OUR PROVIDER
- From: "Traudel" <hildegard8@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:15:50 -0500
OUR PROVIDER
The LORD will provide
GOD will provide HIMSELF a lamb for a burnt offering.
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither HIS ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
unGODliness from Jacob.
Happy is he that has the GOD of Jacob for his help, whose
hope is in the LORD his GOD.
Behold the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear HIM, upon
them that hope is mercy; to deliver their soul from death.
My GOD shall supply all your need, according to HIS riches in
glory by CHRIST JESUS.
HE hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that
we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper, and I will not fear what
man shall do unto me.
The LORD is my strength an my shield, my heart trusteth in HIM,
and I am helped, therefore, my heart gladly rejoiceth, and with
my song will I praise HIM.
AMEN and AMEN
<<>><<>><<>>
March 27th - St. John of Egypt, Prophet of the Thebaid
(also known as John of Lycopolis)
Born at Asyut (Assiut or Lycopolis), Egypt, c. 304; died near there in 394
or
395; feast is October 17 in the Coptic Church. John was a carpenter (or
shoemaker) at Asyut who at 25 became a hermit on a neighboring mountain for
the
next 40 years. To test his humility and obedience the ancient anchorite who
resided there made John perform seemingly ridiculous acts, such as water a
dry
stick for a whole year, all of which he executed with the utmost fidelity.
He
seems to have lived with the old hermit for the 12 years until the holy
man's
death, then spent four years in various monasteries.
When he was about 40, John walled himself into a cell on the top of a rock
near
Asyut, where he never ate until after sunset, and then very sparingly.
Weekdays
he spent his time in prayer. On Saturdays and Sundays, he spoke through the
little window in his cell to the many men who came to him for instruction
and
spiritual advice. He allowed a type of hospital to be built near his cell,
where
some of his disciples took care of his visitors. These men were drawn by his
reputation for miracles of healing, gift of prophecy, and ability to read
souls.
Saint John's gift for foretelling the future was such that he was given the
surname `Prophet of the Thebaid.' When Emperor Theodosius the Elder was
attacked
by the tyrant Maximus, who had killed Emperor Gratian in 383 and dethroned
Valentinian in 387, he consulted John about the proposed war against
Maximus.
John foretold that Theodosius would be victorious, almost without blood. The
emperor, full of confidence, marched into the West, defeated the more
numerous
armies of Maximus twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in
Aquileia. He returned triumphant to Constantinople, and attributed his
victories
to the prayers of Saint John, who also foretold him the events of his other
wars, the incursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire.
In 392, Eugenius, by the assistance of Arbogastes, who had murdered the
emperor
Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the West. Theodosius
instructed
Eutropins the Eunuch to try to bring John to Constantinople; if he would not
come, Eutropins was to consult with the saint whether it was God's will that
he
should march against Eugenius, or wait his arrival in the East. John would
not
leave his cell but predicted the emperor's success, but this time many lives
would be lost and Theodosius would die in Italy. Theodosius marched against
Eugenius, and lost 10,000 men in the first engagement. He was almost
defeated:
but renewing the battle on the next day, September 6, 394, he was entirely
victorious by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even the heathen
poet
Claudian acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West, January 17, 395, leaving
his
two sons emperors (Arcadius in the East, and Honorius in the West).
Among Saint John's reported miracles was the restoration of sight to the
wife of
a senator through the vehicle of oil he blessed. It had to be through such a
medium with women, for he refused to speak with any woman. One interesting
incident is related by Evagrius, Palladius, and Augustine in his treatise of
"On
the Care for the Dead". One of the emperor's officers begged John to allow
his
wife to speak to him. She had made the difficult and dangerous journey to
Lycopolis for that purpose. The holy man answered, that during his stricter
enclosure for the last forty years, he had imposed on himself an inviolable
rule
not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the granting
of
her request. The officer returned to his virtuous, but disappointed, wife,
who
begged her husband to try again.
Returning to John, the husband said that his wife would die of grief if he
refused her request. The saint said to him: "Go to your wife, and tell her
that
she shall see me tonight, without coming hither or stirring out of her
house."
When she was asleep that night, the man of God appeared to her in her dream,
and
said: "Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come to visit you; but I must
admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing God's servants on earth.
