We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
In the end, this is not the agony of man trying to find God, but the agony of God trying to find man; it is the pain of God running in love to those that abandoned Him, that were cut off from Him, that forgot about Him, that despised and rejected Him.
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Until the lost shall be found, until the finite be united with the Infinite, God will be in agony
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
“for each person, there is a unique path towards God and those who are spiritual should know this mystery and dispense for their brothers the knowledge of these unique paths.”
The Enlargement of the Heart
Archimandrite Zacharias
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“Since Christ is the power and wisdom of God the Father—the brightness of the Father’s glory (Heb 1:3), the substantial and perfect Image of the invisible God—where He is, there is the uncreated and saving grace of God. His Cross restores man to immortality and stirs up desire for the things of heaven.”
The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today’s World
footnotes 1 Corinthians 1:24
We must not look for people’s consolation,
but for God’s
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Saint Paisios of Mount Athos
The eternity of God stands in stark contrast to the fleeting nature of human existence. Human life is of limited duration, but the mercy of the Lord is from age to age.
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God’s love is eternal because God is eternal, and God is love.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
You can deny God, but you can not hide from him. If you fail to see the glory of God, it is not because God refuses to reveal Himself to you, but because you are unwilling to receive His warmth and light.
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You fail to see because you fail to look. But though you close your eyes to God, His light continues to shine on you.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
That the Lord’s teaching converts souls means that it has the power to transform life itself,
for the soul is the principal of life within us.
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Thus it was by his words alone Christ gave sight to the blind, raised paralytics up from their beds (Matthew 9:5 & John 5:8),
and commanded a dead man to rise from his tomb (Jn 11:39-44).
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In this way, the power of conversion ascribed to the law of God includes the power of raising fallen man from the dead,
restoring him to life, physically and spiritually, for it is the power of God Himself
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
Psalms and the Life of Faith
To bless another person means to speak well of him or to wish or to pray that he might receive something good.
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With respect to God, however, to bless means to praise and glorify Him.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
Icon of Saint Genevieve of Paris and Saint Simeon the Stylite :: photo taken in Church of Saint Etienne-du-Mont
Troparion of Saint Genevieve
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O Shepherdess who guardest the sheep at Nanterre against the horde of wolves and the Scourge of God,
thou dost protect the city of the Parisians.
O St Genevieve, do not forget to guard thy spiritual sheep even now,
from heaven where thou livest after death.
On January 3rd, the Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Genevieve. Saint Genevieve of Paris, a delicate young woman, whose fasting, vibrant inviolable faith and hopeful prayers, halted the invasion of barbarian Atilla the Hun into Paris is the patron Saint of that beautiful city.
In venerating Saint Genevieve of Paris, we also remember two other beloved Saints of the Orthodox Church, Saint Simeon the Stylite and Saint John Maximovitch.
Why Saint Simeon the Stylite? Saint Simeon the Stylite was one of the most exceptional eastern orthodox monks of that time, and out of all the theologians and clergy in France, he sent a shout-out from his pillar in Syria to an otherwise lowly and unknown humble young woman – who had sought his blessing. This is why in some icons he stands next to her – and East encounters West.
Saint John Maximovitch, because as Archbishop of Western Europe in the early 1950s, he was deeply interested in learning about and venerating the pre-schism Saints of the region. He was the first Orthodox Hierarch to encourage the veneration of these local Saints in Western Europe and introduced her to the Russian people living in France at that time.
Saint John Maximovitch said that it contradicts our Orthodox spirituality to only appeal to the saints of Russia or Greece, especially for second and third generations of immigrants to a new country. Saint John felt that it was essential to live with the grace of the land, as well as the grace of the universal Church, believing in God’s providence, and honor the Saints that God has placed there.
“The Life of St. Genevieve was printed in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1954 or 1955, and she was the first spiritual door for Russians into the veneration of western saints. We had had earlier Orthodox church theologians in the West who knew of her, but their message had not been received by the émigrés…
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When we read the lives of western saints of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, their lives and ascesis often seem strange to the Orthodox mind; but when you read the life of St. Genevieve, you see clearly that she is one of us. The first moleben to be served before a previously unrecognized western saint was done before her relics in early 1941. Now it is an annual tradition that on the first Sunday after January 3, her feast-day, the Orthodox have a joint moleben for her feast.(1)
Relics of Saint Genevieve of Paris. Photo taken in the Church of Saint Etienne-du-Mont
Resources
A CITY OF SAINTS : Road to Emmaus Vol. VII, No. 2 (#25)
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
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Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,
And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!
Angels with shepherds glorify Him!
The wise men journey with a star!
Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!
Kontakion of the Nativity
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Merry Christmas!
Καλά Χριστούγεννα!
Joyeux Noël!
Fröhliche Weihnachten
შობას გილოცავთ!
счастливого Рождества!
Crăciun fericit!
Merry Christmas!
This is the silent descent of God, His descent from the heavens into our hearts.
+ Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
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Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. and behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
Luke 2:8-14
gladsomelife.com 