My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
On the 19th of July our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates
the feast day of Our Righteous Mother Macrina, the Sister of
Saint Basil the Great.
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Plagal of Fourth Tone
IN thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Mother; for taking
up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by they deeds thou didst
teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the
soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Macrina, thy spirit
rejoiceth with the Angels.
Kontakion Hymn. Fourth Tone
SINCE the light of righteousness shone brightly in thee, thou wast
an example of the life of piety for all, teaching the virtues to them
that cry: Rejoice, Macrina, thou boast of virginity.
The eldest sister of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, she was as a girl betrothed to a young nobleman and, when her betrothed died, Macrina vowed never to enter into marriage, saying: ‘It is not right for a girl, having once been betrothed, to turn to another; according to natural law, there must be one marriage, as there are one birth and one death.’ She justified this by her belief in the resurrection of the dead, regarding her betrothed not as dead, but as alive in God. It is a sin and a shame, she said, ‘if the spouse does not keep faith when the partner goes to distant climes.’ Then, with her mother Emilia, she became a nun in a monastery of virgins, where she lived in asceticism with the other nuns. They lived by the work of their hands, devoting the greater part of their time to pondering on God, to prayer and to a ceaseless lifting-up their minds to Him. After a time, her mother died, and then her brother Basil. In the ninth month after Saint Basil’s death, Saint Gregory came to visit his sister and found her on her deathbed. At the time of her death, Macrina made the prayer to God: "Thou, O Lord, givest rest to our bodies in the sleep of death for a little time, then Thou wilt waken them again with the Last Trump. Forgive me, and grant that, when my soul is parted from my body, it many be presented before Thee stainless and without sin, and that it may be as incense before Thee." She then made the sign of the Cross on her brow, eyes, face and heart, and breathed her last. She entered into rest in the Lord in 379 A.D.
FOR CONSIDERATION
A woman’s greatest beauty IS MODESTY, as immodesty in a woman is the most unnatural and repulsive vice in the world. A wonderful example of womanely modesty is given by Saint Macrina. In her youth she received a serious wound in her breast. Although her mother urged her to show this wound to a doctor and seek medicine, Macrina would not do so. She was utterly consecrated to God, and could not even entertain the thought of baring her body before others, even before her own mother. One night, Macrina was praying quietly to God. Tears spilled from her eyes onto the dust in front of her. With firm trust in God, she mixed the dust and tears together and anointed the wound with them, and the next day she was completely healed. When her mother Emilia, with great concern, went to see her daughter, Macrina did not want to tell her that the Lord had healed her (from humility, hiding the miracle that she herself had worked through prayer), but begged her mother, saying: ‘I shall be healed, Mother dear, if you lay your hand on my bosom and make the sign of the Cross over the place where it hurts.’ Her mother stretched out her hand and made the sign of the Cross over the place, but did not find the wound — only the scar of the healed wound. Thus, Saint Macrina laid her body through modesty and her miracles through humility.
Personal note:
For Orthodox Christians there is no shortage of spiritual teachers and examples of true holiness. Our Holy Tradition is filled with the Lives of the Saints who are the genuine witnesses of our Holy Church. The Saints number into thousands upon thousands over the centuries and although in God’s bosom, their lives continue to inspire us, to edify us, and to teach us how to live Christ while on earth. But who were the Saints of the Church? There were every day Christians, men, women, children who were willing to die, to be imprisoned, to be tortured, and killed for the sake of Christ. They were humble people with profound faith and lived modestly and who never considered themselves as anything else but as servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Holy Apostles Paul in his letter to the Hebrews says, "…who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions…Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wondered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted tormented–of whom THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth…Therefore, we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnare us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" [Hebrews 11:33-12:1].
Why would any Christian ignore these Christian martyrs and not be compelled to emulate them and become authentic followers of Christ rather than to impersonate them? To become a Christian impostor?
One does not have to be a genius to understand what it means to be a faithful Christian. There are those so-called ‘Christians’ who are baffled and confused even after many years of learning what is expected of them and yet they still need convincing and prodding. Their problem is that they are using their brain instead of their heart, and instead of faith, they are using their limited human intellect or reason. They most of all need to turn to the Lord Himself and seek His help, to the Holy Scripture, to prayer, and to the Lives of the Saints who serve as our greatest example of what it means to be a true follower of our Mater and Redeemer Jesus Christ. That is if they are sincere.
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 