НЕДЕЛЯ 8-Я ПО ПЯТИДЕСЯТНИЦЕ

About the feeding of five thousand people by Jesus Christ with five loaves During His earthly life, the Savior was once near the city of Bethsaida, on the shores of Lake Galilee, arriving here in a boat along with His disciples. Coming out of the boat, Jesus Christ saw a multitude of people gathered and began to teach, talking about the Kingdom of God. The conversation dragged on for a long time; Evening was already approaching, and the people listened with pleasure to the words coming from the lips of the God-Man. Finally, the apostles approached Jesus Christ and said: “Teacher! The place here is deserted, and the time is already late; So, let the people go, so that they can go to neighboring cities and villages and buy themselves bread.” “They don’t need to disperse; “Give them something to eat,” said the Savior, and then turned to the Apostle Philip and said to him: “How can we buy bread to feed them?” Philip answered: “Lord! and two hundred denarii will not be enough bread for everyone, even if it is a little.” But the Savior said: “Go and see how much bread you have here.” After searching and asking around, it turned out that one boy had five barley loaves and two small baked fish. Despite such a small number, Jesus Christ said: “Bring them to Me here, and tell the people to lie down.” And they all sat down on the grass, and about five thousand people reclined, not counting women and children. Then Jesus Christ took five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven and, having given praise to God, broke the loaves and began to distribute them to His disciples, who took them to the people. And a wonderful thing: they all ate and were filled, so that there were still twelve boxes left (see: Matt. 14:20). Let us pay attention, Orthodox Christian, to how Jesus Christ began the miraculous feeding of the people. Talking about this event, the Evangelist and eyewitness expresses himself this way: looking up to heaven, bless (Matthew 14:19). So, the Savior, before feeding His listeners, turned His eyes to the Heavenly Father, glorified Him, the Giver of all good things, and in mental prayer called on Him for help. Doesn’t this teach you and me, brother beloved in Christ, to turn to the Lord in prayer every time before eating food? And what is the food that we eat? This is a gift given by the generous hand of the Heavenly Father to maintain our life and health. How can someone who eats not remember the One who feeds him? In life we ​​see that food does not always bring a person the desired health, that sometimes, instead of benefiting a person, it causes harm to a person, that people often sit down at the table healthy and leave the table sick. Keeping this in mind, you, Christian, when you begin to eat food, always offer a prayer to God, so that the food you eat will truly benefit and strengthen your body. He who asks through prayer for God's blessing to eat food, who accepts and looks upon it as a gift from the All-Merciful God, and not as a means of pleasing the flesh, always eats it with benefit for his health. Look at the saints of God: they all ate the simplest food, many of them ate nothing but stale bread and water, but they all maintained their strength for many years of labor and hard feat. Nowadays, many people take great care of food in order to maintain their poor health. Let those know that without the blessing of God, even the most expensive, most luxurious food will not have the desired effect on a person, will not restore his bodily strength, broken by a non-Christian way of life. However, fervent prayer offered with faith makes our food not only healthy, but also pleasant for a person. With prayer, even the simplest food becomes for some more pleasant and sweeter than the luxurious foods that decorate the meals of sensualists. They talked about such a case. Not far from Constantinople, in deep silence and solitude, lived one holy ascetic. Everyone revered this hermit for his pious life; many visited him and found edification. One day, dressed as a simple warrior, the Roman emperor himself came to the hermit. In the midst of the conversation, the emperor's eyes accidentally stopped at a basket of dry bread hanging on the wall; suddenly he wanted to taste this bread. The elder happily fulfilled the guest’s wish, brought a bowl of water, put dry bread in it and, after praying, sat down with the guest for his meager meal. When the modest dinner was over, the emperor, revealing himself to the hermit, said: “So I was born a king, and now I reign, but I have never eaten bread or drunk water with such pleasure as I now ate and drank with you. How sweet is your food! In response to these words, the elder remarked to the king: “We hermits take our food with prayer and blessing, which is why our food, although bad, is sweet. But in your houses they drink and eat without prayer, with noise and idle talk, and that is why your rich and luxurious meals are tasteless: they lack the delightful blessing of God.” Unfortunately and to our shame, we must admit that at our table there is an abundance of idle talk, inappropriate laughter is often heard and conversations are carried on. Yes, we forget that, according to our Christian calling, we must do everything for the glory of God, as the Apostle teaches us: whether you eat or drink... do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). Fathers of families and elders in the family! Use your power to establish good order and Christian customs in the family. When occupying the first and senior place at a family meal, first of all, set an example of sedateness and piety for the youngest in your family. Remember that in houses in which pious customs are still sacredly observed, they eat bread in unbroken silence. Above all, take care of decent prayer whenever you use the gifts of God. Let every meal of yours begin and end with the glorification of the Lord, who supplies food to everyone in good season and satisfies all living things according to His good pleasure. Every business should begin with a blessing One day, Grand Duke Izyaslav visited the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk and stayed to dine with him. Simple monastic food was prepared on a simple table: