I am with Christ forever -
every moment on His narrow path
And my home is on this narrow countryside Road of Christ -
at 8, November - some Authorities and Kingdoms [Dominions]
would have it changed - to 21, November - but our home is
still the very same! Call us at our house number 8[OS]/21[NS].
Those Authorities and Kingdoms [Dominions] have been demoted -
rest assured! - and authorities and kingdoms are they no more! -
For I have the Powers - and the Will of the Living Word!
And the Thrones are being submerged - lest they be defiled by
Antichrist, who knows all lies.
Archangel Michael
The Eighth Day (of indiction)
The world was created in Six Days
and the Seventh Day was attributed to honor the Creator.
And so the cycle started running in time...
It is called Genesis, week, calendar...
And on the Eighth Day
there cameand the Seventh Day was attributed to honor the Creator.
And so the cycle started running in time...
It is called Genesis, week, calendar...
And on the Eighth Day
the hope for salvation,
the beginning of our salvation was born on the Eighth Day of the indiction
(and through Her – the Most Holy Theotokos, Ever Virgin Miriam –
coming to this world was also our Savior),
subsequently (probably) still on that Eighth day
there will come our very salvation...
(For early Christian Fathers the spiritual "Eighth Day"
is Christ's resurrection) or the end of the world...
But is our salvation an end –
[Yes, of course - in English -
yes, this is our ultimate objective!]
or our salvation is an end of the world, of this world?!?
"Chapter 16. The spiritual temple of God
Moreover, I will also tell you concerning the temple, how the wretched [Jews], wandering in error, trusted not in God Himself, but in the temple, as being the house of God. For almost after the manner of the Gentiles they worshipped Him in the temple. But learn how the Lord speaks, when abolishing it: "Who has meted out heaven with a span, and the earth with his palm? Have not I?" Isaiah 40:12 "Thus says the Lord, Heaven is My throne, and the earth My footstool: what kind of house will you build to Me, or what is the place of My rest?" Isaiah 66:1 You perceive that their hope is vain. Moreover, He again says, "Behold, they who have cast down this temple, even they shall build it up again." It has so happened. For through their going to war, it was destroyed by their enemies; and now: they, as the servants of their enemies, shall rebuild it. Again, it was revealed that the city and the temple and the people of Israel were to be given up. For the Scripture says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Lord will deliver up the sheep of His pasture, and their sheep-fold and tower, to destruction." And it so happened as the Lord had spoken. Let us inquire, then, if there still is a temple of God. There is— where He himself declared He would make and finish it. For it is written, "And it shall come to pass, when the week is completed, the temple of God shall be built in glory in the name of the Lord." Daniel 9:24-27; Haggai 2:10 I find, therefore, that a temple does exist. Learn, then, how it shall be built in the name of the Lord. Before we believed in God, the habitation of our heart was corrupt and weak, as being indeed like a temple made with hands. For it was full of idolatry, and was a habitation of demons, through our doing such things as were opposed to [the will of] God. But it shall be built, you observe, in the name of the Lord, in order that the temple of the Lord may be built in glory. How? Learn [as follows]. Having received the forgiveness of sins, and placed our trust in the name of the Lord, we have become new creatures, formed again from the beginning. Wherefore in our habitation God truly dwells in us. How? His word of faith; His calling of promise; the wisdom of the statutes; the commands of the doctrine; He himself prophesying in us; He himself dwelling in us; opening to us who were enslaved by death the doors of the temple, that is, the mouth; and by giving us repentance introduced us into the incorruptible temple. He then, who wishes to be saved, looks not to man, but to Him who dwells in him, and speaks in him, amazed at never having either heard him utter such words with his mouth, nor himself having ever desired to hear them. This is the spiritual temple built for the Lord."
Homily XI by St. John of Kronstadt
On the Day of St. Archistratigue Michael and the Synaxis of all Heavenly Bodiless Powers
November 8, 1907
We keep praising Thee, O Christ, Who has most wisely joined the sky with the earth and has made one Church of angels and men. (Stichira for small vespers).
We celebrate, dear brethren, the bright holiday of the thunder-like Archangel Michael and the other heavenly bodiless powers.
The history of the Church’s establishing of this holiday is long and we will not tell it now; let those wishing to know it read about it in the church book "Lives of the Saints" [Chetyi-Minhei], and now let us talk about the spiritual countless world of angels, about their features, about their order of lines and about the immeasurable God’s sweetness, Who has associated us, Orthodox Christians, with this angelic Synaxis and Who has constituted one Church out of the angels and men, and then about our obligation to honor them according to dignity and to imitate them in force, as the future fellow citizens of ours in the heavenly fatherland; about which we pray to the Lord God, our common Creator.
St. Cyril of Alexandria says (see Macarius’s Theology on Angels): if our earth, and it – as just one point in-between the worlds – bears on it such a countless number of people and all [kinds of] beings, then [imagine] how many times more inhabitants abide in the immaterial heaven, so great and beyond limits [comprehension] for any mind?
Angels have a spiritual, immaterial, subtle, immortal nature – free from any mortality, but a limited one – not like that of the Lord Himself, the Spirit – everywhere consubstantial and one, without beginning and all-pervading. He brought Angels out of non-being into being, sanctified them by His word, and for [the purpose of] intransigence against evil He strengthened them up by the Holy Spirit in a non-falling manner (i.e. they can no longer fall into sin), their nature is full of the wonderful, unquenchable light, holiness, goodness, beauty, [utter] wisdom, power, immortality, ardent love for the Creator and for each other and for men, about whose salvation they rejoice and are [but] willing to have them as their eternal fellow citizens in the country of eternal light and immortality, of peace and joy. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of Apostle Paul, whom the Holy Spirit raised up [in admiration] to the third sky, heard from Him the mysterious teaching on the world of angels, [he] wrote it down and handed it to the Church (Dionysius the Areopagite on the Church Hierarchy).
