CATECHESIS & DAILY INSPIRATION |
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THE HOLY MARTYRS GURIAS, SAMONAS AND ABIBUS, OF EDESSA |
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The NATIVITY FAST - A time for preparation!
A time for fasting, prayer, almsgiving, repentance and caring for others!
May our spiritual efforts bring us renewal in Christ!
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Reflections and Daily Inspiration |
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A true Christian behaves in this life so that it may be a preparation for the future one, and not only a life here below.
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Orthodox Answer - If someone asks you why do you fast.
Orthodox Abbot Rafailo of Monastery Podmaine in Montenegro, tells you how to answer if someone asks you - why do you fast?
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Why Do We Fast?
Theo Nicolakis
+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Growing up, I recall my parish priest telling an anecdotal story about a couple who were newly married. One night, these newly weds were preparing a roast for dinner. While preparing the roast, however, my friend cut off a few inches from the end of the roast. When I asked her why she did this, she replied, "I don't really know, but my mother always did it that way."
When she asked her mother for the reason for this curious custom, her mother replied, "I do it because my mother always prepared her roasts that way." She visited her grandmother one day and asked her the same question. "I always had to cut off a bit from the end,” her grandmother said, “ because my only pan was too small." Her grandmother had a good reason for what she did, but the others had repeated the practice for no good reason other than "that's the way my mother did it."
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THE FESTIVE FAST
COOKBOOK
AVAILABLE AT SEBASTIAN PRESS
A guide to olive oil and vegetarian cuisine
By:
Marigoula Kokkinou and Georgia Kofinas
ONLY $18
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SAINT OF THE DAY
NOVEMBER 28 / NOVEMBER 15
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The Holy Martyrs Gurias, Samonas and Abibus, of Edessa
Gurias and Samonas were prominent citizens of Edessa. During one of the persecutions of Christians, they hid outside the city and lived in fasting and prayer, encouraging true believers who came to them for counsel. However, they were captured and brought before the judge, who threatened them with death if they did not submit to the imperial decree demanding idol worship. These holy martyrs of Christ answered him: “If we submit to the imperial decree, we will perish, even if you don’t kill us.” After cruel torture, they were thrown into prison, where they remained from August 1 to November 10, enduring hunger, darkness and pain. They were then led out and again tortured, but since they remained unwavering in the Christian Faith, they were condemned to death and beheaded in the year 322, during the reign of the wicked Emperor Licinius. Later Abibus, a deacon in Edessa, suffered tortures for Christ his Lord and gave his spirit to God while in the flames. His mother took his body, miraculously in- tact, from the fire and buried it in a grave with the relics of St. Gurias and St. Samonas. When the persecution ceased, Christians built a church in honor of the three martyrs, Gurias, Samonas and Abibus, and placed their miracle-working relics in a common reliquary. Of the numerous miracles of these wonderful saints of God, the following is especially outstanding: A widow in Edessa had a young daughter who was to marry a Gothic soldier serving in the Greek army. As the mother feared for her daughter’s safety if she were to live far away, the Goth swore on the grave of the holy three martyrs that he would do no evil to the maiden, but would take her as his lawful wife, as he had already sworn that he was not already married. In reality, he did have a wife, and when he took the young maid- en to his country he kept her, not as his wife but as a slave, until his lawful wife died. He then agreed with his kinsmen to bury his living slave with his dead wife. The girl tearfully prayed to the three holy martyrs to save her, and they appeared to her in the grave, and took her in an instant from the land of the Goths to Edessa, to their church. The following day when the church was opened, they found the young maiden by the tomb of the saints of God, and learned of her miraculous deliverance.
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