23 posts tagged “prayer”
She is our parish's Patron Saint so I'm off to Liturgy to celebrate her life.
The Holy Great Martyr Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioscorus, was a rich and illustrious man in the Syrian city of Heliopolis. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to his only daughter.
Seeing Barbara's extraordinary beauty, Dioscorus decided to hide her from the eyes of strangers. Therefore, he built a tower for Barbara, where only her pagan teachers were allowed to see her. From the tower there was a view of hills stretching into the distance. By day she was able to gaze upon the wooded hills, the swiftly flowing rivers, and the meadows covered with a mottled blanket of flowers; by night the harmonious and majestic vault of the heavens twinkled and provided a spectacle of inexpressible beauty. Soon the virgin began to ask herself questions about the First Cause and Creator of so harmonious and splendid a world.
Gradually, she became convinced that the souless idols were merely the work of human hands. Although her father and teachers offered them worship, she realized that the idols could not have made the surrounding world. The desire to know the true God so consumed her soul that Barbara decided to devote all her life to this goal, and to spend her life in virginity.
The fame of her beauty spread throughout the city, and many sought her hand in marriage. But despite the entreaties of her father, she refused all of them. Barbara warned her father that his persistence might end tragically and separate them forever. Dioscorus decided that the temperament of his daughter had been affected by her life of seclusion. He therefore permitted her to leave the tower and gave her full freedom in her choice of friends and acquaintances. Thus Barbara met young Christian maidens in the city, and they taught her about the Creator of the world, about the Trinity, and about the Divine Logos. Through the Providence of God, a priest arrived in Heliopolis from Alexandria disguised as a merchant. After instructing her in the mysteries of the Christian Faith, he baptized Barbara, then returned to his own country.
During this time a luxurious bathhouse was being built at the house of Dioscorus. By his orders the workers prepared to put two windows on the south side. But Barbara, taking advantage of her father's absence, asked them to make a third window, thereby forming a Trinity of light. On one of the walls of the bath-house Barbara traced a cross with her finger. The cross was deeply etched into the marble, as if by an iron instrument. Later, her footprints were imprinted on the stone steps of the bathhouse. The water of the bathhouse had great healing power. St Simeon Metaphrastes (November 9) compared the bathhouse to the stream of Jordan and the Pool of Siloam, because by God's power, many miracles took place there.
When Dioscorus returned and expressed dissatisfaction about the change in his building plans, his daughter told him about how she had come to know the Triune God, about the saving power of the Son of God, and about the futility of worshipping idols. Dioscorus went into a rage, grabbed a sword and was on the point of striking her with it. The holy virgin fled from her father, and he rushed after her in pursuit. His way became blocked by a hill, which opened up and concealed the saint in a crevice. On the other side of the crevice was an entrance leading upwards. St Barbara managed then to conceal herself in a cave on the opposite slope of the hill.
After a long and fruitless search for his daughter, Dioscorus saw two shepherds on the hill. One of them showed him the cave where the saint had hidden. Dioscorus beat his daughter terribly, and then placed her under guard and tried to wear her down with hunger. Finally he handed her over to the prefect of the city, named Martianus. They beat St Barbara fiercely: they struck her with rawhide, and rubbed her wounds with a hair cloth to increase her pain. By night St Barbara prayed fervently to her Heavenly Bridegroom, and the Savior Himself appeared and healed her wounds. Then they subjected the saint to new, and even more frightful torments.
In the crowd where the martyr was tortured was the virtuous Christian woman Juliana, an inhabitant of Heliopolis. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the voluntary martyrdom of the beautiful and illustrious maiden. Juliana also wanted to suffer for Christ. She began to denounce the torturers in a loud voice, and they seized her.
Both martyrs were tortured for a long time. Their bodies were raked and wounded with hooks, and then they were led naked through the city amidst derision and jeers. Through the prayers of St Barbara the Lord sent an angel who covered the nakedness of the holy martyrs with a splendid robe. Then the steadfast confessors of Christ, Sts Barbara and Juliana, were beheaded. Dioscorus himself executed St Barbara. The wrath of God was not slow to punish both torturers, Martianus and Dioscorus. They were killed after being struck by lightning.
In the sixth century the relics of the holy Great Martyr Barbara were transferred to Constantinople. Six hundred years later, they were transferred to Kiev (July 11) by Barbara, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenos, who married the Russian prince Michael Izyaslavich. They rest even now at Kiev's St Vladimir cathedral, where an Akathist to the saint is served each Tuesday.
Many pious Orthodox Christians are in the habit of chanting the Troparion of St Barbara each day, recalling the Savior's promise to her that those who remembered her and her sufferings would be preserved from a sudden, unexpected death, and would not depart this life without benefit of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
(from oca.org)
The snow began to fall as I was explaining my difficulty with the movie Ratatouille over Thanksgiving dinner.