Contemplate only their life, and imitate their actions. As for me, why did
you
desire to see me? Am I a saint or a prophet like God's true servants? I am a
sinful and weak man. It is, therefore, only in virtue of your faith that I
have
had recourse to our Lord who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases
with
which you are afflicted. Live always in the fear of God, and never forget
his
benefits." He added several proper instructions for her conduct, and
disappeared.
Upon awakening the woman described to her husband the person she had seen in
her
dream and he confirmed that it was John. Whereupon he returned the next day
to
thank him, but when he arrived, the saint would not permit it. The officer
received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne.
In 394, Palladius, who later became bishop of Helenopolis and one of the
authors
of John's vita, visited the saint in July. When he arrived, he found that he
would have to wait until Saturday to speak with John. He returned that day
in
the early morning and saw the saint sitting at his window talking with
others.
Through an interpreter, introductions were made and Palladius was identified
as
a member of Evagrius's community.
Their conversation was interrupted by the hasty arrival of Alypius, governor
of
the province, in great haste. John asked Palladius to step aside for the
governor with whom the saint engaged in a long discussion while an
increasingly
impatient Palladius had to wait. The weary man began to complain internally
that
the saint was showing preference to rank. He was about to leave when John
sent
his interpreter to stop him saying, "Go, bid that brother not to be
impatient: I
am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to him."
Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him, waited
patiently. When Alypius had left, John called Palladius, and asked: "Why
were
you angry, unjustly imputing guilt to me in your mind? To you I can speak at
any
other time, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you
in
the paths of salvation. But this governor, being involved in the hurry of
temporal affairs, and having come to receive some wholesome advice during
the
short time his affairs will allow him time to breathe in, how could I give
you
the preference?"
He then told Palladius what passed in his heart: his secret temptations to
quit
his solitude. He told Palladius that it was the devil who tempted him with
images of his father's loneliness at his absence, and that he might induce
his
brother and sister to embrace a solitary life. The holy man told him to
ignore
such suggestions, because his siblings had already renounced the world, and
his
father would live seven more years. He foretold him that he should meet with
great persecutions and sufferings, and should be a bishop, but with many
afflictions: all which came to pass, though at that time extremely
improbable.
The text of Palladius's account of their meeting still exists.
That same year John was visited by Saint Petronius with six other monks. The
hermit asked if any of them was in holy orders and they answered, "no." In
fact,
Petronius was a deacon but had not disclosed this to his fellow travellers
out
of a false sense of humility because he was the youngest in the company.
When
John pointed to Petronius and said, "This man is a deacon," Petronius denied
it.
John took the younger man's hand and kissed it, while saying: "My son, take
care
never to deny the grace you have received from God, lest humility betray you
into a lie. We must never lie, under any presence of good whatever, because
no
untruth can be from God."
When one of the company begged for a cure, Saint John answered replied that
such
diseases are beneficial to the soul. Nevertheless, he blessed some oil and
gave
it to the monk, who vomited and was from that moment perfectly cured.
When they next visited him, John bore a joyful countenance- evidence of the
joy
of his soul. They talked about their journey from Jerusalem, then he
provided
the monks with a long discourse about banishing pride and vanity from their
hearts in order to attain all other virtues. He provided examples of many
monks,
who, by secretly harboring vanity, fell also into scandalous irregularities,
including one who, after living a most holy and austere life, fell into
fornication because of his vanity and then, through despair, into all manner
of
disorders. He told of another who left his solitude to seek fame, but
through a
sermon he preached in a monastery along the way, was mercifully converted
and
became an eminent penitent.
After entertaining Saint Petronius and his fellows for three days, Saint
John
gave them his blessing. As they were preparing to leave, he said, "Go in
peace,
my children. Today Alexandria receives news of Prince Theodosius's victory
over
the tyrant Eugenius, but this excellent emperor will soon end his life by a
natural death."
A few days later, the monks learned that Saint John had died. He had
foreseen
his own death and refused to see anyone during the last three days. Instead,
Saint John spent his time in prayer and expired on his knees. Saint John's
reputation for holiness is said to have been second only to that of Saint
Antony. He was much admired by his contemporaries SS. Jerome, Augustine, and
John Cassian, who attributes the extraordinary gifts John received from God
to
the saint's humility and ready obedience (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines,
Gill, Husenbeth).
Saint Quote:
"The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish. Let no
man
despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost of the apostles,
denied the Lord three times before a little servant girl, but he repented
and
wept bitterly.
-Cyril of Jerusalem" (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).
Bible Quote:
He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never
thirst.
-St. John 6:35
.
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