black bread and ordinary vegetables. But this food seemed so tasty to the Grand Duke that he tenderly asked the Monk Theodosius: “I have a lot of everything, expensive supplies, overseas seasoning, learned cooks, but I have never eaten at home with such pleasure as you do, why is this?” “Sovereign! - answered Theodosius, - our brethren, when they want to cook or bake bread, have the following rule: first they take a blessing from the abbot, then they make three bows in front of the altar, light a candle from a lamp in front of the image of the Savior, and with this candle they light a fire in the kitchen and bread room. When it is necessary to pour water into the cauldron, the minister says to the elder: “Bless, father!”, and he will say: “God bless you, child!” Thus, everything is done with blessing. That's why everything is delicious here; and your servants begin every task with grumbling and annoyance at each other. And where there is sin, there can be no pleasure. In addition, your butlers often beat the servants for the slightest fault, and their tears also add bitterness to the food, no matter how expensive they are.” The Grand Duke agreed that the holy elder was telling the truth, accepted his blessing and returned home. When taking on any task, you should always pray to God, or at least cross yourself and say to yourself: “Lord, bless!” Many people, before eating and after eating, forget to offer prayers of thanksgiving to God for the gifts of His mercy - food and drink, without which we could not exist. We are no longer talking about the fact that all the countless blessings of God do not evoke in some a feeling of gratitude to God, therefore let our word be about gratitude to God, as the reading of the Gospel of this day encourages. It is easier to measure the expanses of the heavens and the depths of the abyss of the sea than to measure and know the greatness and number of God’s blessings. Who gave us life? And what kind of life? What a wonderful creation man came from creative hands! God created him in His own image and likeness; You made him less than an angel (see: Ps. 8:6). By Him, the All-Good and All-Effective, we live and move and are (Acts 17:28). The husband's feet are straightened by the Lord. Houses, our cities and kingdoms are built by him. What shall I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? (Ps. 115:3). I am a fallen creature before You, Heavenly Father! What should I expect for myself if not Judgment and Condemnation? We have moved away from You, and You are looking for us. Son of the Eternal Father! You found and took the lost sheep for Your ramen. The faces of the Angels are amazed at Your love, which sacrificed Yourself for the redemption of us sinners. And who, if not the Holy Spirit, creates in people a pure heart and a right spirit! Our soul, upset by sin, only comes to life for God when fervent prayer brings down upon it the grace of the Holy Spirit; all our contentment comes from God. Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His rewards (Ps. 102:2). Hear, O Christian soul, how the Heavenly Father complains about ungrateful Israel; He calls heaven to be a witness and earth to be a hearer of His complaint. Hear, heaven, and inspire, earth; They gave birth to sons and raised them up, but they rejected Me; exposes rational Israel to the example of a foolish animal. The ox has known the one who has acquired it, and the ass has known his master’s manger: but Israel has not known Me, and My people have rejected Me (cf. Isa. 1:2-3). What a strong reproach to Israel! We Christians, more than Israel, have received gifts from the Heavenly Father. How great is our foolishness, how great is the cruelty of our hearts, when we do not recognize with a grateful mind and heart the benefits of God! Awake, rise from humiliation, my soul, into which the sin of heart hardness has plunged you. Confess your wickedness to the Lord and pray to Him to enlighten your mind and ignite your heart with grateful love! If we thank God little, it is, of course, because we do not see God’s good deeds. How does this happen to us? A proud mind recognizes only its own merits and ascribes to itself what it has: this, it says, was acquired by my calculations, this gave me my skill. Pathetic self-delusion! Confront each of us with such proud thoughts in ourselves by reflecting on the immense weakness of our nature; repeat the word of the Apostle: what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it? (1 Cor. 4:7). God was known to the ancients, but they did not honor Him worthy of His glory, they did not thank Him worthy of the benefits they received from Him. Their hearts became cold to the mercies of the Most High, and their love for Him weakened, knowledge about Him was lost; darkness and desolation, vices and impurity increased - man became like senseless cattle. The self-willed wickedness of ingratitude is finally punished by the most extreme uncleanness, which the pagan soul has come to love. The same can happen in Christian hearts. Look around. If God is good to pour out grace on the ungrateful, then He is also just to punish wickedness that despises the gifts of His goodness. The execution of God is the natural fruit of ingratitude, because ingratitude brings spiritual devastation into the soul, drowns out its best dispositions and instills savagery in it. And the more often a grateful soul turns to God with gratitude, the more capable it becomes of accepting the gifts of His goodness. God is good; He only expects us to approach Him for gifts, and He does not hesitate to give them to us; looks with love at our awareness of our weakness and accepts it as our acceptable sacrifice. Do you want to be grateful before the Lord? Sanctify your strength by serving the Lord: do not be lazy, do not refuse to come to the church when called by the church to offer praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Dedicate to the Lord what He has blessed you with; Bring Him the fruits of your labors, may He again send blessings on your labors. Do not neglect the riches of His goodness, and meekness, and long-suffering, as if you do not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance (cf. Rom. 2:4). Give your poor brother what you can: