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LIFE Sophronius PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM

(St. Dimitri of Rostov)

Saint Sophronios, which bears the name of chastity, was born in Damascus of pious parents, chaste, and good name, and Myra Plinthos. From childhood, he led a life consistent with his name, cherishing the spiritual wisdom and keeping his unblemished virginal purity. These two virtues, wisdom and spiritual purity virgin bear the name of chastity, or rather, as says St. John Climacus, chastity is the name of all virtues. And the chaste Sophronios was its zealous buyer.

He buckled to start with the philosophy of this world, and did so well that he received the title of sophist, that is to say, wise. In that time, this title was very honorable. Only the most eminent philosophers, as formerly Libanius the time of Saint Basil, were entitled to wear it.

It would then acquire spiritual wisdom. For this, he undertook a lengthy tour of monasteries and hermitages of the desert to forage that is useful to the soul among fathers pleasing to God.

Thus it came a day in the holy city of Jerusalem, then, not far from her, the monastery of St. Theodosius the Great. There, he met the monk John Moschos known, a good man and poured into the two philosophies, outdoor and spiritual. Sophronios clung to him as a son to his father, or rather as a disciple to his master, and served until his death. The two men frequented together monasteries and deserts. On the occasion of each visit, the Blessed John wrote in his book, the spiritual pre the exploits of the holy fathers. This magnificent work was cited by the following the Seventh Ecumenical Council. John often gives them the title of sophist Sophronios, and considers him her equal. Sometimes, he calls master or father, as he was for him a disciple, but a friend, companion and working, a man he considered superior to himself, and he predicted he would become a great pastor and a column unwavering Church of Christ.

Before being tonsured, Sophronios lived long enough in Palestine alongside Jean, both in the monastery of St. Theodosius the Great, in a monastery the Jordan Valley, founded by former St. Sabba, called the new monastery. Subsequently, under the threat of Persian invasion, the two friends went to Antioch the Great.

At that time indeed, the Persian king Chosroes the Younger went to war against the Greek territories. We must remember here that the Executioner Phocas had killed the Emperor Maurice and steal his throne. Now Maurice showed himself the benefactor of Chosroes, by collecting when he was expelled from his country, then using financial and imperial armies to restore his throne. It and a strong and lasting peace was established between Persia and the Greek Empire. Learning the death of his benefactor, Chosroes was so bitter that it broke the peace agreement, and undertook to avenge the Emperor Maurice. The Persian armies invaded soon many territories such as Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, and took it. Thus the holy fathers who led the ascetic life in these parts had to leave their monasteries and escape.

In these painful circumstances that John Sophronios and left the holy city, just before it was taken by the Persians. The latter took him for fourteen years in captivity Patriarch Zacharias and the precious Cross of the Lord, all Christians causing great sorrow and inconsolable regret.

In the region of Antioch, our holy fathers butinèrent from flower to flower, as diligent bees, honey and virtuous fathers, gathering for pre spiritual own stories to the building of the soul, sweeter even than honey. But since there also the Persian armies were approaching, they had to embark for Egypt. Once in Alexandria, they acted as usual, continuing to reap for future generations of Christian spiritual new crops, collected from the fathers that they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears.

At the time of his entry into Alexandria, Saint Sophronios was not tonsured, as evidenced by the sixty-ninth chapter of pre spiritual, in which John says: "We arrived, me and my brother Sophronios the Lord, who was not yet tonsured. We went to Abba Palladios, virtuous and Servant of God. " Further, the one hundred tenth chapter, he said: "I and my Lord Sophronios we went to Laura, who is eighty stadia from Alexandria, in a virtuous old, and we told him:

- Abba Lord, tell us a word! How should we live with each other, because the Lord wants Sophist renounce the world and become a monk?

- My children, for the salvation of your souls, ye do well to abandon what is in the world! Stay in your cell, keep in mind hesychia, pray without ceasing, and keep hope in God. It will give you intelligence, and enlighten your mind! "

But what an astonishing virtue in our Father Sophronios that still a layman, had taken upon himself the labor of traveling extensively in the desert monastery to seek what is good for the soul, and learn about the way of salvation! Even before being tonsured monk, he was already an accomplished all the virtues!

