277. If you want to serve God, prepare your heart not for food and drink, nor for rest and ease, but for patience, that you may endure all manner of temptations, troubles and sorrows. Prepare yourself for hardships, fasts, spiritual struggles and many tribulations, for "we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts.14:22); and "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." (Mat.11:12)

(St. Sergius of Radonezh, Life, 10)

First Trust

First put your trust in God and in His Holy Body - The Church - and He will guide you, showing you miraculous signs along the way, and leading you away from your old self, towards a new person, a child of God in His Kingdom.

Halloween for Orthodox?

Halloween

What the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council Have Done For Our Salvation and Sanctification

What the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council Have Done For Our Salvation and Sanctification

Source of Life

Before time God exists, outside of time and above time. In a timeless, mysterious space, He made the worlds, the heavens and all that is within them, planned them with his Word and Spirit and initiating time, established the laws which govern the physical world. These laws we discover, re-discover in science and philosophy, in visions, in prayers and dreams, alter in our imaginations and distort in our minds. Nevertheless, there they are!

Who would create worlds and laws to govern them, and then abandon them? Certainly not the Unique Creator. Therefore, God is also the Source of Life. "Understanding is a well-spring of life" says Solomon (Proverbs 16:22). The Giver and Sustainer of Life, Wisdom of the Father, seeks to give light and feeling, warmth and growth, joy and wisdom to his Creation, namely to humankind, in whom He placed his Spirit and fashioned in his image and likeness. This life extends beyond the physical body, stemming from God Himself and leading back to Him, in his ineffable Glory, light and eternal being. Thus, as Source of Life, God reveals his glory to man, this quality of God - Source of life, thus stands out as vital and important. In it man knows spiritual life, the ultimate calling of creation, and our daily struggle for life-giving bread and replenishing water. The well-spring of reason - a fountain of life.

APOSTLE ARISTOBULUS OF THE SEVENTY THE BISHOP OF BRITAIN

Commemorated on March 16

The Holy Apostle Aristobulus of the Seventy was born on Cyprus. He and his brother, the holy Apostle Barnabas of the Seventy, accompanied the holy Apostle Paul on his journeys. Saint Aristobulus is mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:10).

Saint Paul made Aristobulus a bishop and sent him to preach the Gospel in Britain, where he converted many to Christ. He endured the torments and malice of the pagans, and eventually baptized them.

Saint Aristobulus died in Britain among the people he had evangelized. His memory is celebrated on October 31 and also on the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles January 4.

The Orthodox Church in America

Archpriest Andrew Phillips writes of the apostle Aristobulus in Orthodox England (vol. 8,4):

From Cyprus and one of the Seventy, he [the Apostle Aristobulus] was the brother of St Barnabas and is mentioned in Romans 16, 10. Some say that he was the father-in-law of the Apostle Paul. In any case, the Eastern Lives of the Saints quite specifically affirm that he was sent by the Apostle Paul to preach in Britain, inhabited by “a very warlike and fierce race,” in particular in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall. Here he toiled much and suffered from cruel and unbelieving people. He was beaten, dragged as a criminal along streets and suffered misfortune, malice and mockery. Finally, local people accepted from him the Light of Christ. He taught them the Faith, baptised them, built churches and ordained priests and deacons, reposing in Britain. Some sources add that he was also martyred in Britain, but we do not need to believe the Cypriot folklore that he was eaten by cannibals. Accounts of these events can be found in the writings of Haleca, Bishop of Augusta, and Dorotheus of Tyre.

As regards folk memory, the British Achau, or Genealogies of the Saints, say that St Aristobulus was known as Arwystli Hen (the Elder) and that he came to Britain with others, Jewish converts, and also his own son, called ‘Manaw’. An area on the River Severn in what was Montgomeryshire in Wales used to be called ‘Arwystli’, for this was said to be the site of his martyrdom. St Aristobulus is feasted on 15/28 March in the Greek Churches and 16/29 March in the other Orthodox Churches.

Wisdom has sent forth Her servants, calling with a loud proclamation to the feast... (Proverbs 9:3).

Is it not the will of God, through His Son Jesus Christ, Wisdom of the Father, that we, the anointed servants of God, his members, go forth and proclaim His saving Word?

Why then do we treat any missionary action as proselytism? Why are we mistreated by one another when we seek to save not only ourselves but our brothers sitting in darkness of heresy and false belief, in non-belief?

As the Gospel teaches us to carry on the work of the Apostles, so even does the book of Solomon. Therefore, I beseech you, Christian brothers and sisters, fear not the judgement of men, however mighty, for none is mightier than God, seek Wisdom and share it with all who dare listen, and prepare for yourself wealth in Heaven.