  If at this you lament and reproach yourself for your exaltation and incorrigibility and sincerely repent about it before God, then you are on the path to humility.

Walk in the way of mercy

Be, therefore, merciful.  How great the reward of mercy we receive under the law of Divine adoption!  Walk in the way of mercy that you may merit this divine blessing.  The kindness of God spreads far and wide.  It rains upon the unthankful; and the fruitful earth does not deny its yield even to the wicked.  The same light of the world shines on impious and God-fearing alike. 

A lesson from the Gerasenes

Neither professors of philosophy nor leaders of the synagogue can offer any cure when peoples perish.  It is Christ alone Who takes away the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to submit to healing.  But He does not deign to cure the unwilling and soon abandons the weak for whom it seems that His presence is a burden, like the peoples of the Gerasenes, who went out from that country, which appears to be an image of the synagogue, and besought Him to depart from them, because 'they were taken with great fear,' (Lk. 8:37).  For a weak mind does not grasp the Word of God, nor can it sustain the weight of wisdom; it falls apart and is dissolved. 

Then they sailed to the territory of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.  When he came ashore a man from the town who was possessed by demons met him. For a long time he had not worn clothes; he did not live in a house, but lived among the tombs.  

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him; in a loud voice he shouted, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!”  For he had ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (It had taken hold of him many times, and he used to be bound with chains and shackles as a restraint, but he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into deserted places.) 

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. And they pleaded with him not to order them to depart to the abyss.  A herd of many swine was feeding there on the hillside, and they pleaded with him to allow them to enter those swine; and he let them.  The demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside.  People came out to see what had happened and, when they approached Jesus, they discovered the man from whom the demons had come out sitting at his feet. He was clothed and in his right mind, and they were seized with fear.  Those who witnessed it told them how the possessed man had been saved. 

The entire population of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because they were seized with great fear. So he got into a boat and returned. 

The man from whom the demons had come out begged to remain with him, but he sent him away, saying, “Return home and recount what God has done for you.”  The man went off and proclaimed throughout the whole town what Jesus had done for him.  Luke 8:26-39

On the virtues of the Theotokos

St. Ambrose of Milan on the Virtues of the Theotokos

The Entrance of the Most-Holy Theotokos to the Temple (http://pravicon.com/images/icon/0051/0051006.jpg)

St. Ambrose of Milan on the Virtues of the Theotokos

6. Let, then, the life of Mary be as it were virginity itself, set forth in a likeness, from which, as from a mirror, the appearance of chastity and the form of virtue is reflected. From this you may take your pattern of life, showing, as an example, the clear rules of virtue: what you have to correct, to effect, and to hold fast.

7. The first thing which kindles ardour in learning is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body? For why should I speak of her other virtues? She was a virgin not only in body but also in mind, who stained the sincerity of its disposition by no guile, who was humble in heart, grave in speech, prudent in mind, sparing of words, studious in reading, resting her hope not on uncertain riches, but on the prayer of the poor, intent on work, modest in discourse; wont to seek not man but God as the judge of her thoughts, to injure no one, to have goodwill towards all, to rise up before her elders, not to envy her equals, to avoid boastfulness, to follow reason, to love virtue. When did she pain her parents even by a look? When did she disagree with her neighbours? When did she despise the lowly? When did she avoid the needy? Being wont only to go to such gatherings of men as mercy would not blush at, nor modesty pass by. There was nothing gloomy in her eyes, nothing forward in her words, nothing unseemly in her acts, there was not a silly movement, nor unrestrained step, nor was her voice petulant, that the very appearance of her outward being might be the image of her soul, the representation of what is approved. For a well-ordered house ought to be recognized on the very threshold, and should show at the very first entrance that no darkness is hidden within, as our soul hindered by no restraints of the body may shine abroad like a lamp placed within.

8. Why should I detail her spareness of food, her abundance of services—the one abounding beyond nature, the other almost insufficient for nature? And there were no seasons of slackness, but days of fasting, one upon the other. And if ever the desire for refreshment came, her food was generally what came to hand, taken to keep off death, not to minister to comfort. Necessity before inclination caused her to sleep, and yet when her body was sleeping her soul was awake, and often in sleep either went again through what had been read, or went on with what had been interrupted by sleep, or carried out what had been designed, or foresaw what was to be carried out.

9. She was unaccustomed to go from home, except for divine service, and this with parents or kinsfolk. Busy in private at home, accompanied by others abroad, yet with no better guardian than herself, as she, inspiring respect by her gait and address, progressed not so much by the motion of her feet as by step upon step of virtue. But though the Virgin had other persons who were protectors of her body, she alone guarded her character; she can learn many points if she be her own teacher, who possesses the perfection of all virtues, for whatever she did is a lesson. Mary attended to everything as though she were warned by many, and fulfilled every obligation of virtue as though she were teaching rather than learning.