So with my best friend since highschool sitting across from me, my dear husband beside, and all the dear children around the warm colored table cloth with warm colored food on cobalt blue plates, the fire in the hearth behind me, I explained that what I didn't like about the rat inspired cooking, was the instrumental method of using the human. I used to think that that was what inspiration was - get out of the way and let God do it through you. He had to learn to disengage his mind and will to let the master do his best work. Now I believe in a much more synergistic approach to creativity - God empowering humans to make something new and beautiful through conversation and gentle nudgings which open the mind to new possibilities or at least tools.I don't want to define the conditions any more than that because if we aren't precisely balanced in human contribution and the activities of God, we can easily slip into destructive error or judgmentalism.
Anyway, I thought about taking a picture of the snow falling with my icon shrine of Mary holding Jesus on the tree in front of the swimming pool, but I was a little too mellow to go to that trouble, so you'll just have to imagine it instead - be sure to make it peaceful as well as beautiful. Oh, and if you need sound, when I went to take the brown oak leaves out of the skimmer, the snow hitting the leaves all over the ground made a bright tinkling sound all around me. C'est magnifique!
The tarantula and the field mice were really leather-dry leaves blown across the light-tunneled road on my way home from Vespers.
Today is effectively the beginning of the Orthodox Christian Nativity fast. Officially it begins tomorrow, but we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays too so yesterday was our last day to eat meat.
Let every heart prepare Him room.
(for more information about the Nativity or the other 11 Great Feasts of the Church, see this page on oca.org.
Father Stephen pointed out that today is the Feast of St. Michael and All the Bodiless Powers of Heaven. He shared a prayer which reminds me of this one from Hansel and Gretel,
My attention span is so short, I can't keep focused on one idea for very long. Other paths tempt me to leave. Usually paths frought with thorny overgrowths. Seemingly unconquerable overgrowths that are more likely to entangle themselves around me than be cleared. But where I stand is in a clearing with an icon. Stop, stay, pray. Let all the worries loose to travel on their own down the myriad of alternatives. Don't seek after them. Let them go. Run away vain imaginations, trouble me no more. "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child." Psalm 131:2. Flee me, desperate search, learn to receive what is right at hand. Grace to become one with God. Don't stop at this acknowledgment. Seeing the treasure chest before you, do not close it, say, isn't that nice, and go on your way. Open it, it's full of love. Abide in His love. Abide, stay. Give yourself to the love so that you may receive it. God is Trinitarian fellowship, ask for mercy and grace to join in. To stay in without distraction. There, there is nourishment in stillness. Sit at his feet, wipe them with your tears and your hair. Choose the better part. His feet have holes in them. Holes that let things in - things like me. Holes that let light out. Holes that mean I love you. Holy feet that stomped Satan's head. Holy feet that guide me back to Eden. But what are fruit and flowers next to those feet? He stays here in the clearing inviting me to stay. But I'm not the only one. I do not understand how He is with everyone. How the Saints are with everyone. How I can see them when there are countless others. We kneel at His feet in our hearts, and He sees us all. Illumines us all in baptism and repentance. Turn back around to Him. Eat from His holy hands. Ask Him for living water so that you will never thirst. Receive his food from his hands food and drink that make us one. I do not understand this. But I'll eat because I believe it does make us one somehow. One with all the Saints, one with His mother, One with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That we may be one as they are one. That we will love the world as He does. Not to escape from it, but to intercede for it and offer it up to God for His blessing. Bless our world, bless our leaders, God bless us every one with your love, mercy and grace, that we may love one another. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care. Bless the homeless, the needy, the orphans, the sick, the suffering, the dying, the ones who have already died. Forgive their sins and grant them mercy. Guide our thoughts, direct our minds, teach us in the everlasting way, teach us to act firmly and wisely without embittering or embarassing others. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, amen. And God bless the nuns and monks at the Monasteries, and by their holy prayers save our souls. It is truly meet to bless thee oh Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure and the mother of our God, more honorable than the cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim, that without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, true Theotokos we magnify you. Theotokos, Virgin rejoice, Mary full of grace the Lord is with you, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb, for thou hast born the Savior of our souls. Grant freedom and deliverance to Orthodox Christians and preserve your Church unconquerable by the gates of hell forever. Enlarge and strengthen it, keep it and establish it that we may ever live to glorify thee. Thank you for the laughter of my children, it's the best thing in the world to me.
We never have to be silent in the face of "unacceptable" circumstances. We can and always should pray. God will answer, though perhaps in an unexpected way, in the physical universe. May our senses be illumined to notice it.
We prayed for rain, and here it is! Texas has been suffering from record heat and drought for the past several years, and this year God is sending us record rain and cool temperatures. I don't ever remember it raining this much (duh), especially this time of year. By now fields are usually turning brown, but this year all is green and the only brown is the seeds left over from beautifully nourished flowers. Can't wait to see them next year.