Sophronios was tonsured by his master after a deadly disease he thought, during which he had a vision that tells John in chapter one hundred and two: "My brother, the wise Sophronios, died. As I stood beside him with Abba John the Scholastic, it said

- I saw before me blank form a choir and rejoice, saying: Sophronios is welcome! Sophronios is crowned!

virgins rejoiced about it, seeing that he bore the name of chastity "

Once cured and tonsured, Sophronios redoubled ardor for his salvation and that of others. As the heresy of Severus woke in Egypt, he opposed strongly to the false doctrine with his master, using his deep knowledge of Holy Scripture to the controversy and the victory over the heretics. For this reason, the two saints were very dear to the hearts of His Holiness John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, who honored them as true friends and consoled them in their difficulties.

St. John the Merciful was the devout used to sit every Wednesday and Friday at the doors of a church to listen to everyone's needs, allay disputes and disagreements, and restore peace between men . If by chance nobody came to find these days, the patriarch came home in tears and said: "Today, the humble John has gained nothing, he did not bring anything to God for his sins! Then the Blessed Sophronios his friend consoled him: "In truth, today you should rejoice, Father, for thy sheep live in peace, without arguing or disagreement, as the angels of God! We see how much love existed between Sophronios, his master, and the patriarch ...

The two monks were every day in search of a new teaching that could make their profit. St. John quotes this anecdote: "I and my Lord, the Wise Sophronios, we went to the philosopher Stephen, who lives near the road leading to the church of the Most Holy Mother of God, built long ago by the blessed Patriarch Euloge to the east of the great Tétraphyle. It was noon when we arrived at the house of the philosopher. We knocked on the door and the doorman says:

- My master sits still, wait a minute!

So I say to my master Sophronios:

- Come to the Tétraphyle and stay there!

This place was very honored residents of Alexandria. They said that the great Alexander of Macedonia had brought the relics of the Prophet Jeremiah and was filed in this place when he founded the city. When we arrived, we found one but three blind. We sat silently beside them with our books. These blind talked a lot:

- Friend, how did you become blind?

- I was captain of my ship youth. By dint watch the sea while returning from Africa, a cataract was formed and I lost sight ...

- I was glass. One day I worked without protection and get burned because of the violence of fire, and I lost sight.

- And me, when I was young, I hated the job, and I loved living in idleness. I like voluptuous and I had nothing to feed myself, I started to fly and do much harm. One day I saw a dead man who wore fine clothes: he was taken to the grave. I followed the porters to see where we were going to bury him. The dead man was buried near the church of St. John. At night, I opened the tomb, I entered and I undressed the corpse, leaving him only his tunic. Leaving the tomb, my bad thoughts take me back as the tunic, which was very beautiful. Wretch that I am, I let the dead completely naked! But now that the dead rose, sat down in front of me, held out his arms, and tore his eyes with his fingers ... You can imagine how much difficulty I got out of the grave!

Having heard this, my Lord Sophronios beckoned me and we left. Then he said:

- In truth, Abba John, there is no other thing to learn today, except that he who does evil can hide from God ! "

Thus the two great saints had worries of their daily profit ...

In Alexandria, Sophronios wrote the story of the miracles of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John. It must be said that his eyes fell ill, he went to the relics of saints to pray with faith Anargyri, and obtained healing in their church. Subsequently, he thanked greatly and always had great zeal for them.

After some time, the Persians also threatened Egypt. John and Sophronios again forced to flee, undertook to do in the company of Patriarch John. So they embarked on a ship. The patriarch, who was ill and died during the journey in his hometown of Amathus in Cyprus. Sophronios the Wise wrote his eulogy, praising his high living and his charities.

After the funeral of the patriarch, John and Sophronios left for ancient Rome, with twelve brothers who had joined them. There they lived for many years, and John, who was already advanced in years, went to the Lord. Before dying, he recommended to his beloved disciple and spiritual son not to bury him in Rome, but to drive to Mount Sinai in a wooden coffin. If the barbarians were making the trip impossible, Saint Sophronios mission was to lead the body of his father in Palestine for burial in the monastery of St. Theodosius, where he became a monk. So it was: Saint Sophronios imitated the chaste Joseph of the Old Testament, who had driven home his father Jacob's body. He took the body John and went to the Greek lands with the brothers. Reached Ashkelon, he heard that it was impossible to travel to Sinai because of the barbarians, as he took the road to Jerusalem, then the power of the Persians. He buried the body of his father in the monastery of St. Theodosius the Great, and settled in the holy city with its community.

