On the 14th of May, Our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates the Holy Martyr ISIDORE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Our Risen Lord, God and Savior JESUS CHRIST,

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

On the 14th of May, Our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates,
the Holy Martyr ISIDORE.

In the reign of the pagan Emperor Decius, this Isidore was taken by force by soldiers from the island of Chios. He had held the Christian faith from this youth, and had spent his life in fasting, prayer and good works. So when, in the army, he declared himself to be a Christiaan, the commander took him to task for it, and urged him to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to pagan idols. The Saint replied: ‘Even if you kill my body, you have no power over my soul. I have the true and living God, Jesus Christ, who lives in me and will be with me at my death; and I am in Him and shall remain in Him, and will not cease to confess His Holy Name while the spirit is in my body.’ The commander ordered that they first beat him with iron flails and then cut out his tongue. But, even without his tongue, Saint Isidore was able to speak, and confessed the Name of Christ by the Spirit of God. Meanwhile the punishment of God struck the commander, and he suddenly became mute. The mute commander finally gave the signal to behead the Holy Martyr Isidore. Saint Isidore rejoiced at this sentence and praising God, went out to the scaffold, where his head was cut off in the year 251 A.D. His friend, Ammon, buried his holy body, after that, himself suffered and received the wreath of Martyrdom.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A SIN is a cause of scandal to others is a twofold sin. A wise man tries to ensure that he gives scandal to no-one by his sinful example and leads another into sin. Saint Ambrose applauds such wisdom in the Emperor Alentinian, who died young, in this example from his life: The Emperor, hearing that he was being talked of all over Rome as a passionate hunter of wild beasts–which he, in fact, was not — and that this passion was taking the Emperor away from his duties of state, immediately commanded that al the wild beasts in his forests be destroyed. Hearing, on another occasion, that some malicious person was spreading word that he launched early (wanting by this to make him out to be a glutton), he took on himself a very strict fast, both publicly and privately. At public meals, he was rarely seen to put a morsel of food into his mouth. When, again, his sisters were in dispute with a man over some land, the Emperor, although he had the right to try the case himself, submitted it to trial in open court, so that he could not be accused of partiality. ‘Truly this devout Emperor kept with godly fear the words of the Lord: ‘Woe to him that causes offence to one of these little ones.’

TO PONDER

Let me ponder on the action of God the Holy Spirit upon
the Holy Apostle:

1. How the Holy Spirit led the Apostles through all sorrows
and trials, filling their hearts with consolation and joy.

2. How the Holy Spirit made those seeds of the Gospel that
the Apostles sowed throughout the world grow and
flourish even in places where it seemed that they were
sown in vain.
[Sources:  The Prologue from Ochrid]

__________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +
With agape in His Glorious and Life-Giving Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George