غلاطیان ۴.۲۸-۵.۱۰ (رساله)

۲۸امّا شما ای برادران، همچون اسحاق فرزندان وعده‌اید. ۲۹در آن زمان، پسری که به شیوۀ معمولِ بشری زاده شد، او را که به مدد روح به دنیا آمد آزار می‌داد. امروز نیز چنین است. ۳۰امّا کتاب چه می‌گوید؟ «کنیز و پسرش را بیرون کن، زیرا پسر کنیز هرگز با پسر زن آزاد میراث نخواهد برد.» ۳۱پس ای برادران، ما فرزندان کنیز نیستیم، بلکه از زن آزادیم. ۱مسیح ما را آزاد کرد تا آزاد باشیم. پس استوار بایستید و خود را بار دیگر گرفتار یوغ بندگی مسازید. ۲این را آویزۀ گوش کنید! من، پولس، به شما می‌گویم که اگر ختنه شوید، مسیح برایتان هیچ سودی نخواهد داشت. ۳یک بار دیگر به هر کسی که ختنه شود اعلام می‌کنم که موظّف به نگاه داشتن تمام شریعت خواهد بود. ۴شما که می‌کوشید با اجرای شریعت پارسا شمرده شوید، از مسیح بیگانه شده و از فیض به دور افتاده‌اید. ۵زیرا در روح و از راه ایمان است که ما مشتاقانه انتظار آن پارسایی را می‌کشیم که در امیدش به سر می‌بریم. ۶زیرا در مسیحْ عیسی نه ختنه اهمیّتی دارد نه ختنه‌ناشدگی، بلکه مهم ایمانی است که از راه محبت عمل می‌کند. ۷خوب می‌دویدید. چه کسی سدّ راهتان شد تا حقیقت را پیروی نکنید؟ ۸این‌گونه انگیزش، از او که شما را فرا می‌خوانَد، نیست. ۹«اندکی خمیرمایه، موجب وَر آمدن تمام خمیر می‌شود.» ۱۰در خداوند یقین دارم که عقیدۀ دیگری نخواهید داشت. امّا آن که شما را مشوش می‌سازد، هر که باشد، به سزای عملش خواهد رسید.

لوقا ۳.۱۹-۲۲ (انجیل)

۱۹امّا چون هیرودیسِ حاکم، دربارۀ هیرودیا، همسر برادرش، و نیز شرارتهای دیگری که کرده بود، از یحیی توبیخ شد، ۲۰او را به زندان افکند و بدین‌گونه خطایی دیگر بر خطاهای خود افزود. ۲۱هنگامی که مردم همه تعمید می‌گرفتند و عیسی نیز تعمید گرفته بود و دعا می‌کرد، آسمان گشوده شد ۲۲و روح‌القدس به شکل جسمانی، همچون کبوتری بر او فرود آمد، و ندایی از آسمان در رسید که «تو پسر محبوب من هستی، و من از تو خشنودم.»

کشیش‌شهید فوکاس، اسقف سینوپ (۱۰۲)

He was a zealous, wise and wonder-working bishop in his birthplace, Sinope, which lies on the southern shore of the Black Sea. For bringing many idolators to faith in Christ, he was hated by the pagans. He was arrested by the governor Africanus, subjected to various tortures,and finally scalded to death in a bath-house. He contested for the Faith during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.

قابل احترام کوزما, بیابان‌نشین زوگرافو, کوه آتوس (۱۳۲۳)

“Saint Cosmas came from Bulgaria where his devout parents provided him with a good education in Slavonic and Greek. They wanted him to marry but he was drawn by the love of Christ and, unknown to them, made his way to the Holy Mountain of Athos to become a monk at the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou. On the feast of the Annunciation at the Monastery of Vatopedi, he saw a woman among those serving in the Church and in the refectory, and he was grieved at first to observe this breach of the monastic rule, but overjoyed when he realized that it was the Mother of God who had appeared to him in this way.

“He was clothed in the holy angelic Habit and, after some time, was ordained priest. One day, as he was praying before the icon of the Mother of God, asking her with tears how to achieve his salvation, he heard a voice saying, ‘Let my servant withdraw to the desert outside the monastery.’ He was obedient to the will of God and, with the blessing of his Abbot, lived in silence from then on. Some years later, he was found worthy of the grace of discernment of thoughts and of beholding things happening elsewhere, as well as of other spiritual gifts. In the course of many years, he was the spiritual helper of a great number of monks. At the end of his life, Christ appeared to him saying that he would shortly have a great trial to endure from the Devil. Indeed, the prince of demons made his appearance next day with a host of his servants bewailing and bemoaning their inability to annihilate their great enemy Cosmas, who had held them in check for so long and gained possession, by his virtue, of the throne in Heaven that had once been Lucifer’s. Taking a heavy stick, the demon beat the Saint so violently that he left him half-dead. As God allowed, Saint Cosmas died in peace two days later, on 22 September 1323. When the fathers came from the monastery to bury him, the wild animals gathered round. They kept silent until the end of the service, but howled unusually loud as his body was covered with earth. Then having paid their respects, they made off into the wilderness. Forty days later, the monks came to take up the body of Saint Cosmas and translate it to the monastery, but it was no longer in the grave. Where it now is God alone knows.” (Synaxarion)