10. Such has the Evangelist shown her, such did the angel find her, such did the Holy Spirit choose her. Why delay about details? How her parents loved her, strangers praised her, how worthy she was that the Son of God should be born of her. She, when the angel entered, was found at home in privacy, without a companion, that no one might interrupt her attention or disturb her; and she did not desire any women as companions, who had the companionship of good thoughts. Moreover, she seemed to herself to be less alone when she was alone. For how should she be alone, who had with her so many books, so many archangels, so many prophets?

11. And so, too, when Gabriel visited her, (Luke i. 28.) did he find her, and Mary trembled, being disturbed, as though at the form of a man, but on hearing his name recognized him as one not unknown to her. And so she was a stranger as to men, but not as to the angel; that we might know that her ears were modest and her eyes bashful. Then when saluted she kept silence, and when addressed she answered, and she whose feelings were first troubled afterwards promised obedience.

12. And holy Scripture points out how modest she was towards her neighbours. For she became more humble when she knew herself to be chosen of God, and went forthwith to her kinswoman in the hill country, not in order to gain belief by anything external, for she had believed the word of God. “Blessed,” she said, “art thou who didst believe.” (Luke i. 56). And she abode with her three months. Now in such an interval of time it is not that faith is being sought for, but kindness which is being shown. And this was after that the child, leaping in his mother’s womb, had saluted the mother of the Lord, attaining to reason before birth.

13. And then, in the many subsequent wonders, when the barren bore a son, the virgin conceived, the dumb spake, the wise men worshipped, Simeon waited, the stars gave notice. Mary, who was moved by the angel’s entrance, was unmoved by the miracles. “Mary,” it is said, “kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke ii. 19). Though she was the mother of the Lord, yet she desired to learn the precepts of the Lord, and she who brought forth God, yet desired to know God.

14. And then, how she also went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the passover, and went with Joseph. Everywhere is modesty the companion of her singular virtues in the Virgin. This, without which virginity cannot exist, must be the inseparable companion of virginity. And so Mary did not go even to the temple without the guardianship of her modesty.

15. This is the likeness of virginity. For Mary was such that her example alone is a lesson for all. If, then, the author displeases us not, let us make trial of the production, that whoever desires its reward for herself may imitate the pattern. How many kinds of virtues shine forth in one Virgin! The secret of modesty, the banner of faith, the service of devotion, the Virgin within the house, the companion for the ministry, the mother at the temple.

16. Oh! how many virgins shall she meet, how many shall she embrace and bring to the Lord, and say: “She has been faithful to her espousal, to my Son; she has kept her bridal couch with spotless modesty.” How shall the Lord Himself commend them to His Father, repeating again those words of His: “Holy Father, these are they whom I have kept for Thee, on whom the Son of Man leant His head and rested; I ask that where I am there they may be with Me.” (John xvii. 24). And if they ought to benefit not themselves only, who lived not for themselves alone, one virgin may redeem her parents, another her brothers. “Holy Father, the world hath not known Me, but these have known Me, and have willed not to know the world.” (John xvii. 25).

17. What a procession shall that be, what joy of applauding angels when she is found worthy of dwelling in heaven who lived on earth a heavenly life! Then too Mary, taking her timbrel, shall stir up the choirs of virgins, singing to the Lord because they have passed through the sea of this world without suffering from the waves of this world. (Ex. xv. 20). Then each shall rejoice, saying: “I will go to the altar of God; to God Who maketh my youth glad;” (Ps. xliii. [xlii.] 4). and, “I will offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay my vows unto the Most High.” (Ps. l. [xlix.] 14).

18. Nor would I hesitate to admit you to the altars of God, whose souls I would without hesitation call altars, on which Christ is daily offered for the redemption of the body. For if the virgin’s body be a temple of God, what is her soul, which, the ashes, as it were, of the body being shaken off, once more uncovered by the hand of the Eternal Priest, exhales the vapour of the divine fire. Blessed virgins, who emit a fragrance through divine grace as gardens do through flowers, temples through religion, altars through the priest.

(Note: hosted by a non-Orthodox site: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.iv.vii.iii.ii.html)

The Most-Holy Theotokos: "All creation rejoices in thee..." (http://pravicon.com/images/icon/0219/0219001.jpg)

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

 

The above entry appeared as the Nov. 19, 2011 posting on the Full of Grace and Truth blogspot

The beauty and bond of married love

When a couple is united, even if the husband is abroad on a journey, distance ought not to diminish the joy of their love.  Near or far, it is always the same law that unites them.  Together or apart, it is always the same bond that guarantees the privileges of conjugal love.  Even if one of the two is traveling a long way away, the same yoke of shared blessings unites them closely one to the other, because they have accepted the yoke of grace not only on their bodies but also on their souls.