Volume V, Number 7 A friendly Orthodox Christian ‘Zine JULY 2010 Happy Birthday, United States of America! July 4, 1776 — July 4, 2010 We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have because freedom is not free. Enjoy Your Freedom & pray for Our Troops & pray for those in Authority. THE FRUIT BASKET Edited and published monthly by An Orthodox Christian The goal of this publication is to provide a friendly, light, Orthodox Christian ’Zine (a mini-magazine) that contains a blend of “some- thing to exercise our minds, something to make us laugh, and some- thing to make us meditate on spiritual matters.” It is also a venue for sharing our insights and interests. Articles or comments from our readers are welcome. We reserve the right to edit for suitability, clarity and space. Printing of items does not imply endorsement by the church or the priest or even the editor of this publication. Please call if you need more info. Send comments or articles by phone to Margaret 440-238-7867 after 6 pm. Email to [email protected] or by snail mail to The FRUIT BASKET, 18893 Howe Road www.sttheodosius.org Click Parish Publications archives for back PRAY FOR THOSE IN AUTHORITY... Therefore I exhort, first of all, that suplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. I Timothy 2:1-2. NKJV 2 The FRUIT BASKET JULY 2010 MEDITATION FOR JULY Man has not invented God; he has developed faith to meet God already there. —Edna St. Vincent Millay And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you...Let your hearts be filled with God alone... —James 4:8 TLB the Bless Your Heart Each New Day Calendar donated by Kathy Z, of Parma THE HOLY AND GREAT MARTYR MARINA Comemmorated on July 17 The story of the life of this great martyr can be found on page 5. 3 THE HOLY PROPHET ELIJAH Commemorated on July 20 The Holy Prophet Elijah is one of the greatest of the prophets. He was born in Tishba of Gilead into the Levite tribe 900 years before the Incarnation of the Word of God. Called to prophetic service, which put him in conflict with the Israelite king Ahab, the prophet became a fiery zealot of true faith and piety. Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, was devoted to idol worship. She persuaded her husband to build a temple to the pagan god Baal, which led many Israelites away from the worship of the true God. Behold- ing the ruin of his nation, the Prophet Elijah began to de- nounce King Ahab for impiety, and exhorted him to repent and turn to the God of Israel. The king would not listen to him. The Prophet Elijah then declared to him, that as punishment there would be neither rain nor dew upon the ground, and the drought would cease only by his prayer. Indeed, the word of Elijah was a torch (Eccles. 48: 1) The heavens were closed for three and a half years, and there was drought and famine throughout all the land. During this time of tribulation, the Lord sent him to a cave beyond the Jordan. There he was miraculously fed by ravens. Because of his fiery zeal for the Glory of God the Prophet Elijah was taken up alive into Heaven in a fiery chariot. According to the Tradition of Holy Church, the Prophet Elijah will be the Forerunner of the Dread Second Coming of Christ. He will proclaim the truth of Christ, urge all to repentance, and will be slain by the Antichrist. This will be a sign of the end of the world. The life of the holy Prophet Elijah is recorded in the Old Testament books (3 Kings; 4 Kings; Sirach/Ecclesiastes 48: 1-15; 1 Maccabees 2: 58). At the time of the Transfiguration, the Prophet Elijah conversed with the Savior upon Mount Tabor (Mt. 17: 3; Mark 9: 4; Luke. 9: 30). á 4 The FRUIT BASKET JULY 2010 THE HOLY GREAT MARTYR MARINA Commemorated on July 17 The Holy Great Martyr Marina (Margaret) was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Antioch of Pisidia (southern Asia Minor), into the family of a pagan priest. In infancy she lost her mother, and her father gave her into the care of a nursemaid, who raised Marina in the Orthodox Faith. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, the father angrily disowned her. