Romans 1.7-12 (رساله)

۷به همۀ آنان که در روم، محبوب خدایند و فرا خوانده شده‌اند تا از مقدسین باشند: فیض و سلامتی از جانب خدا، پدر ما، و خداوندْ عیسی مسیح، بر شما باد. ۸پیش از هر چیز، خدای خود را به واسطۀ عیسی مسیح، به‌خاطر همۀ شما شکر می‌گزارم زیرا آوازۀ ایمان شما در همۀ عالم پیچیده است. ۹خدایی که او را با تمام قلبم در کار انجیل پسرش خدمت می‌کنم، بر من شاهد است که چگونه پیوسته در دعاهایم شما را در همۀ اوقات یاد می‌کنم ۱۰و استدعا می‌نمایم که اگر خدا بخواهد سرانجام به نحوی به دیدار شما نایل شوم. ۱۱زیرا مشتاق دیدارتان هستم تا عطایی روحانی به شما برسانم که موجب استواری‌تان گردد؛ ۱۲یعنی تا من و شما هر دو از ایمان یکدیگر دلگرم شویم.

متی ۵.۴۲-۴۸ (انجیل)

۴۲اگر کسی از تو چیزی بخواهد، به او بده و از کسی که از تو قرض خواهد، روی مگردان. ۴۳«شنیده‌اید که گفته شده، ”همسایه‌ات را محبت نما و با دشمنت دشمنی کن.“ ۴۴امّا من به شما می‌گویم دشمنان خود را محبت نمایید و برای آنان که به شما آزار می‌رسانند، دعای خیر کنید، ۴۵تا پدر خود را که در آسمان است، فرزندان باشید. زیرا او آفتاب خود را بر بدان و نیکان می‌تاباند و باران خود را بر پارسایان و بدکاران می‌باراند. ۴۶اگر تنها آنان را محبت کنید که شما را محبت می‌کنند، چه پاداشی خواهید داشت؟ آیا حتی خَراجگیران چنین نمی‌کنند؟ ۴۷و اگر تنها برادران خود را سلام گویید، چه برتری بر دیگران دارید؟ مگر حتی اقوام بت‌پرست چنین نمی‌کنند؟ ۴۸پس شما کامل باشید چنانکه پدر آسمانی شما کامل است.

شهید یوستین فیلسوف (۱۶۶)

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans’ arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.

For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher’s garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.

Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

پدر مقدس ما آگاپیتوس غارهای کیف (۱۰۹۵)

“A natural doctor, he was a disciple of St Antony of Kiev. He healed people by prayer and the prescribing of cabbage, which they made into a sort of bread. Prince Vladimir Monomachus was healed in this way, and this made Agapitus famed on all sides. The Prince’s doctor, an Armenian, hearing of this, began to spread slander about him. When Agapitus became ill, the Armenian came and, looking at him, said that he would die in three days and that, if he did not do so, then he, the Armenian, would become a monk. Agapitus told him that it had been revealed to him by God that he would die, not in three days but in three months. And so it came to pass. After Agapitus’s death, the Armenian went to the abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and asked him to make him a monk. He explained that Agapitus had appeared to him from the other world and reminded him of his promise. And so the one-time envier became a humble monk, by the providence of God whose care it is that all men be saved. St Agapitus entered into rest in about 1095.” (Prologue)