اول پطرس ۴.۱۲-۵.۵ (رساله)

۱۲ای عزیزان، از این آتشی که برای آزمودن شما در میانتان برپاست، در شگفت مباشید، که گویی چیزی غریب بر شما گذشته است. ۱۳بلکه شاد باشید از اینکه در رنجهای مسیح سهیم می‌شوید، تا به هنگام ظهور جلال او به‌غایت شادمان گردید. ۱۴اگر به خاطر نام مسیح شما را ناسزا گویند، خوشا به حالتان، زیرا روح جلال که روح خداست بر شما آرام می‌گیرد. ۱۵اگر رنج می‌کشید، مباد که به سبب قتل، دزدی، شرارت یا حتی فضولی باشد. ۱۶امّا اگر از آن سبب رنج می‌کشید که مسیحی هستید، شرمسار مباشید، بلکه چون کسی که این نام را بر خود دارد خدا را تمجید کنید. ۱۷زیرا زمان آن رسیده که داوری از خانۀ خدا آغاز شود؛ و اگر آغاز آن از ماست، پس سرانجامِ آنان که انجیل خدا را اطاعت نمی‌کنند، چه خواهد بود؟ ۱۸و «اگر پارسا به‌دشواری نجات یابد، خدانشناسان و گناهکاران چه خواهند کرد؟» ۱۹پس کسانی که به خواست خدا رنج می‌کشند، باید که جانهای خویش را به ’خالق امین‘ بسپارند و به نیکوکاری ادامه دهند. ۱من که خود از مشایخ هستم و شاهد بر رنجهای مسیح و شریکِ جلالی که آشکار خواهد شد، مشایخ را در میان شما پند می‌دهم:‏ ۲گلۀ خدا را که به دست شما سپرده شده است شبانی و نظارت کنید، امّا نه به اجبار بلکه با میل و رغبت، [آن‌گونه که خدا می‌خواهد]؛ و نه برای منافع نامشروع بلکه با عشق و علاقه. ۳نه آنکه بر کسانی که به دست شما سپرده شده‌اند سروری کنید، بلکه برای گله نمونه باشید، ۴تا چون رئیس شبانان ظهور کند، تاج جلالِ غیرفانی را دریافت کنید. ۵ای جوانان، شما نیز تسلیم مشایخ باشید. همگی در رفتارتان با یکدیگر فروتنی را بر کمر بندید، زیرا، «خدا در برابر متکبران می‌ایستد، امّا فروتنان را فیض می‌بخشد.»

مرقس ۱۲.۳۸-۴۴ (انجیل)

۳۸پس در تعلیم خود فرمود: «از علمای دین برحذر باشید که دوست دارند در قبای بلند راه بروند و مردم در کوچه و بازار آنها را سلام گویند، ۳۹و در کنیسه‌ها بهترین جای را داشته باشند و در ضیافتها بر صدر مجلس بنشینند. ۴۰از سویی خانه‌های بیوه‌زنان را غارت می‌کنند و از دیگر سو، برای تظاهر، دعای خود را طول می‌دهند. مکافات اینان بسی سخت‌تر خواهد بود.» ۴۱عیسی در برابر صندوق بِیت‌المال معبد به تماشای مردمی نشسته بود که پول در صندوق می‌انداختند. بسیاری از ثروتمندان مبالغ هنگفت می‌دادند. ۴۲سپس بیوه‌زنی فقیر آمد و دو قِران در صندوق انداخت. ۴۳آنگاه عیسی شاگردان خود را فرا خواند و به ایشان فرمود: «آمین، به شما می‌گویم، این بیوه‌زن فقیر بیش از همۀ آنها که در صندوق پول انداختند، هدیه داده است. ۴۴زیرا آنان جملگی از فزونی دارایی خویش دادند، امّا این زن در تنگدستی خود، هرآنچه داشت داد، یعنی تمامی روزی خویش را.»

مقدس شمعون خداحامل و آنا نبیه

“There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word ‘virgin’ in order to replace it by ‘young woman’. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.

“The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord’s coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32).” (Synaxarion)

The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul’s teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.

ما پدر در میان قدیسان, نیکولای (نیکلاس), اسقف اعظم و روشنگر ژاپن (۱۹۱۲)

Born in Russia in 1836, he became one of the great Orthodox missionaries of modern times. As a boy, he resolved to become a missionary in the far East. With the counsel and blessing of Bishop Innocent of Siberia and Alaska, he went to Japan in 1861 and joined a small Russian mission there. Though the mission’s official purpose was to minister to the Russian consular community, the consul-general who invited Hieromonk Nikolai hoped to bring the light of the Orthodox Faith to the Japanese people as well. Realizing that he could only hope to convert the Japanese people if they understood one another well, Fr Nikolai immersed himself in the study of Japanese thought, culture and language. Over the course of his life he translated most of the Bible and most of the Orthodox services into Japanese, and became a fluent speaker of the language. He encountered much resistance: Preaching of Christian doctrine was officially banned in Japan, and a Samurai once approached him with the words “Foreigners must die!” It was this same Samurai who later became his first Japanese priest. In 1880 he was elevated to Bishop of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese war he remained in Japan and labored successfully to overcome nationalist strife that might have harmed or destroyed the Church in Japan. He encouraged all his Japanese faithful to pray for the Japanese armed forces, though he explained that as a Russian he could not do so, and excluded himself from all public services for the duration of the war. He sent Russian-speaking Japanese priests to the prison camps to minister to Russian prisoners of war. At the time of his repose in 1912, after forty-eight years in Japan, St Nikolai left a Cathedral, eight churches, more than 400 chapels and meeting houses, 34 priests, 8 deacons, 115 lay catechists, and 34,110 Orthodox faithful. The Church of Japan is now an autonomous Orthodox Church under the care of the Moscow Patriarchate.