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), when she was fifteen years old, St Marina was arrested and locked up in prison. With firm trust in the will of God and His help, the young prisoner prepared for her impending fate. The governor Olymbrios, charmed with the beautiful girl, tried to persuade her to renounce the Christian Faith and become his wife. But the saint, unswayed, refused his offers. The vexed governor gave the holy martyr over to torture. Having beaten her fiercely, they fastened the saint with nails to a board and tore at her body with tridents. The governor himself, unable to bear the horror of these tortures, hid his face in his hands. But the holy martyr remained unyield- ing. Thrown for the night into prison, she was granted heavenly aid and healed of her wounds. They stripped her and tied her to a tree, then burned the martyr with fire. Barely alive, the martyr prayed: “Lord, You have granted me to go through fire for Your Name, grant me also to go through the water of holy Baptism.” Hearing the word “water”, the governor gave orders to drown the saint in a large cauldron. The martyr besought the Lord that this manner of execution should become for her holy Baptism. When they plunged her into the water, there suddenly shone a light, and a snow-white dove came down from Heaven, bearing in its beak a golden crown. The fetters put upon St Marina came apart by themselves. The martyr stood up in the fount of Baptism glorifying the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. St Marina emerged from the fount com- pletely healed, without any trace of burns. Amazed at this miracle, the people glorified the True God, and many came to believe. This brought the governor into a rage, and he gave orders to kill anyone who might confess the Name of Christ. 15,000 Christians perished there, and the holy Martyr Marina was beheaded. The sufferings of the Great Martyr Marina were described by an eyewitness of the event, named Theotimos. Up until the taking of Constantinople by Western crusaders in the year 1204, the relics of the Great Martyr Marina were in the Panteponteia monastery. Accord- ing to other sources, they were located in Antioch until the year 908 and from there transferred to Italy. Now they are in Athens, in a church dedicated to the holy Virgin Martyr. Her venerable hand was transferred to Mount Athos, to the Batopedi monastery. á (An icon of the Holy Great Martyr Marina can be seen on page 3.) 5 PRAYING WITH THE ORTHODOX TRADITION (This little book was first introduced in The Fruit Basket in September 2007. Following is another set of prayers chosen from the many beautiful prayers included in the book. The Editor) The prayers found on the next few pages are just a sampling of the beautiful prayers found in a little book, Praying With the Orthodox Tradition, compiled by Stephano Parenti, and translated by Paula Clifford. Below are excerpts from the Foreword by Bishop Kallistos Ware. “Basing himself on one of the most ancient of Greek liturgical manuscripts, the Barberini Codex 336, dating from the late eighth century, he [Stephano Parenti] has chosen from it the prayers said by the celebrant during the twenty-four hour cycle of the daily services. So we are shown how Christ, the maker and Lord of time, can be brought into all the different moments of our day. “The Barberini Codex provides a far fuller series of prayers than can be found in the modern printed service books. Thus, for Orthodox no less than Western Christians, this present collection contains much that will be refreshingly new. “The prayers also connect the different moments of the day with events in the history of salvation. (See individual prayers) Time is in this way taken up into God’s saving action and experienced, not as loss or meaningless repetition, but as sacred and redeeming time, Kairos, the moment of truth and opportunity.” “Four themes recur constantly in the pages that follow. First, the prayers are marked by a strong sense of God’s holiness and mystery, by a spirit of reverence and wonder.We approach the living God ‘in fear and trembling’, “in love and awe’. Negative or apophatic language is used to underline the divine transcendence: God’s power is “indescribable’ and his goodness is ‘unutterable’; ‘your glory cannot be approached...no one has ever seen you nor is able to see you...who alone are holy, immeasurable and beyond human expression...incomprehensible in being. Such language, so far from being an empty formality, expresses a vivid, inescapable conviction 6 The FRUIT BASKET JULY 2010 pervading all Orthodox theology. Yet Orthodoxy feels the nearness as well as the otherness of God. Transcendent, ineffable, he is also at the core of everything, closer to us than our own heart, ‘everywhere present and filling all things’, as we say to the Holy Spirit in an invocation at the start of each service.