Ancient icon frescos

He Always Hears Us!

This is my favourite icon of Our Lord Jesus Christ! It’s from the ancient St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai and dated mid 6th century. The medium of Encaustic/Wax was used, and it’s the earliest remaining Byzantine-style icon of Christ the Pantocrator… which means Christ: the All Powerful, the Lord of Hosts, God Almighty, and Ruler of All.

God loves us more than a father, mother, friend, or any else could love, and even more than we are able to love ourselves. ~ St. John Chrysostom

Prayer unites one with God, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest. Prayer is forgetting earthly things, and ascent to heaven. Through Prayer we flee to God. ~ St. Nektarios of Aegina

Do not think that you have a right to complain when your prayers are not answered. God fulfills your desires in a manner that you do not know. ~ St. Nektarios of Aegina

If God is slow in answering your request, or if you ask but do not promptly receive anything, do not be upset, for you are not wiser than God. ~ St. Isaac of Syria

Do you know what a great gift it is that God gave us the right to speak to Him every hour and moment, wherever we are? He always listens to us. This is the greatest honour we have. For this reason we must love God. ~ St. Porphyrios

Great-Martyr Barbara

December 17/4

Happy Feast and many years to all celebrating St. Barbara and St. Juliana today!

St. Barbara Icon seen above, in Hosios Loukas Monastery Church, Distomo, Greece – 2004. Reflections of the church’s ceiling arches above, are visible on the icon.

11th Century St. Barbara’s Church, Carved in Rock – Cappadocia, 2004

Great-Martyr Barbara and St. Juliana on Wall Fresco, Interior of 11th Century Church, Cappadocia – 2004

**Interior of 11th Century St. Barbara’s Church, Cappadocia – 2004**

Great-Martyr Barbara Troparion, Tone 8

Let us honour the holy Barbara; for the most honoured one broke the snares of the enemy// and was delivered from them like a bird, with the help and aid of the Cross.

St. Barbara is called upon for protection against sudden death, lightening, fire, and to aid soldiers, and firefighters.

St. Barbara was born in the Greek city of Heliopolis in Syria, now called Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon. St. Barbara’s feast day is known as Eid il-Burbara to Christians in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and there is a special St. Barbara’s Day dessert made to celebrate. Although the dish is traditionally prepared from boiled wheat hulls, rose water, cinnamon, anise and nuts, I like to use Cream of Wheat. This aromatic sweet recalls the tradition that freshly planted wheat fields miraculously sprung up behind St. Barbara covering her initial escape path to the mountains.

Here is my own festal and vegan (fasting-friendly) recipe for St. Barbara’s Day Dessert.

Holy Great-Martyr Barbara and St. Juliana, pray to God for us!

Garment of the Soul

Altar mosaic, St. Sophia Orthodox Church Canada – from 6th century church detail; St. Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

Early Christianity frescoes and mosaics show the peacock… a bird of Paradise… a symbol of immortality. Sometimes it stands beside the Tree of Life. The eyes on the peacock’s tail feathers symbolise our all-seeing God. A peacock drinking from a vase signifies a Christian drinking the waters of eternal life. The peacock also represents the cosmos with its tail of many eyes as the vault of heaven, dotted by the sun, moon, and stars. Joyfully associated with the Resurrection of Christ, the peacock sheds its old feathers and grows newer and brighter ones each year.

What is dying? It is as if putting off a garment. For the body is about the soul as a garment; and after laying this aside for a short time by means of death, we shall resume it again with more splendour. ~ St. John Chrysostom

We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. Christian! So does our life. I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom! ~ St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

The agony of dying is the effort made by the soul to free herself and run towards the Lord. ~ Gerontissa Gavrielia

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect. ~ Wisdom of Solomon 3: 1-9

Let Him Write

Interior archway with ancient frescoes St. Demetrios Church Thessaloniki, Greece – 2006

Let God intervene between you and your purpose, instead of letting your purpose intervene between God and you… Every morning, open a new page, and put your signature on the blank. Whatever God wills, let Him write. ~ Gerontissa Gavrielia

How Beautiful are the Feet

Ruins of St. Nicholas Church, Mystras Greece – 2017

My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped. ~ Psalm 17:5

He maketh my feet like a deer, and setteth me upon my high places. ~ Psalm 18:33

My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord. ~ Psalm 26:12

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. ~ Psalm 40:2

For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? ~ Psalm 56:13

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ~ Psalm 119:105

Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. ~ Proverbs 4:26

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! ~ Isaiah 52:7

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ~ Romans 10:15

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ~ Ephesians 6:15

And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. ~ Hebrews 12:13