- 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 -
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at
home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by
sight.
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at
home with the Lord.
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Paul was not afraid to die because he was confident of spending eternity
with Christ. Of course, facing the unknown may cause us anxiety and
leaving
loved ones hurts deeply, but if we believe in Jesus Christ, we can share
Paul's hope and confidence of eternal life in Christ.
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January 14th - St. Sava of Serbia.
(also known as Sabas)
Born in Serbia, in 1174; died at Trnovo (Tirnovo), Bulgaria, January 14,
1237.
Ratsko (Rastho) was the youngest of three sons of Stephen I, founder of
the
Serbian dynasty of the Nemanydes. He became a monk on the Greek peninsula
of
Mount Athos at age 17 (1191) and took the name Sabas (Sava in Serbian). He
was
later joined there by his father, who abdicated in 1196 and took the name
Simeon. They founded Khilandari Monastery for Serbian monks on Mount
Athos,
which remains one of the 17 ruling monasteries of the Holy Mountain.
During
the
Middle Ages, it was the center of Serbian culture.
Sava became abbot, and he was known for is gentleness and skill in
training
novices. He began to translate books into Serbian, and there is at
Khilandari a
psalter and ritual that are signed by the copier, "I, the unworthy, lazy
monk
Sava." (It should be noted that several sources, with less reliable dates,
say
that Sava was nearly 70 before anything that follows happened. I think
it's
more
judicious to trust the dates given.)
In 1207 he returned home when his brothers, Stephen II and Vulkan, began
to
quarrel and civil war broke out. He also found the country in a state of
religious disorder. Clergy were scattered and mostly illiterate. Sava sent
the
monks who had accompanied him to do missionary and pastoral work. (Farmer
says
that Sava brought back to Studenitsa Monastery his father's relics in
1208.)
From his headquarters at Studenitsa Monastery, where he had settled, Sava
founded a number of smaller monasteries near the inhabited areas and began
the
reformation and education of his homeland. He was sent by his brother,
Stephen
II, to Nicaea to see the Eastern emperor and patriarch, who had sought a
harbor
there from the Frankish invaders at Constantinople.
He succeeded in obtaining Serbian emancipation from the jurisdiction of
the
Greek archbishop of Okhrida in Bulgaria. Sava himself was designated the
first
metropolitan of the new Serbian hierarchy by Emperor Theodore II Laskaris
(related to Sava's family) at Nicaea; and was ordained, though for
political
reasons unwillingly, by the exiled Byzantine Patriarch Manuel I (or
Patriarch
Germanus of Constantinople) in 1219 at Nicaea.
He returned home by way of Mount Athos, bringing books and more monks with
him.
He set about reforming and organizing the Church and, in 1222, Sava
crowned
his
brother Stephen II, King of Serbia. (Stephen II had already been crowned
by
a
papal legate in 1217; but this time Pope Honorius III sent a crown in
response
to a request from Sava, who had informed the Holy See of his episcopal
ordination.) Through his efforts, Sava finished the uniting of his people
that
had been begun by his father. Serbs, Greeks, and Latin-speaking natives
learned
to live together under his leadership.
He is credited with giving the Serbians bishops and clergy of their own
nationality, founded eight bishoprics, built churches in Zica, (his
cathedral),
Pec, Milesevo, and others. He also did much to further education in that
country, including the translation of religious works into Serbian and the
establishment of schools. He composed two Typica or Rules for his
monastery,
wrote a vita and Office of his father Simeon (canonized in 1216), and
penned
the
Law of Simeon and Sava, which provides us with some insights regarding the
Serbian peasantry. He also commissioned translations of Greek religious
works,
which propounded doctrinal orthodoxy and refuted the errors of the
Bogomils.
Even with all this activity, Sava was always a monk at heart. He had left
Mount
Athos simply for the sake of his countrymen: "If you listen to me, and if
God
enables me to do good among you, if you become holy and one in God, there
will
be twofold gain and salvation will be ours."
From time to time he would retire to an inaccessible hermitage near
Studenitsa
to gain strength for perseverance in the tasks he had set himself. He made
two
trips to Palestine and the Near East. On his way home from the second trip
(1230), during which he had founded a hospice for Serbian pilgrims to
Jerusalem,
built the monastery of Saint John there, and arranged for the reception of
Serbian monks at Mount Sinai and other distant monasteries, he was taken
ill
and
died at Trnovo in Bulgaria. His people called him 'Saint Sava the
Enlightener.'
When he died his followers attributed to him all manner of wisdom. The
most
delightful is that he taught the Serbs that they could plough a field both
ways,
instead of dragging the plough backwards after each furrow to start again
from
the same end of the field, as they did before. King Ladislaus translated
his
relics to Milesevo in 1237, where they were destroyed by the Turks in
1594.
Nevertheless, his cultus continued to spread through the rich
iconographical
tradition and by the revival of Serbian nationalism in the 19th century.
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer,
Walsh, White).
Saint Quote:
"Sometimes, my heart becomes heavy and the task appears insoluble if I
measure
my own human imperfection and inadequacy against the greatness of the
obligation
and the weight of the responsibility. If a generation must pay the highest
price, death, for its short life, we look for the answer in ourselves in
vain.
We find it only in Him in whose hand we are safe in life and in death. We
never
know what problems are waiting to test the power and strength of our
souls....
Man's ways lie in obscurity. But even darkness is not without light. Hope
and
faith, which always hasten ahead of us, already have a presentiment of the
breaking of a new dawn. If we know that the best thing in us, the soul, is
immortal, then we also know that we shall meet each other again".
--Blessed Nikolaus Gross
Bible Quote:
Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them? (St.
Matthew 9:15)
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Father, I abandon myself into Your hands;
Do with me whatever You will.
Whatever You may do, I thank You.
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me,
And in all Your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into Your hands I commend my spirit;
I offer it to You, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into Your hands,
Without reserve and with boundless confidence,
For You are my Father.
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