An
ALMSGIVING
Opportunity
to help those impacted by Covid-19
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Reflections and Daily Inspiration
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The King of Glory
Christ is not sacrificed in one city for one nation. Instead, He suffered outside the walls, outside the city, in order to show the catholicity of the sacrifice for the entire world, the whole of humanity.
So when the Messiah [speaking through David in the Psalms] ends with the tragic phrase about Himself, “I am a worm and not a man” (Ps. 21:7), it is the same as saying, “I am God, and not only man.” He reveals to us the true dimensions of glory in ingloriousness, in self-emptying, for the sake of love. The dishonor of the Cross becomes glory because the Lord sacrificed Himself voluntarily for His friends. When He is dishonored, when He is humiliated and crucified naked “for us men and for our salvation,” that is when the Church sees Him as the King of Glory: “I call Him a king, because I see Him crucified.”
It was necessary for Him to go away in order for us to recognize Him. If He had not gone away, the Spirit would not have come. If the all-holy Spirit had not come, the Lord would have remained unknown to us. We should have lost Him. “It is expedient for you that I go away” (Jn 16:7). He sanctifies and illumines departure and arrival.
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Elder Vasileios
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Mount Athos: This mountain has been
home to monks for 12 centuries
(by Great Big Story)
Amongst the picturesque cliffs of Mount Athos, Greece, lives a community of monks who have been on this sacred piece of land for centuries. Isolated and hard to reach, the mountain is one of the most important places in the Christian Orthodox world. The monks first arrived on the island in the ninth century, and their way of life has essentially remained the same. Most of their time is spent praying, cultivating the land and creating handmade products to sell. Come along and get lost in their tranquil way of life.
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The Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop of Persia, and those with him: Hieromartyrs Abdechalas and Ananias, priests; Martyrs Ustazad and Azat, eunuchs; Fusicus, Ascitrea, and 1,150 others (341).
During the reign of the wicked King Sapor, Simeon was tortured for Christ along with his two presbyters, Audel and Ananias. The king’s eunuch, Ustazan—who had earlier denied Christ but afterward, touched by the rebuke of St. Simeon, had again confessed the true Faith before the king—was executed before them. A thousand other Christians were also led to the place of execution with Simeon. Simeon intentionally moved out of the way in order to be the last one beheaded. He did this to encourage the other Christians so that not one of them would waver out of fear of death. When the presbyter Ananias placed his head on the chopping block, his entire body quivered. The king’s court clerk, Fusik, who secretly was a Christian, began to encourage Ananias saying: “Do not be afraid, old man, close your eyes and be brave, so that you may see the Divine Light.” As soon as Fusik said this, he was recognized as a Christian and was accused before the king. Both Fusik and his daughter, the maiden Askitria, were exhausted through great torture by the king. After St. Simeon saw his flock depart to the other world, he was finally beheaded. The following year on Great Friday, Azat, the beloved eunuch of the king, was also slain for Christ and with him a thousand other faithful. Then the king mourned for his eunuch and suspended the further killing of Christians. They all suffered honorably for Christ the King and Lord in the year 341 or 344.
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