in the person of your brother, the Lord will accept your gift from you as a favorable sacrifice of gratitude to Him. The Lord Himself tells us: since you have made one and the least of these brothers of Mine, you have made them together with Me (Matthew 25:40). Miracles of Divine Providence Fifty years after the appearance of the Holy Cross to King Constantine, Julian the Apostate ascended the throne of the Roman Empire. Raised in the Christian faith, he went over to the side of the pagans and began to persecute Christians. The Lord Jesus Christ predicted to the disciples about the Jerusalem Temple that not one stone would be left upon another - everything would be destroyed, and in the holy place there would stand the abomination of desolation (see: Matt. 24:2-15). Julian ordered the Jews to restore the Jewish church and ordered them to be given money from the public treasury, and ordered the ruler of Palestine to assist in the construction of the church. Many of the emperor’s workers set to work, but, as contemporary Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan courtier of Julian, writes, “terrible clouds of flame, often erupting from the foundation, made this place impregnable, burning those who worked repeatedly; Thus, this enterprise was stopped by the elements, driving away the workers.” Jewish writers also testify to this. Rabbi Ben-Yechaya wrote the following about this in the 5th century: the fire erupted with such force that the iron parts of the building melted, and countless Jews were burned. He saw this as a miracle, but explained it as God’s displeasure, because the temple was being restored by order of a pagan king. But the temple of Solomon was also built by pagan craftsmen, and the second Jewish temple after the Babylonian captivity was built by order of the pagan king of Persia. The great holy fathers of the Church spoke with triumph about this wondrous event in the 4th century. Julian’s contemporary and fellow student, Saint Gregory the Theologian, in his “Tale” against Julian, says that at that time there was a shining cross in the sky, and the clothes of the spectators were imprinted with crosses; Saint John Chrysostom, twenty years later, very eloquently depicted this miraculous event in his “Discourse against Jews and Gentiles.” Other Church Fathers, as well as Christian historians of the 5th century, testify to him, so in reality he cannot be doubted. According to historians, many came running to watch this spectacle of the workers’ struggle with the mysterious fiery element. No natural causes can explain this event. It happens that gases ignite and kill workers, but in dungeons or in closed places, and, moreover, they are ignited by fire, but here the work was carried out in the open air and during the day, and flammable gases, even if they came from the ground, could not ignite with such force, and, of course, during construction work the Jews used everything possible to stop the fire, but the fire became stronger and forced them to abandon construction, to great shame Jews and the emperor himself. Let us note that, in addition to this case, at least four times major work was carried out on this site from the foundation, firstly, during the construction of the Temple of Solomon, secondly, during the construction of the temple after the Babylonian captivity, thirdly, under King Herod during the great reconstructions in the temple and extensions to it and, fourthly, at the beginning of the 7th century during the construction of a Mohammedan mosque on this very site, which still stands today. There were no clouds of flame in those buildings from the foundation, but under Julian there was the most persistent fire! Truly this is a great worldwide miracle that took place in the eyes of the inhabitants of a big city: Christians, Jews and pagans. Julian was then killed by an unknown hand in the war with the Persians, paganism no longer rebelled, and the Jews were still without a temple and victims. Another case of a miraculous manifestation of God's Providence. Under Emperor Valens, the Arians began to publicize that the famous ascetic Julian, who lived in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River, was participating in their teaching. Julian, at the request of the bishops of the Antiochian Patriarchate, came to Antioch in Syria. Having healed many sick people in the house where he was staying, he went to a meeting of Orthodox Christians. When he passed under the gates of the royal chambers, one beggar, weakened by his legs, touched his cloak with his hands, was healed and, rising, ran as if he were not sick. The slanderers (Arians) were covered with shame, but the Orthodox rejoiced. A certain important man sent servants to ask the elder to come to him and heal him of his illness. Julian immediately came to him and, after praying, resolved the illness with a word. This is what the historian, Bishop Theodoret, writes, from the words of eyewitness Akakios, Bishop of Verei. Descriptions of miracles have reached us in the writings of Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa and others who lived in the 4th century. In their writings, they talk about various miracles that happened to themselves, to members of their families, and to other contemporaries. Saint Athanasius the Great described the life of Saint Anthony the Great. She is all full of great miracles. Palladius, Bishop of Elenopolis, in Lavsaik, wrote about many miracles of the ascetics of Egypt and other countries who lived in the 4th century, as their contemporary and eyewitness. We have many of the most reliable descriptions of miracles in the Church of Christ that took place in all subsequent centuries. Thus, the evidence of the Divinity of the Christian faith, revealed and revealed from above by God Himself, starting from the first people on earth, extends to our time. Despite the fact that today there are people among Christians who, seeing, do not see the works of God and, hearing, do not hear about them. Faithful Christians have the duty to pray, that those who are stuck in unbelief will turn to the path of truth, and that the glorified God in the Trinity will heal them, to Him be glory, honor and worship forever and ever. You might be interested in: