For The New Day

Dear Son,

One person thought she was too busy for prayer in the morning until a friend told her that she time her three-minute egg each morning by twice repeating the Lord’s Prayer and the 23^rd Psalm. As we shower, have or dress, we can repeat some simple prayer or Bible verse we just read, or simply abide in the Presence, longing for an even greater presence.

Evagrios, one of the desert fathers, used to say to his disciples, “May the sun, on rising, find you with a Bible in your hand.” Dr. Paul Tournier, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist writes, “One day, almost a year ago, I realized I was doing myself harm because I had begun to read the newspaper before my morning meditation, the time when God was asking me to listen to Him before listening to the world. Correcting that was simple, but it was enough to brighten again the climate of my life.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened or oppressed with besetting concerns for the day’s work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of the night retreat before the clean light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before Him.”

Love,

Dad

Saint Stylianus - "Let the little children come to me ..."

Saint Stylianus was born in Pamphlagonia in Asia Minor some time between the 4th and 6th centuries. Like many of the early saints, Stylianus inherited a great fortune when his parents died. He could have lived out his life in luxury, never wanting for anything. Instead, he chose to give everything away so that he could “take up his cross” and follow the Lord. Stylianus left the city to live in a monastery, where he zealously practiced the ascetic virtues. When the other monks became jealous of his pious life, Stylianus left the community and went to live in a wilderness cave, constantly spending his days in prayer and fasting.
Word soon spread of the exemplary life that Stylianus was living. Many inhabitants of his home town of Pamphlagonia would conme to hear his teachings and seek his wise counsel. It is said that his healing prayers were powerful, and many people were cured of their illnesses through his prayers.

St. Stylianus was known to care strongly for children. It seemed that his healing prayers were most successful when sickly children were brought to him. When St. Stylianus died, his face shone radiantly, and an angel appeared to take his soul to heaven. Even after his death, many parents continued to pray to him to intercede on behalf of their little ones. When a child became ill, it was quite common for parents to have an icon of St. Stylianus painted and hung over the child’s bed.

St. Stylianus is remembered as a protector of children and a patron saint of childless women. This is the reason he is depicted holding a child.

St. John Chrysostom (the Golden-Tongued), Patriarch of Constantinople

He was born in Antioch in the year 347, his father’s name being Secundus and his mother’s Anthusa. Studying Greek philosophy, John became disgusted with Hellenic paganism and turned to the Christian faith as the one and all-embracing truth. John was baptised by Meletius , Patriarch of Antioch, and after that, his parents were also baptised. After their death, John became a monk and began to live in strict asceticism. He wrote a book: “On the Priesthood”, after which the holy Apostle John and Peter appeared to him, prophesying for him great service, great grace, and also great suffering. When the time came for him to be ordained priest, an angel of God appeared at the same time to Patriarch Flavian (Meletius’s successor) and to John himself. When the Patriarch ordained him, a shining white dove was seen above John’s head. Renowned for his wisdom, his asceticism and the power of his words, John was, at the desire of Emperor Arcadius, chosen as Patriarch of Constantinople. He governed the Church for six years as Patriarch with unequalled zeal and wisdom, sending missionaries to the pagan Celts and Scythians and purging the Church of simony, deposing many bishops who were given to this vice. He extended the Church’s charitable works, wrote a rite for the Holy Liturgy, put heretics to shame, denounced the Empress Eudoxia, interpreted the Scriptures with his golden mind and tongue and left to the Church many precious books of sermons. The people glorified him; the jealous loathed him; the Empress twice had him sent into exile. He spent three years in exile, and died on Holy Cross Day. September 14th, 407, in a place called Comana in Armenia. The holy Apostle John and Peter again appeared to him at the time of his death, and also the holy martyr Basilisius (May 22nd), in whose church he received Communion for the last time. “Glory to God for everything!” were his last words, and with them the soul of Chrysostom the Patriarch entered into Paradise. Of his relics, the head is preserved in the Church of the Dormition in Moscow, and the body in the Vatican in Rome.