دوم پطرس ۲.۹-۲۲ (رساله)

۹پس خداوند می‌داند چگونه پارسایان را از آزمایشها برهاند و گنهکاران را برای مکافاتِ روز داوری نگاه دارد، ۱۰بخصوص آنان را که در پی تمایلاتِ فاسدِ نَفْس خویشند و اقتدار خداوند را خوار می‌شمارند. اینان چنان گستاخند و متکبّر که از اهانت به بزرگان آسمانی پروایی ندارند؛ ۱۱حال آنکه حتی فرشتگان که از قدرت و اقتدار بیشتر نیز برخوردارند، هرگز به هنگام اعلام محکومیتِ خداوند بر این بزرگان، اهانتشان نمی‌کنند. ۱۲در مقابل، اینان در اموری اهانت می‌ورزند که از آن هیچ شناختی ندارند. آنان همچون وحوش عاری از شعورند که تنها تابع غرایز خویشند و زاده شده‌اند تا به دام افتند و هلاک گردند. پس بسان وحوش نیز هلاک خواهند شد ۱۳و در سزای آن بدی که کرده‌اند، بد خواهند دید. تفریح اینان عیش و عشرت در روز روشن است. لکه‌های ننگی هستند که حتی به هنگام شرکت در ضیافت با شما، از غرقه شدن در لذات فریبندۀ خویش دست برنمی‌کشند. ۱۴چشمانی دارند پر از زنا که از گناه کردن سیر نمی‌شود. این ملعونان، سست‌مایگان را اغوا می‌کنند و در طمع‌ورزی بسی چیره‌دستند! ۱۵راهِ راست را ترک گفته و با در پیش گرفتن راه بَلعام بن بِعور که مزد ناراستی را دوست می‌داشت، گمراه گشته‌اند. ۱۶امّا بَلعام به سبب بدکرداری‌اش از زبان الاغی توبیخ شد. حیوان بی‌زبان همانند انسان سخن گفت و بر دیوانگی نبی لگام زد. ۱۷این معلّمان دروغین، چشمه‌هایی بی‌آب و بخارهایی رانده از تندبادند که تاریکی مطلق برایشان مقرر است. ۱۸زیرا سخنان تکبّرآمیز و باطل می‌گویند و با بهره‌جویی از تمایلات نَفْس و شهوت‌انگیزی، کسانی را که به‌تازگی از چنگ گمراهان رسته‌اند، اغوا می‌کنند. ۱۹بدیشان وعدۀ آزادی می‌دهند، حال آنکه خود بندۀ فسادند؛ چه، آدمی بندۀ هر آن چیز است که بر او مسلط است. ۲۰زیرا آنان که با شناخت خداوند و نجات‌دهندۀ ما عیسی مسیح، از فساد دنیا رَستند، اگر باز بدان گرفتار و مغلوب آیند، سرانجامشان بدتر از آغاز خواهد بود. ۲۱بهتر آن می‌بود که از آغاز، راه پارسایی را نمی‌شناختند، تا اینکه پس از شناختن، از حکم مقدّسی که بدیشان سپرده شد، روی برتابند. ۲۲پس آنان مصداق این مَثَلِ راستین‌اند که: «سگ به قی خود بازمی‌گردد»، و «خوکِ شسته شده، به غلتیدن در گِل.»

مرقس ۱۳.۱۴-۲۳ (انجیل)

۱۴«امّا چون آن ’مکروهِ ویرانگر‘ را در مکانی که نباید، بر پا ببینید - خواننده دقّت کند - آنگاه آنان که در یهودیه‌اند، به کوهها بگریزند؛ ۱۵و هر که بر بام خانه باشد، برای برداشتن چیزی، فرود نیاید و وارد خانه نشود؛ ۱۶و هر که در مزرعه باشد، برای برگرفتن قبای خود به خانه بازنگردد. ۱۷وای بر زنان آبستن و مادران شیرده در آن روزها! ۱۸دعا کنید که این وقایع در زمستان روی ندهد. ۱۹زیرا که در آن روزها چنان مصیبتی روی خواهد داد که مانندش از آغاز عالمی که خدا آفرید تا کنون روی نداده و هرگز نیز روی نخواهد داد. ۲۰و اگر خداوند آن روزها را کوتاه نمی‌کرد، هیچ بشری جان سالم به در نمی‌برد. امّا به‌خاطر برگزیدگان، که خودْ آنها را انتخاب کرده، آن روزها را کوتاه کرده است. ۲۱در آن زمان، اگر کسی به شما گوید: ”بنگر، مسیح اینجاست“، یا ”بنگر، او آنجاست!“ باور مکنید. ۲۲زیرا مسیحان کاذب و پیامبران دروغین برخاسته، آیات و معجزات به ظهور خواهند آورد تا اگر ممکن باشد، برگزیدگان را گمراه کنند. ۲۳پس هوشیار باشید، زیرا پیشاپیش، همۀ اینها را به شما گفتم.

