Spiritual Message of the Day from Fr Augustinos:
The Saints are alive
Our church is rich with many saints and angels who are alive and are with us in every liturgy around the altar and the body and blood of Christ. They are there to intercede for us day and night in front of the throne of God. We need to teach are children constantly the importance of the lives of saints and how they lived and reached sanctity and their presence with us. The church reminds us to read the book of saints Synaxarion everyday so we can imitate their lives.
One saint said “if we were to know what happens around the altar of God with its angels and saint and the presence of the glory of God, we would not want to leave the church”
A nice story taken from Orthodoxsaintstories Instagram page
The Late Fr. Yousef Assad a well-known priest tells a Story “One time a certain Priest began praying the Divine Liturgy until he reached the section of the Commemoration of Saints. When he began to say the part and “Most of all the pure, full of Glory the ever Virgin the Holy Theotokos St Mary .. he immediately saw a young woman dressed in the purest white garment standing the east of the Sanctuary, facing the Altar, and when said St John the Baptist he would also appear and stand beside St Mary, and he said St Stephen he would also appear and stand in the Altar. And this occurred at the utterance of every name of the saints in the commemoration until the Altar area was full and crowed with saints.
The Priest motioned to the young deacon standing beside him and whispered to him “move aside and make room my son, the altar is crowded because of the saints, and I haven’t even finished the commemoration yet!’
The deacon was confused and looked around him and there was one else there but him, there was no one in the Altar area.
The Priest replied, interrupting the prayer, “may the Lord open your eyes, my son!” And at that moment the eyes of the deacon were indeed opened, and he saw many, many saints standing all around him, wearing white garments, with faces shining like the sun. The deacon was terrified and fell to the ground on his face, praying with fear and trembling.
From that moment and even until this deacon himself was later ordained a priest this young deacon would not allow himself to hear the commemoration of the saints without kneeling on his knees in fear, constantly remembering the day he and his spiritual father witnessed this magnificent sight.