Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY PROPHET SAMUEL
The fifteenth and last judge of Israel. He lived about 1,100 years before Christ. Born of the tribe of Levi, of the parents Elkanah and Hannah, in the town of Ramah, or Arimathea, where later the noble Joseph was also born. The barren Hannah wept and prayed for Samuel from God, and she dedicated him to God when he turned three years old. Living in Shiloh, near the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel at the age of twelve received a true revelation from God concerning the punishment that awaited the house of the high priest Eli because of the wickedness of his sons Hophni and Phinehas. That revelation was soon fulfilled: the Philistines defeated the Israelites, slew both sons of Eli, and captured the Ark of the Covenant. When a messenger conveyed this calamity to Eli, he fell dead to the ground and expired at the age of ninety-eight. And the same thing happened to his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas. From that time for twenty years the Israelites were slaves of the Philistines. After that period, God sent Samuel to the people to preach repentance, if they wished to be saved from their enemies. And the people repented, and cast aside the foreign idols which they had been serving, and acknowledged Samuel as prophet, priest and judge. Then Samuel marched with the army against the Philistines and with the help of God confounded and slew them, and liberated the land and the people. After that, Samuel judged his people peacefully until his old age. Seeing him grown old, the people told him to appoint a king over them in his place. In vain did Samuel dissuade the people from this, telling them that God alone was their King — the people persisted in their demand. Though this demand was displeasing to God, God commanded Samuel to anoint Saul, the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, as their king. Saul reigned a short time, and God rejected him for his insolence and disobedience, and commanded Samuel to anoint David, the son of Jesse, as king in place of Saul. Before his death Samuel gathered all the people together and bade them farewell. And when he died, all Israel mourned for him and buried him honorably in his house in Ramah.
2. HIEROMARTYR PHILIP, BISHOP OF HERACLEA, WITH THE PRIEST SEVERUS AND THE DEACON HERMES
By all appearances they were Slavs. They served God in Thrace, and there were first subjected to tortures for Christ. When the pagans rushed to burn down the Christian church, the courageous Philip said to their leader: "Do you think that God is enclosed in stones? He lives in hearts." The church was destroyed, all the books were burned, and these clergymen were led away to Adrianople, where after imprisonment and tortures they were cast half-burned into the river Maritsa. Another thirty-eight Christians perished with them as martyrs. They are believed to have suffered in the time of Diocletian.
“Do you think that God is enclosed in stones? He lives in hearts.”
Hymn of Praise
Samuel the righteous, servant of the living God,
Beloved judge of his own people;
He honored God, God above all,
The will of God was his commandment.
He corrected the people's will by the will of God
And repented of the people's sins before God.
Priest and prophet and righteous judge,
In a threefold way Samuel glorified the Lord.
With his every word, with his every deed,
With labor and prayer, with sacrifice and sustenance,
With his whole being he served God,
And to earthly rulers he set forth this example:
No one can benefit his people
Who turns away from the law of God.
He who heeds himself and the people, but not God,
Shall fall to the bottom of the bottomless abyss,
As Saul fell, and others with him,
All accomplices in the sin of the people.
Only a servant of God can be a ruler
And lastingly benefit his people.
This Samuel teaches by deed and by word;
Through many centuries that teaching resounds.
“Only a servant of God can be a ruler and lastingly benefit his people.”
Reflection
Repent before death closes the door of your life and opens the door of Judgment. Repent before death, and since you do not know the hour of death, repent today and now, and cease repeating your sin. Thus does Saint Ephraim the Syrian pray to God: Before the wheel of time comes to a halt in my life, have mercy on me. Before the wind of death blows, and on my body appear diseases, the heralds of death, have mercy on me. Before the majestic sun on high grows dark for me, have mercy on me; and may Thy light shine upon me from on high, and dispel the dreadful darkness of my mind.
Before the earth returns to earth and becomes decay, and before the ruin of all the features of its beauty, have mercy. Before my sins precede me to the Judgment and put me to shame before the Judge, have mercy, O Lord, full of grace. Before the hosts go forth, preceding the Son of the King, to gather our wretched race before the throne of the Judge, have mercy. Before the voice of the trumpet sounds at Thy coming, spare Thy servants, and have mercy, O our Lord Jesus. Before Thou dost shut Thy door before me, O Son of God, and before I become food for the unquenchable fire of Gehenna, have mercy on me.
“Repent before death closes the door of your life and opens the door of Judgment.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous victory of David over Goliath (I Samuel 17), namely:
1. How Goliath, fearsome in body, armor and weaponry, defied the whole army of Israel;
2. How David, with hope in God, went forth with a sling and pebbles, and slew Goliath;
3. How David was victorious because he believed that this was the war of the Lord, the war of the faithful against the faithless.
Homily
on the conversion of Egypt to the Lord
O how changeable is the heart of man! But of all its changes, one is more shameful than the most shameful, and that is: when the faithful becomes faithless. And of all its changes, one is more glorious than the most glorious, and that is: when the faithless is converted and becomes faithful. That first change came to pass with the Israelites, who slew Christ; this second change came to pass with the Egyptians, who believed in Christ. Once Egypt was the chief persecutor of those who believed in the one living God, for once the Egyptians had many dead gods, idols and objects before which they bowed, fables and sorceries with which they deluded themselves. But behold what the prophet foretells! What a wondrous vision! The Egyptians shall know the one and living Lord in that time when the Lord appears in the flesh among men. The idols shall be destroyed, the temples to demons and animals demolished, the altar to the living and only God established, the sacrificial table raised up. The bloodless sacrifice shall be offered in place of the bloody one, the rational in place of the irrational. Hundreds of thousands of monks would take upon themselves vows of poverty, obedience and fasting, out of love for the Lord. The greatest ascetics would appear in that once-dark Egypt; the most courageous martyrs for Christ the Lord; the most enlightened minds; the most clairvoyant wonderworkers. O what a wondrous vision! And how wondrous is the fulfillment of that vision! Saint John Chrysostom writes: "Not even the sun with its multitude of stars is as radiant as the Egyptian desert with its monks." Everything has been fulfilled in truth that was foreseen and foretold by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the far-seeing and true prophet.
O compassionate Lord, who didst have compassion on Egypt, the former persecutor of Thy faithful, and didst enlighten it with the light of truth, enlighten us also, and strengthen us by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit and by the example of the great Christian Egyptians. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Hundreds of thousands of monks would take upon themselves vows of poverty, obedience and fasting, out of love for the Lord.”