*epitimia: a penance given to bring a soul to repentance
and return it to health.
That which is below was sourced from Fr. Milovan Katanic’s
blog, the Feb 5, 2010 entry:
One of the newest publication from St. Herman’s came in the mail last week: Our Thoughts Determine our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica. Elder Thaddeus has not been canonized yet but above is an icon of the venerable Elder which, as you can see, began stream forth myrrh. I can’t remember exactly where I found this photo but it was on an Orthodox forum.
The book is filled with so much beauty and wisdom. Below is a small sampling:
“Life on earth is not easy, no matter how favorable the circumstances. There is one person who lived according to his heart’s desire, and that was King Solomon, the son of King David. He ruled for forty years and never went to war. The Lord rewarded him with great wisdom. He built the great temple of Jerusalem. People came to him from all over the world in order to hear his advice. He said, “I have fulfilled every desire of my heart. I wished for vineyards and I planted them. I wished for palaces and I built them. In Jerusalem I had the best trained army, but I never went to war with anyone. I wished for silver and gold, and the Lord gave them to me. I engaged in different things in order to see whether there was any lasting comfort on earth. And I understood that in this life everything is vanity and pride and sickness of spirit. There is no lasting comfort…” These are Solomon’s words. Solomon was wise. He says that whatever you may possess will be for a brief time only, and then it will be as though you had never existed. A man thinks that he has all the wisdom of this world. But if he could look at himself as others see him, he would see himself strutting like a turkey. He would see his own vanity and empty-headedness…”
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