قدیسان کسنوفون و مریم

Xenophon was a wealthy senator in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian. He and his wife Mary had two sons, Arcadius and John, to whom they gave every advantage of education. When they were of age, Xenophon sent them both to study law in Berytus (Beirut). But the ship on which they set out was wrecked in a storm, and the two brothers were cast ashore, alive but separated, neither knowing whether the other had survived.

Both brothers gave thanks to God for their salvation and, newly conscious of the vanity of earthly things, both became monks: John in Tyre and Arcadius in Jerusalem. Two years later, having heard no news from his sons, Xenophon made inquiries and found that they had never arrived at Beirut, and that they had seemingly perished in a shipwreck. Giving thanks to God, who gives and takes away, both Xenophon and his wife Mary put on coarse garments and went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, they met the spiritual father of Arcadius, who told them that both their sons were alive and that they would soon see them.

By God’s providence, John and Arcadius met one another at Golgotha and, joyfully reunited, spent some time serving Arcadius’ holy Elder. Two days later Xenophon and Mary, visiting the Elder, spent time with their two sons but did not recognize them until the Elder revealed their identity. The parents wept for joy and decided immediately to take up the monastic life themselves. Giving away their considerable wealth, the two entered monasteries in the Holy Land. Both parents and sons went far in the life of prayer, being granted the power to work miracles and foreknow future events.

قدیس آموناس مصر, شاگرد قدیس آنتونی کبیر (۳۵۰)

“Saint Ammonas was a disciple of Saint Antony the Great and became his successor at the head of the hermits of the outer mountain of Pispir, after having spent fourteen years at Scetis in ceaseless prayer to the Lord to be granted victory over anger. He was afterwards consecrated bishop, probably by Saint Athanasius the Great. He possessed impassibility to the extent of being as though ignorant of the existence of evil, and incapable of passing judgment on anyone.

“One day some people came to ask him to settle a difference among them. The Saint responded by pretending to be insane, and answered a woman who treated him as a madman: ‘You don’t realize how much trouble I’ve given myself in the desert to acquire this madness and I have lost it today because of you!’ On another occasion when he was taken to visit a brother with a bad reputation, he sat on the barrel where [the erring brother’s] concubine was hiding while his accusers searched his cell in vain. Then, taking his leave of the unfortunate man, he simply said: ‘Brother, have a care for yourself!’

“When he was asked which deeds of ascesis are most pleasing to God, he replied: ‘Just sit in your cell and eat a little every day, always keeping the prayer of the Publican in your heart (Luke 18:13), and you can be saved.’ He also said that the fear of God begets moans and tears and these cause joy to arise in the soul, filling it with divine strength to do what is pleasing to God, and that this power from on high establishes us in the company of the Angels. Raised thus from height to height as we humbly pray to be delivered from sin, we shall (he said) receive as if of itself, revelation of the mysteries of God.” (Synaxarion)

مادر مقدس ما پائولا روم (۴۰۴)

She was born in 347 to a noble family in Rome, and at age sixteen married Toxotius, a prominent nobleman. Though her husband was a pagan, he was devoted to her and gave her freedom to keep a Christian home and rear her children as Christians. They were blessed with five children. When she was thirty-two her husband died suddenly, and Paula resolved to turn her large house in Rome into a monastery. Later she traveled to the Holy Land with her spiritual father St Jerome (June 15). In Bethlehem she established two monasteries, one for women (where she dwelt) and one for St Jerome and his companions. Every day the nuns chanted the entire Psalter, which they were required to learn by heart. Paula was exceptionally austere in her fasting and lavish in her almsgiving, often giving away to the poor even the goods needed by her community for subsistence. She aided her spiritual father and brother Jerome in his controversies with Origen’s followers: St Jerome himself was hot-tempered, and St Paula often exhorted him to confront his enemies with patience and humility.

When she was fifty-six years old, she felt her death approaching, and heard Christ say to her ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone’ (Song of Songs 2:10-11). To this she replied ‘The time of harvest has come. I shall truly see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living,’ and gave up her soul joyfully. Her funeral was attended by throngs of monks, nuns and poor people, all of whom revered her as their mother and benefactress.