the patriarchal throne was occupied by the Patriarch Modeste, who replaced the Patriarch Zacharias, a prisoner of the Persians, with Holy Cross. Shortly after the arrival of Sophronios in Jerusalem, God was willing to return the Patriarch Zacharias and the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

General Phocas Heraclius had killed the Torturer. Having seized the empire, he had gone to war against the Persians. Having defeated many armies of Chosroes, he occupied the Persian cities for seven years. It happened then that Siro, son of Chosroes, murdered his father and took power in Persia. Siro immediately sought reconciliation with the Emperor Heraclius. In the peace agreements that followed, the Emperor Heraclius asked in the first place we should render Jerusalem to the Greeks, and with it the Holy Cross and the Patriarch Zacharias. And so was done.

After an exile of fourteen years, Holy Cross came to Jerusalem, carried in triumph on the shoulders of the emperor himself. His Holiness the Patriarch Zacharias regained his throne. A few years later, Holy Cross was taken to Constantinople, so that as precious treasure was not stolen again Christians. As discussed below, the holy city soon to fall into the hands of barbarians.

After some time, the Patriarch Zacharias emigrated to the Lord. St. Modeste was once his successor, but for two years only. After the death of St. Modeste, Saint Sophronios was elected patriarch.

At this time there appeared Monothelite heresy. The Monothelites, confessed that though the two natures, divine and human in the person of Christ, saw in him only a single will and power, thereby denying that the Lord was perfect in His two natures. This heresy is described fully in the life of St. Maximus the Confessor. It began with the Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria, who called a local council and ordered everyone to believe so. Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople did the same, and after him the patriarch Pyrrhus, and others, who persecuted anyone who did not adhere to this lie.

Sophronios His Holiness, Patriarch of Jerusalem, many resisted this false doctrine. He summoned a council at his local, who cursed heresy Monothelite. Then he sent all the acts of the council, which were then read to the Sixth Ecumenical Council, approved by the Holy Fathers, and accepted as dogma of the Holy Orthodox Faith.

Saint Sophronios still composed many homilies, hymns, lessons useful to the Church, and also the lives of saints, like St. Mary of Egypt, who had led a life in the desert surpassing nature, similar to that of angels. He led the way that the Church of God, shut the mouths of heretics, and drove away from his flock.

But now, with God's permission, a new barbarian invasion fell on Syria and Palestine. It was more this time of the Persians, but the Mohammedans. The latter took possession of Damascus, and then they laid siege to Jerusalem, the city of God (This happened after that, Syria, the Greek army had been defeated and killed his general Serge). Faced with the threat, His Holiness Patriarch Sophronios locked himself in the holy city with Christians.

were kept the homily he delivered on the day of the Nativity of Christ for the besieged, in which, as a new Jeremiah, he mourns the destruction of holy sites allowed by God for men's sins and regrets not being able to celebrate the feast of the Nativity in Bethlehem as usual. The places were indeed in the hands of Agarénéens.

At the end of the second year of siege, besieged Christians were forced to surrender and to open the gates of the city. The Holy Patriarch Sophronios sent a peace proposal to Prince agarénéen Omar, who acted as first point that no violence was used against the Christian faith and the Holy Church of God. Prince Omar totally committing to this agreement, it did open the gates of the city.

But Omar was hypocritical and evil. He pretended gentleness and humility of the lamb, he who, in Inside, was a ravenous wolf. Dressed in ragged camel's hair, he entered the city and immediately asked where was the temple of Solomon, where he intended to do his prayers sacrilegious. Sophronios His Holiness, who had come to meet him, saw his outfit hypocrite and said: "This is the abomination of desolation in the holy place, as announced by the prophet Samuel! He wept with all Christians, then he urged the prince to leave his rags for clothes worthy of his rank. Thus, Jerusalem, the city of God, was taken by the Agarénéens.

But Christians were not slow to support heavy loads, because the wicked prince did not honor the peace agreements concluded with His Holiness Patriarch Sophronios, and began to mistreat them. Saint Sophronios wept much and prayed to God to rescue his soul to the land of the living, so you do not see the evils of Christians, and the abomination of desolation that defiled the holy places. Soon, of course, he ended his life with sadness and passed from this earthly Jerusalem full of joyful tears to the heavenly Jerusalem, where lie was glad all those with Christ Jesus our Lord, who gets the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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IMAGE AND THE SIMILARITY OF GOD IN HUMAN

(Test ascetic bishop of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

"Let us make man in Our image, after our likeness! Such is the mysterious council that the Holy Trinity, our God, held in and with She even before the creation of man. Thus, man is the image and likeness of God! So God, in His greatness is inaccessible and beyond any image, Was represented in man, clearly, and with glory. The sun does is he not in a humble straw?

