РОСА МИЛОСЕРДИЯ

With cheerful prayer and countless prayers, be generous to us, and grant to our souls Your MERCY, flowing forth forever (In the Great Vespers). Before the gates of the Elias Monastery lay a beggar named Stefan, very sick. His legs were covered with terrible scabs, so that he could not walk at all. Lying for a whole summer and begging for alms from those who came in, he reached the limit of his illness, wishing it would be better to die than to live in such sorrow. Then he began to diligently pray to the Most Holy Theotokos to have mercy on him, promising to work in that monastery until the end of his life if she would grant him healing and strength. And he was like purulent Lazarus, lying before the monastery gates and wanting a grain of grace from the Queen, rich in mercy, gracious of Heaven and earth, which he did not lose. He, no longer hoping to receive health, accepted the healing and felt a renewed strength in himself, who worked in the monastery, magnifying his Merciful Healer. Neither in heaven nor on earth will you find greater mercy from God than the Mother of God. Angels are merciful in heaven, for they intercede for us and take up arms around us, but David saw one of them mercilessly killing people (see 2 Sam. 24:17). Many people on earth are merciful, but not like the Virgin Mary, Her mercy is like God’s: both are called the abyss. About God’s mercy, Damascus says: “We are contained in the abyss of sin; I call upon the unsearchable abyss of Thy mercy” (Octoechos, chapter 2, song 6). About the Theotokos he says: “Let me call upon the abyss of Thy mercy, O Thou Who has given birth to the Blessed One” (Canon of the Prayer Service to the Theotokos, hymn 4). Who can measure this abyss? Oh, the incomprehensible depth of mercy for the human race! The world, like a hospital, is full of cripples. There are more of them than those lying in the five porches at the font of the Sheep. And who heals them? You, Most Gracious Queen! In the Sheep's Pool, once in a year of disturbance, water was poured out, and then only one sick person was healed. In You, Mother of God, the waters of mercy always boil, not just one a year, but healing countless cripples. And will anyone consider the healings that happen from Your mercy, not only here, in the Elias Monastery from Your miraculous icon, but also in other places: in the holy Pechersk Lavra, in the New Dvor, in Kupyatitsy, in the monasteries of various countries and cities, especially in the glorious God-saved reigning city of great Russia, where the icons of Your image became famous for countless miracles: Kazan, Vladimir, Smolensk and others, without number. From them may they collect the healed cripples, may they number those who have been consoled from their sorrows, may they gather together those who have taken a plaster for mental ulcers! But who is capable of doing this?! “Rather, in spring there are flowers, in summer we will count the classes, In autumn there are fruits, in winter there is snow, in the head there is hair, Rather, we can measure the drops in the sea. And quickly count all the stars of grief, Rather than counting Mary’s miracles.” Vespasian was merciful to the Egyptians, saying: “Draw from me, Egyptians, as from your Nile,” that is: “Just as the Nile River, from which you draw everything, gives you endless waters, so my goodness is endless.” But he falsely likened himself with his charity to a river, he who can fit into small handfuls... The comparison should be applied to the River of God, the Virgin Mary, for She was filled with the waters of grace. He waters not only Egypt, but the entire Universe, east and west, noon and midnight with inexhaustible streams of His mercy. Ask any faithful: have you not received Her mercy? Everyone will say: there is nothing higher for me, either on earth or in heaven, than She, according to my Lord Jesus Christ. “The imams have no other help, no other intercession, no consolation” (prayer on the Akathist), except the Mother of God. I think only those who will remain silent about Her mercy will remember how they left Her empty and unheard. But who is not heard, who is not pardoned, who is not gifted? Only those who have never resorted to Her, although She is good and do not seek Her... Show yourself merciful to me too, O Blessed One! Having partaken of God's and the Theotokos' mercy, and being healed before the monastery gates, Stefan repaid this by working diligently in that monastery. We, sinners, covered every hour by the mercy of the Most High, do not want to serve Him faithfully, but we serve the world and its vanities, the body and its lusts and demonic charms more than the Lord. Woe to us, for we choose the worst instead of the best, we serve our passions instead of God. Woe, for whatever lust attracts a person, to whatever thing his heart becomes attached, that is his Lord and God. So Saint Jerome explains: “Whoever has a god has a belly, he has a new god. As many sins as we have, there are so many new gods: if I become angry, anger is my God; I look at my wife with lust, lust is my God. And whatever we desire, we have God.” Let us serve the One Supreme God, without listening, without serving vain masters, for we cannot serve two masters - we will love one and hate the other, or we will take care of one and neglect the other. “We cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Saint Gregory says: “No one can serve the Almighty God and please His enemies in the same matter, because he does not want to be a friend of God who pleases His enemy.” And in “Dioptra”: “God did not allow Himself and Dagon to serve the same altar, and the Philistines were never granted this, although they tried with all their might (see 1 Samuel 5). God does not want there to be a place for sin where His Divine Face is found; He does not tolerate both Himself and the world having worshipers.” There are many things that work for the light, the body and the demon. Anyone who wants to live in Bose will count it as nothing. Saint Joasaph, the Indian prince, so as not to serve the world, left his earthly kingdom. In order not to serve the body, he refused the love of a beautiful maiden. In order not to serve the delights of demons, he trampled on idols. Finally, he counted everything as rubbish in order to find Christ and serve Him in honor and righteousness until his death in the desert. 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