On St. Spyridon
On Tuesday, 12/25 December, we will celebrate our parish feastday, the commemoration of our Father among the saints, Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythus, the Wonderworker. I urge you to reflect deeply on how much the Lord has done for us through this wonderful saint, whom we are undeservedly privileged to have as our patron and protector, and to give thanks to God and to our saint through worthily celebrating this sacred feast.
We worthily celebrate a feast of a saint when we imitate the virtues that he showed in his life. The period of the Nativity Fast which we are about to begin is an ideal time to reflect on St. Spyridon’s virtues and begin to practice them little by little in our own lives, so as to purify our hearts to greet the saint on his day and then to greet our Incarnate God on the Great Feast of His Nativity.
I would like to point out three great qualities of St. Spyridon, which I call upon everyone to imitate:
1) Great zeal for the Orthodox faith: We all know the history of the saint’s boldness at the First Ecumenical Council (325 AD), and the miracle of the fire and water coming from the tile, which he worked to teach the dogma of the Holy Trinity. God gave him such grace not to put on a show or do ‘spiritual fireworks’, but so the power of God would be manifest in response to his great faith. We need to be bold about our Orthodoxy, plainly and simply, without anger but without cowardice, to tell others that we totally believe in Orthodoxy and we won’t compromise. Christ God will give us abundant grace and joy if we risk a little bravery.
2) Humility and patient labors: St. Spyridon went on quietly, as a farmer and shepherd, even after being made bishop, and at the same time labored tremendously for his spiritual flock as well. He was not ashamed to be a lowly person in worldly terms. We need to work for the Church quietly and humbly, with persistence. Other people may think that our parish is ‘too small’ or that we are not ‘important’. That’s fine. We don’t want to be important, but rather to hold the things of God in honor, to show with our lives that really only God is important!
3) Mercy to others: In the life of the saint, we see how he changed the serpent into gold to help the poor man, forgave those who cheated and wronged him, healed the sick, brought down rain from heaven during drought, and performed many other acts of mercy. We have many chances in church, family, and work life to be merciful, especially by not judging and not gossiping, and forgiving those who wrong us. Let us resolve to start the Christmas Lent with a clean slate, forgiving everyone and promising God and St. Spyridon that with the grace of God helping us, we will be merciful.
Through the prayers of St. Spyridon, may we all have a peaceful and joyful Nativity Fast, a blessed parish feast, and glorious Nativity!