December 17translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.
Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY PROPHET DANIEL AND THE THREE YOUTHS: ANANIAS, AZARIAS AND MISAEL
All four were from the royal tribe of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar (or Nebuchadrezzar) destroyed and plundered Jerusalem, then Daniel also, as a boy, was taken into captivity together with the king of Judea, Jehoiakim, and a multitude of other Israelites. A description of his life, sufferings and prophecies can be found exhaustively in his book. All devoted to God, Saint Daniel from early youth received from God the gift of great clairvoyance. His fame among the Jews in Babylon began when he exposed two lustful and unjust elders, judges of Judea, and saved the chaste Susanna from unjust death. And his fame among the Babylonians began from that day when he guessed and interpreted the dream of Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. For this the emperor made him a prince at his court. When the emperor made a golden idol in the plain of Dura, the three youths would not bow down to the idol, for which they were cast into the fiery furnace. But God's angel appeared in the furnace and cooled the fire, so that the youths walked about in the furnace, unharmed by the fire, and sang: Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of our fathers. And the emperor saw that miracle and was horrified. And the emperor led the youths out of the furnace and showered them with great honors. In the time of Emperor Belshazzar, when the emperor once at a feast was eating and drinking with his guests from consecrated vessels taken from the temple of Jerusalem, an invisible hand wrote on the wall three words: mene, tekel, peres. These words no one could interpret except Daniel. That night Emperor Belshazzar was killed. Twice Daniel was cast into the lions' den because of his faith in the one Living God. And both times the Lord saved him and he remained alive. Daniel saw God on His throne with the angelic powers, saw angels, penetrated into the future of individual men, of kingdoms and of the entire human race, foretold the time of the Savior's coming to earth. According to Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Daniel and the three youths lived to deep old age in Babylon and were beheaded with a sword because of the true Faith. When Ananias was beheaded, Azarias spread out his garment and caught his head; then Misael caught Azarias's head, and Daniel Misael's. God's angel transferred their bodies to Judea to Mount Gebal and laid them under a stone. According to tradition, these four God-pleasers arose at the time of the death of the Lord Christ and appeared to many, then fell asleep again. Daniel is counted among the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel). He lived and prophesied half a thousand years before Christ.
2. VENERABLE DANIEL (DONALE)
Daniel was a magnate and governor of the island of Niverte, near Cadiz in Spain. Having learned all the vanity of this world, Daniel abandoned both glory and wealth and came to Rome, where he became a monk. Then Daniel went to Constantinople, where he conversed with the emperors Constantine and Romanus Porphyrogenitus, and then Daniel set out for Jerusalem. In Jerusalem Daniel received the great schema from Patriarch Christodulus, who gave him the name Stephen. Tormented by the Saracens, who forced him to shave his beard, Daniel withdrew to Egypt, where for the name of Jesus Daniel endured many torments and death. Daniel passed into the Kingdom of Christ at the end of the tenth century.
3. VENERABLE NEW MARTYRS: PAISIOS AND AVAKUM
Paisios was abbot of the monastery of Trnava near Čačak, and Avakum was his brother monk and deacon. Both as Christians were impaled by the Turks on a stake in Belgrade at Kalemegdan on December 17, 1814. Carrying his stake through the streets of Belgrade, the brave Avakum sang. When his mother with weeping entreated him to become a Turk, that he might save his life, this wondrous warrior of Christ answered her: My mother, for thy milk I thank thee / But not for thy counsel do I thank thee: / The Serb is Christ's, he rejoices in death...
