Feast Day: April 6th
The Life of Saint Sebastian: Saint Sebastian was placed in a forced labour camp in the summer of 1933 and was transferred to Karaganda in Kazakhstan in May of 1934. He remained there, subjected to beatings and tortures in an attempt to destroy his faith, until the eve of the Ascension, 1939…
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Prayers
Troparion – Tone 3: O servant of the Holy Trinity, Earthly Angel and Heavenly man, successor of the Spiritual Eldership of Optina, initiate of the Mysteries of Christ and Confessor, all-honorable abode of the Holy Spirit, Holy and Venerable Father Sebastian, ask for the world peace, and for our Souls great mercy.
Kontakion – Tone 3: Let us glorify, O ye faithful him who hath entered into the joy of the Risen Lord, the fellow-member of the choir of the Elders of Optina, sharer in the lot of the Martyrs and Confessors, co-celebrant with the initiates of God’s Mysteries, Earthly Angel and Heavenly man, Godly adornment of the city of Karaganda, exceeding great intercessor for the land of Kazakhstan, praise of the Church of Russia, and let us cry out to him with gladness: Rejoice O our all-honoured and Venerable Sebastian.
“There is a profound divide between us Monks and the world. The world will never understand our lives and we will never understand theirs. If the Monks knew in advance how many temptations and sorrows awaited them on the narrow but life-saving path, no one would go to the Monastery. Likewise, if the world knew about the future benefits for the Monks, everyone would go to the Monastery.”
“For your sake the Lord Himself was born in a manger of dumb beasts and suffered. He was insulted, spat upon, crowned with thorns, and was nailed to the Cross by the hand of his own creation. He suffered and died so as afterwards to be Glorified and exalted. But you, O man, what can you be proud of? What do you possess that is truly yours, which is fit for Eternity? You won’t take your riches with you, and honour, glory, and health are temporal. Let us enrich ourselves for the future, and gather our wealth there through beggards, the poor, and the sick. You are a citizen of Heaven, so why are you glued to the Earth?! You are an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven and you possess an immortal Soul, which the Only-begotten Son Himself redeemed by His death upon the Cross.”
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“I demand one thing – love one another, so that there will always be peace among you. Peace and love! If you will obey me in this – and I implore you to do this – then you will be my children. I am unworthy and sinful, but the Lord has much love and mercy. I place my hope in Him. And if the Lord will vouchsafe me His radiant abode, I’ll Pray for you unceasingly. I’ll say, ‘Lord, Lord! I’m not alone; all my children are with me. I can’t enter in without them; I can’t be alone in Thy radiant habitations. They were entrusted to me by Thee.’”
“You should find faults with yourself, not with other people or things that you have not managed to deal with properly. This is the same way a child deals with fire or a sword: he burns himself and cuts himself.”
“Tolerate each other’s failures and imperfections, for therein lies Salvation. Fire is not extinguished by fire, but by water. Likewise, evil is vanquished only by love.”
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“Teaching others is like throwing stones from a bell tower. Doing things yourself is like dragging stones onto a bell tower.”
“For your failure to fast without a valid excuse, there will come a time when you fall ill. In that case, you will have to fast against your will. The Lord will allow it to happen for your sins.”
“One illness will go away, the other will come in its place.”
“We need to be sick sometimes or we won’t be Saved. Diseases are gifts from above!”
“Thank God when you are sick.”
“What else do you expect to do to be saved? There is no other way than that.”
“No one will inherit both kingdoms at once. Whoever lives here for the pleasure of his own flesh and disregards his Soul shall be denied the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Sinner, abandon your passions and sinful habits. Heaven, with more than ninety-nine righteous ones is calling you! The Angels in Heaven rejoice over a single repentant sinner. Heaven is seeking your Salvation. Only repent and be converted, and break yourself of sin.”
“You can conjecture that peace will come when they sing ‘Rest in peace with the Saints…’ at your funeral. Until then, do not seek peace till you die. A man is born not to rest, but to work and to persevere for the sake of the future bliss. We are strangers, aliens, and visitors here. Travellers have no rest in a foreign country where other people live. They march steadily towards their home country, i.e., the House of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. If we slow down in this place of sorrow, in the world of pleasures, the evening (i.e., the end of our days) will come imperceptibly and our Soul will be found unprepared and without good deeds, and there will be no time left to do any good. Death is inexorable! No wealthy man, no money lover, no hero, no king, no warrior can bribe off death, and none of them can take any of their possessions with them. The man was born naked and departs from this world naked. Only his faith, his good deeds, his charity can make it with him into the afterlife. No one else can help him: neither friends nor relatives.”
“Use this money at home; have rest and relax at home and go to God’s Church more frequently.”
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“It is only in church that a person’s Soul is renewed and he is relieved of his sorrows and illnesses.”
“You can Pray in any place, at any time: while you stand, sit, lie, while you are at work or on the road. But it is a sin to talk in Church.”
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“For a man who has no faith, it is hard to die because he leaves his family and possessions behind. It is hard for unbelievers to lose a loved one whom they relied on for all their Earthly happiness. They do not understand God’s Providence. On the contrary, among the believers it is typical for relatives to weep for the departed but they do so reservedly and with moderation. Their sorrow is diluted with Prayer and hope for God’s assistance. A believer dies quietly as though he falls asleep, and when he dies, the last kiss of his Guardian Angel is imprinted on his face.”
“We will see our Guardian Angel on the day of our departure from the life. But what kind of meeting this will be depends upon us and our deeds. Will our Guardian Angel rejoice or Will He sorrow at our careless life?”
