The Lives of the Saints
1. PRIEST-MARTYR BLAISE
Blaise was a native of the Cappadocian region, God-fearing and gentle from early childhood. Because of his great virtues he was chosen as bishop of the city of Sebaste. Blaise was a great spiritual and moral luminary in that pagan city. During a time of severe persecution of Christians, Saint Blaise encouraged his flock and visited Christ's martyrs in prison, among whom the glorious Eustratios was especially prominent. When the city of Sebaste remained completely without Christians - some perished, others fled - the elder Blaise withdrew to Mount Argeos, and there settled in a cave. Wild beasts, recognizing the holy man, gathered around him, and he gently caressed them. But the persecutors found the saint in that hidden place and led him to trial. Along the way Blaise healed a boy who had a bone stuck in his throat; and at the complaint of some poor widow, that a wolf had seized her pig, he accomplished by the power of his prayer that the wolf returned the pig to her. The evil judges tortured him severely, beat and scraped him. By his unshakability in the Christian faith Blaise converted many pagans to the faith. Seven women and two children were imprisoned together with him. The women were beheaded first, then also the wondrous Blaise with those two children. He suffered and was glorified in the year 316. The people pray to Saint Blaise for the welfare of domestic livestock and for protection from beasts. In the West they also pray to him against throat ailments.
2. HOLY MARTYR GEORGE OF KRATOVO
George was a Serb by origin, from the city of Kratovo. Young George was by trade a goldsmith, and by heart and soul a convinced and pious Christian. He was only eighteen years old when the Turks wanted to make him a Muslim, but George remained in the faith firm as diamond. Then the Turks tortured him with many fierce torments, and finally burned him alive at the stake. He suffered for the beautiful Christian faith on February 11, 1515 in Sofia, during the time of Emperor Selim, and was glorified with unfading glory in the heavens.
3. SAINT THEODORA
Theodora was a greek empress, wife of the evil Emperor Theophilus the iconoclast. After Theophilus's death Theodora became empress with her son Michael III. She immediately established the veneration of icons at a council in Constantinople in the year 842. On this occasion was established the celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, which to this day is observed on the first Sunday of Great Lent. This holy woman, deserving for the Church, gave up her soul to God on February 11, 867. At that time of complete triumph of Orthodoxy over all heresies, by God's wondrous Providence, Saints Cyril and Methodius were sent among the Slavs as Christian missionaries.
“Young George was by trade a goldsmith, and by heart and soul a convinced and pious Christian. He was only eighteen years old when the Turks wanted to make him a Muslim, but George remained in the faith firm as diamond.”
Hymn of Praise
Why do you bow so, my Christian,
When you bow to icons, my Christian?
"I bow to the living God, my Creator.
I bow to Him with all my soul, heart and mind.
I am bodily, so I cannot behold Him.
Therefore to His image I bow."
What do you kiss so fervently, my Christian,
When you kiss icons, my Christian?
"I kiss Christ God and the Savior,
The Mother of God, the choir of angels and the saints.
I am bodily, I cannot touch them,
So when I kiss their images, my heart is lightened."
Reflection
Matter is not evil in itself, as some Christian heretics (such as the Manichaeans) and some philosophers taught. Not only is it not evil, it is also not the only bearer of evil. Spirit, equally as much as matter, can bear evil. All material creation is melancholy and fearful because of man's sin, but it is not evil. Matter is decaying, weak and insignificant in comparison with the immortal spirit, but it is not evil in itself. And if it were evil, would the Lord Christ have instituted Communion from bread and wine, and would He have called bread and wine His body and His blood? If matter were evil in itself, how would people be baptized with water? How would the Apostle James command that the sick be anointed with oil? How would holy water stand without spoiling and have wonderworking effect? How would the cross have power? How would Christ's garment convey the healing power of the Savior, from which the woman with the issue of blood was healed? How would the relics of saints and icons work so many wonders and bring so much good to people from the kingdom of grace? How, therefore, could good come to people through evil? No, no, matter is in no way evil in itself.
“If matter were evil in itself, how would holy water stand without spoiling and have wonderworking effect?”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus as a good merchant, who came into this world as to a market to give and to take, namely:
1. To give His labor, and to receive numerous fruits of joy from that labor;
2. To give Himself to be humiliated, spat upon, struck, scratched, pierced, crucified, that He might lead the army of His faithful into His eternal glory;
3. To give His body, that He might deliver innumerable and countless souls.
Homily
on judging according to the flesh and according to the spirit
Ye judge after the flesh (John 8:15)
Thus spoke the All-knowing Lord to the evil Jews — ye judge after the flesh. For they had caught a woman in adultery and wanted to stone her for that carnal sin. But the Lord, seeing into the woman's soul and finding that she could still be saved and corrected, led her to repentance and released her. For although she committed adultery in the flesh, yet her soul was not entirely adulterous. The Pharisees unceasingly carried adulterous sin in their heart, but they skillfully hid this, and did not condemn this, but condemned only and exclusively the carnal deed in those who were caught in it.
Spiritual people judge according to the spirit, and carnal people according to the flesh. Even to this day the Jews, punished and scattered throughout the whole world, cannot learn to think and judge spiritually, but always still think and judge only carnally, only according to externals, according to the prescriptions of the law written on paper or in nature — but in no way according to the spirit. For if they had learned to judge people and deeds according to the spirit, they would immediately recognize the Lord Jesus as Messiah and Savior.
Let us Christians beware of judging only according to the flesh. Let us beware of being quick to condemn him who through ineptitude slips into a misdeed, or to praise him who by skill manages not to slip before people, but whose heart is already entirely in the abyss of sin. Let us beware of the delusion of judging people and nature according to sensory impressions, and let us strive to judge all things spiritually by the spirit. Behold, we are children of the spirit and of light, for we are baptized.
O Lord Jesus, teach and guide us, not to think and judge according to the flesh but according to the spirit. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Let us beware of being quick to condemn him who through ineptitude slips into a misdeed, or to praise him who by skill manages not to slip before people.”