The Lord of Angels

[Weedy]

The Lord of Angels

"Do you see how he [Jesus] leads him [Nathanael] up little by little
from the earth and causes him no longer to imagine him as merely a
man? For one to whom angels minister and on whom angels ascend and
descend, how could he be a man? This is why he said, 'You shall see
greater things than these.' And to prove this, he introduces the
ministry of angels. What he means is something like this: Does this, O
Nathanael, seem to you a great matter, and have you for this confessed
me to be King of Israel? What then will you say when you see 'angels
ascending and descending on me'? He persuades him by these words to
receive him as Lord also of the angels. For on him as on the king's
own son, the royal ministers ascended and descended, once at the
season of the crucifixion, again at the time of the resurrection and
the ascension, and before this also, when they 'came and ministered to
him' (Matthew 4:11). They also ascended and descended when they
proclaimed the good news of his birth and cried, 'Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace' (Luke 2:14), when they came to Mary and
also when they came to Joseph... Our Lord made the present a proof of
the future. After the powers he had already shown, Nathanael would
readily believe that much more would follow."
by John Chrysostom (excerpt from the Homilies On the Gospel of John 21.1)

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August 30th - Saint Fantinus of San Mercurius, Abbot
Also known as Fantinus of Calabria, Fantinus the Younger, Fantino….
c. 980

At Thessalonica, St. Fantinus, confessor, who suffered much from the
Saracens, and was driven from his monastery, in which he had lived in
great abstinence. After having brought many to the way of salvation,
he rested at last at an advanced age.

This Fantinus is said to have been abbot of the Greek monastery of St.
Mercury in Calabria. After some years he claimed that the voice of
God was telling him to leave the monastery and he accordingly did so,
wandering about the countryside from place to place, sleeping in the
open, and living on fruit and herbs. When he came to a church or
monastery he lamented and prophesied woe; when he met a monk he wept
over him as though he were a dead man. When his friends, much upset
by this strange behaviour, tried to induce him to return to the
monastery, he only replied that there would soon be no monastery to
return to and that he would die in a foreign land. In due course the
Saracens devastated Calabria, the monastery of St. Mercury was
destroyed, and St. Fantinus with two disciples went overseas and
landed in the Peloponnesus. He lived for a time at Corinth and at
Larissa in Thessaly, and then moved to Salonika, where his miracles
and virtues made him famous. Here he died.

Not much that is reliable is known of this saint, though the
Bollandists have devoted a few pages to him in the Acta Sanctorum,
August, vol. vi. It is apparently this Fantinus who figures in the
Constantinople synaxaries on November 14; though in an Italo-Greek
synaxary he is assigned to August 30. See J. Rendel Harris, Further
Researches into the Ferrar Group (1900), with Delehaye's comments in
the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxi (1902); pp. 23-28. The story seems
to be nothing but legend and confusion, including possibly confusion
between two holy men, both named Fantinus.


Saint Quote:
Let us raise ourselves from our fall and not give up hope as long as
we are free from sin. Jesus Christ came into this world to save
sinners. 'Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves and weep before
him' (Psalm 95:6). The Word calls us to repentance, crying out: 'Come
to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh
you' (Matthew 11:28). There is, then, a way to salvation if we are
willing to follow it"
--Saint Basil the Great

Bible Quote:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14) RSVCE


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The Great Truths [6] How to Attain our End

One thing I do; forgetting the things that are behind and stretching
forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark.
(Phil. 3:13-14)

Every one desires to succeed in life. A man who desired ultimate
failure would justly be regarded as a lunatic. If I am to carry out my
desire, I must look around me and see what sort of men succeed.

When I look at successful men, I find, in them three characteristics:

(1) A spirit of cheerfulness and confidence. They know how to look at
everything from its best side. They are always hopeful about the
future and confident of success. This it is that brings success. Hence
I must pray for confidence.

(2) A spirit of perseverance. They are not discouraged by failures.
They recover themselves without delay. What a lesson for me not to
lose heart, but to say : "When I fall I will rise again, and that
promptly."

(3) A spirit of single-mindedness. They keep the end in view steadily
before them. If I am to achieve the purpose of my life, to succeed in
coming to God at last, I must keep Him always before me.

What can make my life so happy as this-- to know that I am drawing
nearer to God? Yet there will be dark times and days of despondency.
Still, beneath the surface, there will be hope and peace, even amid
the darkness.

Pray for cheerfulness and an earnest purpose to live for God.