The Angelic world divides into nine orders, and these – each [divides] into three lines. The first and brightest-seen angels (Michael and Gabriel) as a bright illumination of the Trinity without beginning, wait immediately on the flaming throne of God, being enlightened by His unapproachable light, and handing down enlightenment and knowledge of God’s mysteries to the their lower lines; and the lower lines are being controlled in a most peaceful manner by the higher [ones]. Such heavenly citizenship, such most peaceful, holy, most bright, gracious Synaxis of the celestial residents is called Heavenly Hierarchy, in line with the earthly hierarchy or the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church.
Let us marvel at the all-good God and at [His] most wise providence, at His boundless goodness, intending us to our co-interning and bliss without end – along with Angels – in the future fatherland of ours and constituting one Church of Angels – most bright and incorruptible, and men chosen and worthy. What indescribable by any language bliss awaits the faithful Christians, if through the end they abide in faithfulness to their Christian calling! In order for us to qualify for eternal cohabitation and blissful life together with the angels in heaven, we must try and honor them, imitate their holiness, humility, love and wholehearted devotion to God, elevation of thoughts, abstinence, prayer and fasting, mercy and compassion to each other, hot mutual love.
The holy God-inspired audiences of God’s mysteries and of the angelic visions, the prophets and evangelists have seen how the angels in mysterious visions face each other in a friendly manner and praise consortingly the Holy Trinity. This teaches us, too, to treat each other with warm love and to live in one mind, ardently serving our common-for-all Creator.
The glory of the infinite goodness of God, Who has prepared eternal kingdom for us, a kingdom of unquenchable light, peace and unfailing bliss, together with the countless Synaxis of Angels.
Let us make use of the little time here towards prosperity in Christian virtues, so we may inherit this everlasting bliss, which may the Lord grant us all by grace, through His generosity and love for men, through the intercession of the Most Pure Mother of God and through the waiting [intercession] of the honest bodiless heavenly powers, especially the radiant thunder-like Michael and Gabriel, and the holy Angels – our guardians. Amen!
Vision of Joseph Munoz
A number or a day, or the year...? What prompted me to publish this? - I cannot understand. Perhaps Vladyka Philaret’s date of demise? Indeed, it has been 25 years now.
…
"Let me remind you of a portentous vision given to Joseph in the night of 20th against the 21st November 1985 – just a few hours before Metropolitan Philaret died.
You were the first person whom Joseph told about this vision of his shortly after the news came of the Metropolitan Philaret’s demise.
On November 24th (the Iberon icon’s feast day) 1985 Metropolitan Philaret was buried. Immediately thereafter Joseph came to us in Washington for a few days [stay] and on the very first evening, under the fresh impression of the vision he told us about it in details. This was also attended by Fr. Theodore Shevtsov.
In the words of Joseph on the night of November 20th he felt very tired and went to bed. The holy Icon hanged on the wall opposite his bed – so that when lying he could gaze at it. Soon after he lied down, the icon-lamp hanging in front of the icon went out. He lit it up again but it went out for the second time. Then Joseph changed the oil, the wick, washed the lamp-glass, and filled it up again. But soon the lamp went out for a third time... This upset him, because he felt that the Mother of God intimately suggested to him that something significant was going to happen, since shortly before that the lamp in front of the Iberon Icon went out on three occasions – before the terrible earthquake in Mexico and before the eruption of the volcano in Colombia, in result to which thousands were killed. Joseph stood up for prayer. Under the icon, by the wall there was a [small] bench. Joseph knelt down to his knees, leaned against the bench and began praying. During the prayer he fell asleep.
In the dream, a panoramic view opened to him – very much like a huge wide screen – and he was presented one such vision. Wooded nature with rocky soil. On the trail he saw – standing on his knees with a haggard face – Metropolitan Philaret. On the back of the Vladyka and on his right shoulder there lay a large heavy cross. The cross look was terrible – iron and cold (it lacked any life-giving heat, which gently emanates out of a wooden cross), it was an ugly color – dark green-brownish. Metropolitan Philaret was falling under the weight of the cross and was unable to budge. But, suddenly, unexpectedly, Metropolitan Philaret bent forward and with a decisive movement from right to left he dropped the cross onto the ground (the motion was strange as the Metropolitan could simply drop his right shoulder down and the cross would slide to the ground).
Once the cross touched the ground, the Metropolitan disappeared. Joseph was seized with fear by what he had seen and out of horror he hid his face with his hands. When he finally dropped his hands before another picture appeared to him. He saw a land that has turned into a desert due to a terrible disaster. Instead of Metropolitan Philaret – standing on his knees was Vladyka Vitaliy with that same cross on his back, only the cross was more terrible, darker and heavier. Although with enormous labors, but still somehow the Vladyka budged little by little on.
In a last, third part, of the vision Joseph saw a cross – purely black in color in that same desert, and crucified on it was – in full vestment, with miter – Bishop Vitaliy...”.
…
A few hours after this vision the world learned of the repose of Metropolitan Philaret... Maybe this vision – sent to Joseph – was the most significant of all signs of the Iberon Myrrh-streaming Icon. Maybe by this prophetic vision the Mother of God warns us about what might happen – lest it happens. Maybe we are currently witnessing the last part of the/a vision. God forbid! When at your insistence Joseph told You about his vision, tears came into Your eyes and You told him that the first part of the vision was clear, but the next [one] You did not want to interprete and preferred not to think about [it]... "(an excerpt from a letter bt Fr. N. to M. V.)
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