From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Royal Road of the Holy Cross (5)   
      
   Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation   
   of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times   
   troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow   
   weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any   
   remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He   
   wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit   
   yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through   
   suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or   
   heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 12   
      
      
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   November 4th – St. Joannicius of Mt. Olympus, Hermit   
      
   A soldier in the Byzantine army, seeing active service against the   
   Bulgars; left the service at 40 became a monk and hermit on the   
   Bithynian Olympus. While at the monastery near Brusa the second   
   iconoclast controversy began in 818; Joannicius, who had formerly   
   favored the iconoclasts, now showed himself a vigorous opponent of   
   them.  He was greatly respected among the prophetical figures of his   
   time, and both Saint Theodore the Studite and Saint Methodius of   
   Constantinople consulted him. He counselled moderation in their   
   treatment of iconoclasts--unusual enough advice from a monk in that   
   struggle.   
      
   Joannicius was born in Bithynia in the year 752 in the village of   
   Marikat. His parents were destitute and could not provide him even the   
   basics of an education. From childhood he had to tend the family   
   cattle, their sole wealth. Love for God and prayer completely   
   dominated the soul of the child Joannicius. Often, having shielded the   
   herd with the Sign of the Cross, he went to a secluded place and spent   
   the whole day praying, and neither thieves nor wild beasts came near   
   his herd.   
      
   By order of the emperor Leo IV (775-780), a multitude of officials   
   went through the cities and towns to draft young men for military   
   service. Young Joannicius was also drafted into the imperial army. He   
   earned the respect of his fellow soldiers for his good disposition,   
   but he was also a brave soldier who struck fear in the hearts of his   
   enemies. St. Joannicius served in the imperial army for six years.   
   More than once he was rewarded by his commanders and the emperor. But   
   military service weighed heavily on him, his soul thirsted for   
   spiritual deeds and solitude.   
      
   St. Joannicius, having renounced the world, longed to go at once into   
   the wilderness. However, on the advice of an Elder experienced in   
   monastic life, he spent a further two years at the monastery. Here the   
   saint became accustomed to monastic obedience, to monastic rules and   
   practices. He studied reading and writing, and he learned thirty   
   Psalms of David by heart.   
      
   After this, commanded by God to go to a certain mountain, the monk   
   withdrew into the wilderness. For three years he remained in deep   
   solitude in the wilderness, and only once a month a shepherd brought   
   him some bread and water. The ascetic spent day and night in prayer   
   and psalmody. After each verse of singing the Psalms St. Joannicius   
   made a prayer, which the Orthodox Church keeps to this day in a   
   somewhat altered form, “The Father is my hope, the Son is my refuge,   
   the Holy Spirit is my protection.”   
      
   By chance, he encountered some of his former companions from military   
   service. The saint fled the wilderness and withdrew to Mount   
   Kountourea to hide himself from everyone. Only after twelve years of   
   ascetic life did the hermit accept monastic tonsure. The saint spent   
   three years in seclusion after being tonsured. wrapped in chains, Then   
   he went to a place called Chelidon to see the great ascetic St. George   
   (February 21). The ascetics spent three years together. During this   
   time St. Joannicius learned the entire Psalter by heart. As he grew   
   older, St. Joannicius settled in the Antidiev monastery and dwelt   
   there in seclusion until his death.   
      
   St. Joannicius spent seventy years in ascetic deeds and attained to a   
   high degree of spiritual perfection. Through the mercy of God the   
   saint acquired the gift of prophecy, as his disciple Pachomius has   
   related. The Elder also levitated above the ground when he prayed.   
   Once, he crossed a river flooded to overflowing. The saint could make   
   himself invisible for people and make others also hidden from sight.   
      
   Once, St. Joannicius led Greek captives out of prison under the very   
   eyes of the guards. Poison and fire, with which the envious wanted to   
   destroy the saint, did him no harm, and predatory beasts did not touch   
   him. He freed the island of Thasos from a multitude of snakes. St.   
   Joannicius also saved a young nun who was preparing to leave the   
   monastery to marry; he took upon himself the agonized maiden's   
   suffering of passion, and by fasting and prayer, he overcame the   
   seductive assault of the devil.   
      
   Foreseeing his death, St. Joannicius fell asleep in the Lord on   
   November 4, 846, at the age of 94. Saint Joannicius was over   
    90 when he died at the monastery of Antidium (Attwater).    
   He is highly venerated among the Greeks (Attwater, Benedictines).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master   
   who pays well, who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of   
   Him.   
   -- Saint Dominic Savio   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why   
   do you not believe me? 47 He that is of God, heareth the words of God.   
   Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.  (John   
   8:46-47)  DRB   
      
      
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   The Promised Gift   
      
      "Christ grants justification to those who believe in him, simply   
   because they have faith and not because they serve the law. The   
   blessing granted to Abraham for his exemplary faith is extended to the   
   Gentiles, so that we may receive the promised Spirit through faith.   
      In other words, the promised gift to believers is not a spirit of   
   outward observance but one of inward devotion inspired by love."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Galatians 22   
      
   Prayer: O truly full of grace! Who can explain this grace? Who is able   
   to give thanks for this grace?   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 290, 5   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)