An
ALMSGIVING
Opportunity
to help those impacted by Covid-19
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Reflections and Daily Inspiration
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Invariable Laws of the Spiritual Life
In the spiritual life there is a physiology, and certain invariable laws operate. When a people, a whole world, struggles patiently as one man; when it does not put the blame for its woes on anyone else; when it does not act with insolence or resort to hubris, but waits patiently—then without fail it receives an inner peace as its recompense.
A balm of comfort is born from all its sorrow and searching. There rises a joyful light, which may not be the plenitude of the awaited illumination, but is nevertheless a consolation of morning light heralding the sunrise.
If I want, I can breathe out of a gas canister. But I cannot survive breathing that gas. My internal organs are made for the air of the atmosphere. I cannot change their nature. And the internal organs of the human being as a whole are formed to breathe in the space, the climate of the Orthodox Church. In the spaciousness of the Church, man is able to realize himself. There he can begin to grow, to flower, to bear fruit: to attain to deification.
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Elder Vasileios
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Prayer in Time of Coronavirus
Blessed by the OCA Synod of Bishops, this prayer is to the Holy Trinity for strength, healing, and peace amidst the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19). May we commend ourselves to God, love our neighbor, and remember that Christ has trampled down death by death
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The Holy Virgin-martyrs Agape, Irene, and Chionia, in Illyria (304)
All three were sisters from the vicinity of Aquileia. When Emperor Diocletian was staying in Aquileia he ordered that the distinguished spiritual father Chrysogonus be killed. At that time an aged presbyter, Zoilus, had a vision in which the location of the unburied body of Chrysogonus was revealed. Hastening, the elder found the martyred body of Chrysogonus, placed it in a coffin and kept it in his home. Thirty days later, St. Chrysogonus appeared to him, informing him that, in the course of nine days, these three maidens would suffer martyrdom and that he, Zoilus, would also die at that time. The same news was received in a vision by Anastasia the Deliverer from Bonds (December 22), who was a disciple of Chrysogonus. Indeed, after nine days the Elder Zoilus died and these three sisters were brought to trial before the emperor. The emperor urged these three maidens to worship idols, but they all refused and confessed their steadfast faith in Christ. Irene told the emperor that it was foolish to worship things made of stone and wood, which were ordered for an agreed price and made by the hands of a mortal man. The enraged emperor cast them into prison. When the emperor departed for Macedonia, all slaves and prisoners were taken with him, including these three saintly maidens. The emperor turned them over to a certain commander, Dulcitius, for torture. This commander, inflamed by dark passion, wanted to defile the virgins; however, when the commander attempted to enter the prison while the virgins were praying to God, he went insane. He fell among the black cauldrons, and pots by the gates and began to embrace and kiss them, departing sooty and blackened. The emperor, upon hearing about this incident, ordered that another commander, Sisinius, take over the trial of these sisters. After prolonged torture, the judge condemned the first two sisters to death by burning, while he detained Irene for a while longer, hoping to defile her. But when the judge sent Irene to a brothel with the soldiers, an angel of God saved this chaste virgin by staving off the soldiers and bringing her to a hill. The next day, the commander and his soldiers went to this hill, but they were unable to ascend it. He then ordered that Irene be shot with arrows. St. Anastasia gathered the bodies of these three sisters into one place and honorably buried them. They all suffered honorably for Christ the King and Lord in about the year 304.
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