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 20th of July, Our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates
the Holy and Glorious Prophet ELIAS the Thesbite (Elijah the
Tishbite).
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. First Tone
THE incarnate Angel, and the Prophets’ summit and boast, the
second forerunner of the coming of Christ our God, Elias, the
glorious, from above sent down in his grace upon Elisseus; he
doth cast out sickness and doth alse cleanse lepers; and unto
all that honor him, he poureth forth streams of cures.
Kontakion Hymn. Second Tone
O RENOWNED Elias, Prophet and seer of the mighty works of God,
who by thy word didst check the rain clouds: Intercede in our
behalf with the only Friend of man.
ELIAS of great fame was from Thisbe or Thesbe, a town of Galaad (Gilead), beyond the Jordan. He was of priestly lineage, a man of a solitary and ascetical character clothed in a mantle of sheep skin, and girded about his loins with a leather belt. His name is interpreted as "Yah is my God." His zeal for the glory of God was compared to fire, and his speech for teaching and rebuke was likened unto a burning lamp. From this too he received the name ZEALOT. Therefore, set aflame with such zeal, he sternly reproved the impiety and lawlessness of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He shut up heaven by means of prayer, and it did not rain for three years and six months. Ravens brought him food for his need when, at God’s command, he was hiding by the torrent of Horrath. He multiplied the little flour and oil of the poor widow of Sarephtha of Sidon, who has given him hospitality in her home, and when her son died, he raised him up. He brought down fire from Heaven upon Mount Carmel, and it burned up the sacrifice offered to God before all the people of Israel, that they might know the truth. At the torrent of Kisson, he slew 450 false prophets and priests who worshipped idols and led the people astray. He received food wondrously at the hand of an Angel, and being strengthened by this food he walked for forty days and forty nights. He beheld God on Mount Horeb, as far as this is possible for human nature. He foretold the destruction of the house of Ahab, and the death of his son Ohozias; and as for the two captains of fifty that were sent by the king, he burned them for their punishment, bringing fire down from Heaven. He divided the flow of the Jordan, and he and his disciples Elisseus passed through as it were on dry land; and finally, while speaking with him, Elias was suddenly snatched away BY A FIERY CHARIOT in the year 895 B.C., and he ASCENDED AS THOUGH INTO HEAVEN, WHITHER GOD MOST CERTAINLY TRANSLATED HIM ALIVE, AS HE DID ENOCH (Genesis 5:24; IV Kings 2:11). But from thence also, after seven years, by means of an epistle he reproached Joram, the son of Josaphat, as it is written: "And there came a message in writing to him from Elias the Prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the way," and so forth (II Chronicles 21:12). According to the opinion of the majority of the interpreters, this came to pass either through his disciple Elisseus, or through another Prophet when Elias appeared to them, even as he appeared on Mount Tabor to the three foremost disciples of Christ during His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. "Suddenly, together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His Passion which was bout to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, withter he had been taken up while yet alive." (August 6th). At the end of the world, Prophet Elias will appear again, to break the power of an antichrist (Revelation 11).
In the Greek Lives of the Saints, the following miracle of the holy Prophet Elias is recorded: a certain Paisius, Egoumenos (Abbot) of the monastery of Saint Elias in Jerusalem, went to Constantinople and from Constantinople to Belgrade at the time that Patriarch Paisius was staying there. At that time, there was an Orthodox Christian living in Belgrade, married to a Latin wife. On Saint Elias’s day, the wife planned to make bread, but her husband said toher: ‘You must not work.’ His wife replied that the feast had been two days earlier (according to the Roman Calendar). And so a dispute arose between them. The stubborn woman kneaded the dough, but then a marvel! The dough became stone in her hands! At that, the neighbors gathered round, and each of them took a piece of the stone. Paisius took a piece of it, as a witness toGod’s miracle, and took it with him to Jerusalem. He laid this piece of stone in front of the holy icon of the Holy Prophet Elias in his Monastery. (This is recorded inDositheos Book XII, Ch. 11, Para. 2. p. 1192). [Resources: The Great Horologion and The Prologue from Ochrid]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +
With sincere agape in Christ’s Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 