Human nature is to image of the divine nature. What distinguishes man from animals, making it equal to the angels, it is his spirit. The properties of the human spirit when it is still in its state of purity and innocence, are likeness with God. Yet God, His right omnipotent in man traced the resemblance is beyond any likeness and any comparison!

What then is man? A perfect, filled with dignity and beauty. The Almighty has created for her the natural world that He fully intended to serve, providing a wonderful environment for him. When he pulled from nothingness to existence of all other creatures, He just order all-powerful, but when he tried to complete the great work of creating the world by creating la plus fine et de la plus accomplie de toutes les créatures, Il a précédé cet acte d’un conseil ...

L’imposante matière créée avant l’homme, avec son infinie diversité, n’est rien d’autre (nous osons l’affirmer car c’est la vérité) qu’une création préliminaire. Un roi terrestre a soucis de préparer une salle magnifique pour y exposer son portrait. De la même façon le Roi des rois, le Dieu des dieux, a préparé la nature visible et toute sa beauté, étonnante de magnificence et que tous peuvent admirer, pour y placer Son image, cause ultime de tout what had preceded it. Moreover, after creating the world, God looked at what He had created and saw that it was good (Gen 1, 25); But after the creation of man, looking back what 'He created, He found his fine creature, complete, perfect, saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen 1, 31).

Man, therefore understand your dignity! Look at the meadows and fields, wide rivers, oceans vast, high mountains, beautiful trees, all the beasts of the earth, and those who travel under water, watching the stars, moon, sun and sky: this is for you, at your service! Sucroît and outside the world we see, there is still a world invisible to the body, incomparably greater than the visible world and this invisible world is created for man!

As God has honored His image! ... And what a noble destiny It has therefore provided for her? The visible world is but an antechamber remains incomparably larger and more beautiful. The image of God present in this hall to be coated colors definitive look for as possible to his all-holy and perfect Original: while it may, by the beauty and delicacy of this resemblance , enter the palace where the original stands ineffably, indescribably limiting His immensity Getting access to His rational creatures and beloved.

The image of the triune God is the triune man. Found in the soul of the latter three powers, which manifest the soul.

Our thoughts and spiritual perceptions show clearly the existence of reason or intellect, which is completely invisible and inconceivable. It should be noted that in the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, the word spirit means sometimes the soul in general, and sometimes one of the powers of the soul, intellect or power of the verb. But in general, the Fathers ascribe to the soul those three special powers: the intellect (or reason), thought (or word, or verb), and the spirit . [This vocabulary will be adopted below. Translator's note] The intellect is the source and origin of thought, as the spiritual perception. The mind is the ability to perceive spiritually. (For some authors the word spirit can replace the word intellect is also employed to designate the spirits created)

By nature, our soul is the image of God. And even after the fall into sin, the soul remains in the image of God! And even thrown into the flames of hell, the sinful soul rest in God's image! Thus teach the Fathers. The Holy Church sings in its sacred hymns: "I am the image of Your ineffable glory, though I bear the marks of sin. "

Our intellect is like the Father, our thoughts (we usually call thinking every word that was not made) to the image of the Son, our spirit to image of the Holy Spirit. In the same way as in the Trinity, the Three Persons up without merging or dividing a single Divine Being in human trinity, these three "persons" make up a single person, without confusion or be divided into three beings.

Our intellect engenders and gives birth to constantly thought. Once born, the thought continues to be born again, and at the same time it is already born, hidden in the intellect. The intellect can not exist without thought, without thinking and the intellect. The beginning of one is necessarily the beginning of another. The existence of one is necessarily the existence of the other.

Similarly, the spirit proceeds from the intellect and contributes to thought. Every thought has a spirit, like a book has its own spirit. A thought can not exist without its spirit, the existence of the former is necessarily accompanied by the existence of the second. The existence of one and the other showing the existence of the intellect.

What the spirit of man? Is the union sentiments of the heart, which belong to the rational and immortal soul, and which do not exist in the souls of animals.

