All Saints for January 20

 

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FOR CONSIDERATION


The saints of the Church were so compassionate towards human weakness and so fiercely unyielding and unsubmissive with regard to the confession of the truths of the Faith. St Nicolas of Myra struck Anus with his hand at the First Ecumenical Council. St Antony left his desert and went to Alexandria publicly to denounce Arius. St Euthymius, under great pressure from the Empress Eudocia and the false Patriarch Theodosius, and being unable further to fight with arguments, left his monastery and hid in the desert; an example followed by monks thereafter. Euthymius remained in the desert until the false Patriarch had been dethroned and Orthodoxy con-firmed. And when agitation was spread in Jerusalem in the Emperor's name against the Fourth Ecumenical Council which had taken place in Chalcedon, and when the entire population was going in terror of the heretics, then St Theodosius the Great, already bur-dened with years, came as the fearless soldier of Christ he was to Jerusalem, went into one of the great churches, mounted the steps and, gesticulating with his arms, said to the people: `If a man does not revere the Four Ecumenical Councils as he does the Four Gos-pels, let him be accursed!' All his hearers were deeply impressed by these words, and none of the heretics dared speak against him.

TO PONDER


Let me ponder on the Lord Jesus as light: 1. As the light of my life, as the light of mankind, as the light of every creature. 2. As light in the darkness of fear and suffering. 3. As light in the hour of death, and after death, in eternity.

HOMILY


-on the one light in darkness.

`I am the light of the world' (In 8:12).

From the beginning of the world and the beginning of time, no man born has dared to utter these words. There have been men who have said: `I bring the light', but no-one has ever dared to say: `I am the Light!' The Lord Jesus alone has been able to pronounce these words with daring and confidence. His brief life on earth and His long history of close on 2,000 years have fully justified these words. He is the light of truth, of righteousness and of life. He is the light of truth, for He revealed in Himself the truth of the real nature of God and of the real nature of man, of the relation-ship of man with man, of man with God and of God with man. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will not pass away, for heaven and earth were brought into being by His word, and His word is of Him and with Him for ever, and will not pass away.

He is the light of righteousness, for He has shown the strength of righteousness and the powerlessness of unrighteousness. He has revealed it in the things He said, in the things He did, in the things He experienced among the unrighteous. He has also revealed it through His Church, during the twenty centuries down to this day, through numberless righteous saints and martyrs for righteousness. Righteousness is of God and, through the long thread of history, it can never be overcome. Unrighteousness is of powerless beings: it quickly rushes to the ramparts with its triumphal banner, but equally quickly falls down into the grave.

He is the light of life. His words illumine life, His works illumine life, His victory illumines life; His Resurrection, like the most brilliant sun, illumines life with its strong light and banishes death as a weak shadow. O Lord Jesus, Thou most brilliant light, Thou true Sun, Thou Sun of righteousness and Sun of life; illumine us worthless sinners! To Thee be glory and praise for ever. Amen.

 

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* From "The Prologue from Ochrid", by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic - Lazarica Press - Birmingham 1985
Four Book Edition - Translated by Mother Maria - Dates based on old church calendar.
Please see our calendar for conversion between old and new calendar dates.

 

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