Hymn of Praise
My mother, for thy milk I thank thee But not for thy counsel do I thank thee: The Serb is Christ's, he rejoices in death. He who fears the true God Fears neither men nor demons. Faithful servants the Lord rewards And from every evil He protects. Holy Daniel among the lions Remained unharmed by the beasts: The three youths in the fiery furnace Were alive, remained alive, In the midst of the fire glorified God With the angel, God's messenger. Like Noah in the wicked world, Like holy Lot in mad Sodom, And like Joseph in rotten Egypt, So Daniel in the midst of Babylon Remained faithful and remained righteous With his three young friends: With Ananias and with Azarias And with the young faithful Misael. Torments there were, the torments passed, The tormented were gloriously glorified In the immortal Kingdom of Christ.
Reflection
By fasting bodily purity is obtained in the first place, and through bodily purity spiritual purity also. Abstinence in food, according to the words of the son of grace, Saint Ephraim the Syrian, means not to desire and not to seek many dishes, sweet and expensive; not to eat anything outside the appointed time; not to give oneself over to the spirit of gluttony; not to inflame hunger in oneself by looking at fine dishes; and not to desire now one, now another dish. It is a great delusion that abstinence in food and fasting diet harm bodily health. It is a well-known fact that ascetics lived the longest and were sick the least. An example of this is also given to us by the holy Prophet Daniel with the three youths in Babylon. When the emperor commanded his eunuch to feed these young men with dishes from the imperial table and to give them fine wine to drink, Daniel said to the eunuch that they did not wish to take the imperial food and drink, but only vegetable food. (For Daniel did not want to eat dishes sprinkled with blood from idolatrous sacrifices.) And the eunuch was afraid that the young men would weaken from the fasting diet, and expressed his fear to Daniel. Then the prophet proposed to him that he make a trial and be convinced that the fasting diet would not weaken them; namely, that he feed the other young men at the imperial court with dishes from the imperial table, and the four of them feed only with vegetable seeds for ten days, and then let him make a comparison. The eunuch obeyed Daniel and did according to his proposal. After ten days the faces of the four young ascetics were brighter and their bodies stronger than those of the Babylonian young men who ate and drank from the imperial table.
Contemplation
Contemplate Abraham's hospitality and mercy (Gen. 18), namely:
1. How Abraham saw three men (angels) going by, and ran out to meet them, turned them aside to himself and hosted them; 2. How he entreated God to spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous who might be in that city.
Homily
on Joshua
Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left... Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest (Josh. 1:7, 9)
Joshua in all things to the end obeyed the Lord, not turning to the right or to the left from the Lord's commandments. By great terrors and horrors he was surrounded, leading the people through an unknown land and through dense ranks of enemies, but he was neither afraid nor dismayed. He considered himself God's instrument, and his wars God's wars. As a faithful soldier obeys the commands of his general, so he listened for and obeyed the will of the Living God. To himself he ascribed no good, no power, no merit, but all to God, and to God alone. In his army and in his weapons and in his wisdom he trusted not in the least, but in God, and in God alone, the all-powerful and all-wise. See, brethren, with what kind of people God walks. O if Christian rulers and generals would see this and learn from Joshua the servant of God how to serve God! O if they all would once understand that the people are best served when God is served, and that one cannot serve the people without serving God! The Lord God fulfilled His promise and was with Joshua to the end of his work and his life. And that the Lord was with him is shown by the great and terrible wonders which the Lord manifested through this faithful servant of His. God divided the Jordan, so the people crossed on dry land without a bridge; God caused the walls of Jericho to fall at the sound of the trumpet; God opened Joshua's eyes to see the great Archangel with a sword in his hand; God delivered mighty enemies into the hands of the Israelites; God stopped the sun over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. Truly, never and nowhere did God leave His servant Joshua, for Joshua left not one commandment of God unfulfilled. A witness of the Living God, and a prototype of the saints, when he was old and advanced in years, he taught his people as God had taught him in the beginning: turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left... but cleave unto the Lord your God (ch. 23).
O Lord Jesus, Son of God, who didst show wondrous miracles through Joshua, Thy faithful servant, strengthen us and encourage us, that we turn not aside from Thee either to the right or to the left, for the sake of Thy glory and our salvation. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.