The heart of man differs from the hearts of animals with his mind. The animal perceptions that come from the blood and nerves, but it has no spiritual perception. This trait of the divine image is the exclusive prerogative of man. The power of man is in his mind.

our intellect, our mind and our mind, by the simultaneity of their origins and their mutual relations, are the image of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Three Persons co-eternal, without beginning, equal in honor, and even nature. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father , announces the Son, I am in the Father and the Father in Me (Jn.14 0.9 to 10). We can talk in similar terms of the human intellect and thought. The mind, invisible itself, manifests itself in thought and one who has seen the thought, took note of the intellect that produced this thought.

The Lord has called the Holy Spirit top Power, Spirit of Truth (Luke 14.49 & Jn.14, 17). Truth is the Son. The spirit of man has also the properties of this power: it is the spirit of human thought, was true or false. This spirit appears in each movement's secret heart, in thinking, in every act of man. The spirit of man manifests his intellect. He also has, through every act, thought the man who guided in its action.

The merciful Lord has adorned every man in His image and after His likeness. Exist in the image of God is nature of the soul. But the similarity lies in the properties of the soul.

By nature, the Creator is eternal, wise, good, pure, incorruptible, holy passion unrelated to any and all sin, every thought and perception of sin. The man, meanwhile, was created so, the image of God.

A clever sketch artist first shapes and facial features he portrays. Then he gives the face and clothing colors of the original, and thus completes the resemblance. Having created man in His image, God has adorned the resemblance: the image has been with in everything of resemblance to God. Had this not been the case, the result would have been incomplete and unworthy of God, and God had missed his target.

But alas, three times alas! The heavens weep, and thou sun, and you, the stars, the earth and all creatures on earth and heavenly! Weep, all nature! Holy angels also cry! Sob bitterly, and be inconsolable! Put on the clothes of mourning! The unfortunate thing is done, the only misfortune which deserves to be called misfortune image God has fallen! Honored by God's free will and seduced by the fallen angel, the man contacted the dark thoughts of spirits and the father of lies and evil. This communication was manifested by an act: the break with the divine. And Ecclesiastes says that exactly what is crooked can not be straightened, which is wanting can not be counted (Ecc.1, 15).

Disruption of the image and likeness can be easily observed in all of us. The beauty of the likeness, which consisted of the association of all virtues, was defiled by passions dark and smelly. The features of the image are deprived of their regular first: their mutual agreement . Thinking and fighting spirit, they cease to obey the mind, rise up against him. Itself remains a constant perplexity, in a terrible darkness that hides God in him, and the path that leads to God, the holy and infallible way.

This disruption of the image and likeness is accompanied by a terrible pain. Just the man to concentrate long enough on himself in solitude to convince himself that this suffering is permanent, though it subsides or wakes, as distraction is choking or not.

O man! Your and your entertainment pleasure betray the suffering festering in you! You try to drown it in the cup of noisy laughter and endless fun. Wretch! Once you find a moment of awareness, you are again defeated by this suffering that you strive to destroy. But know that distraction nourishes and strengthens. After resting in the shade of a lack of vigilance, suffering awakens with increased strength, as a witness who lives man, witnessed his fall.

The human body is also marked with the seal of the fall. From birth, he understands the animosity. He fights against all that surrounds it and against the very soul that lives within him. All elements attack. At the end of life, exhausted by the fighting inside and outside, hit by the disease, and oppressed with age, it falls under the scythe of death and goes to dust, although it was created immortal.

But again manifests the greatness of man image of God! It manifests itself, even in the fall, through the instrument which subtracts this fall: God took upon Himself His image , on One of His Divine Persons! God became incarnate in His image to extract the fall, restore its former glory, and more , raise to glory incomparably higher than that prevailing at the creation!

The Lord is just in His mercy. Ensuring Redemption, He honored His image that He more had done at its inception because the man had not himself engineered his downfall: it is the fallen angel who had attracted envy, and deceived by evil hidden beneath the Mask of the property.

Each Person of the Holy Trinity has participated in the great work of the Incarnation, according to their properties. Whoever remains the Father begets, the Son is born, the Holy Spirit acts. Let's look again at how the man is the exact image of God. It is the Son who is humanity. For Him , Holy Trinity enter into communion with man. Similarly, our thinking is the sound of words, and while it is immaterial, joins the field; by it, men enter into communion with our intellect and our minds.

The Son and Word of God became incarnate. So our thought was amended, purified by the Truth. Our mind is now able to commune with the Holy Spirit. That spirit, that eternal death had killed, was quickened by the Holy Spirit, and our intellect has had access to knowledge and vision of the Father.

The man is healed by the triune God-Trinity. Word is cured by the thought, which is transferred from the world of lies and deception to that of the Truth. By the Holy Spirit is lively mind, which is transferred from the perceptions of the carnal heart towards the spiritual perceptions. Father appears to the intellect and the mind becomes the mind of God: we thought of Christ (1Cor.2, 16) says the Apostle.

Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, man dead in spirit, asking : Lord, show us the Father! (Jn.14, 8) After receiving the Holy Spirit and sonship, man, animated by a new spirit, turned to God and his salvation, speaks to the Father through the action the Holy Spirit as someone known, and He said: Abba, Father! (Rom.8, 15)

fallen image is restored in the Holy Baptism. The man, by water and the Spirit, born to eternal life. From Baptism of the Spirit, who had moved away from the man at the fall, began to assist him in his earthly life. Through repentance, He heals the wounds that sin has opened after his baptism, and thus makes available the hello to the last breath.

The beauty of the likeness is restored by the Spirit, it is developed and perfected by the completion of the evangelical commandments. The model and the fullness of that beauty is none other than the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. "Be imitators of me as I myself am of Christ" (1Cor.2, 1), says the Apostle. With these words, he calls the faithful to restore and develop in themselves the likeness. It indicates what is to man the newly recreated and renewed by the Redemption, the Holy Model of perfection: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ! (Rom.13, 14)

The Holy Trinity, our God, for the redemption of man, His image, we offer such a possibility of success in the development of the likeness, that similarity extends to become union with Original union of the poor creature with his Creator totally perfect.

As the image of God is admirable and wonderful! God shines through it and act! The shadow of the Apostle Peter healed! One who died as he had lied when he lied to God Himself! The clothes themselves were doing the Apostle Paul signs! The bones of the prophet Elisha revived a dead man whose body had touched the remains of pneumatophores, which lay long in the dust of the tomb, and this simply by inadvertently gravediggers!

The ultimate similarity, the union with God, and obtained is confirmed by observing the commandments of the Gospel. "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch can not itself bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, so neither should you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit "(0.4 to 5 Jn.15)

blessed union is granted when, with a consciousness purified by the removal from sin and the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ, the Christian holy communion at the holy body and blood of Christ, and therefore to His divinity, united with them. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him" (Jn.6, 56).

reasonable picture of God! Examines how glory and honor what you are called and destined by God! The inconceivable wisdom of the Creator allowed you to have your way with yourself: is it possible that you do not want to remain the dignified image of God, that thou wouldst weaken and destroy the resemblance, you are looking to resemble the devil and go down to the dignity of animals?

God has not dumped his property in vain, he has not completed the wonderful creation of the world wrongly, it does not unnecessarily honored the creation of his image by a board prior, he has not bought unconsciously cette image after its collapse in offering Himself! It will demand an account of it, He will judge how his benefits were used, how His Incarnation was appreciated, and with it the blood shed for our redemption.

Woe to the creatures who have despised the blessings of God, their Creator and Redeemer! Everlasting fire, unquenchable, bottomless furnace, lit a long time and prepared for the devil and his angels, waiting for the images deteriorated, become redundant. There, they will burn forever without being consumed.

Brothers! As we travel on earth, as we are in this visible world, the antechamber of eternity, let us strive to correct the features of the image engraved on our souls by God! Give to the nuances and colors of the resemblance beauty, vivacity, and freshness! And God, in the terrible ordeal, make us worthy to enter His palace eternal in His eternal day in celebration and triumph forever!

Take courage, men of little faith! Make an effort, lazy! This man like us by the passions, which in its blindness once persecuted the Church, which was initially the enemy and the enemy of God, did so much to recover in his image after his conversion, so perfected the resemblance he could tell about itself: "This is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me! (Gal.2, 20)

Let no one doubt the veracity that voice! That voice was so full of the Holy Truth, the Holy Spirit so cooperating with her, that he heard the dead resurrected, the demons left the men they were killing and silenced their prophecies, the enemies of Light lost the light of their eyes, rejected pagan idols, recognized Christ as true God and worship!

Amen.

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