Not long ago, brethren, we spoke about how people today often forget the most important task which lies before each and every one of us--the task of saving our souls for eternity. This thought about salvation should be the main concern of each believing individual. That great teacher of Christian life, a genuine wise man in the best sense of the word, Bishop Theophan the Recluse, states again and again in his writings and teachings that salvation is possible not only for those who have taken upon themselves a vow to lead a special way of life--monastics, hermits-- but also for those living in the world. Here, too, a person has all the means for saving his soul and for attaining the heights of Christian perfection.
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...Let us recall, for example, that great saint who raised a man from the dead, St. Sisoes the Great, a man who in his youth went to the desert. There he lived until deep old age, reaching the highest levels of Christian perfection, to such a degree that he raised the dead, and when he died his face shone like the sun and the room in which he died became filled with a sweet fragrance and everyone present trembled with awe. The same blessed ending was granted to another great saint, St. Philaret the Almsgiver. He was not an ascetic, nor did he live in the desert. He had a wife and children and lived a normal life, so to speak. However, he attained such a height of spiritual perfection that his repose was like that of Saint Sisoes: his face shone like the sun, and his room filled with an ineffable fragrance.If you haven't had a chance to read about the life of St. Philaret
the Almsgiver, I encourage you to do so. It offers an encouragement
to those of us who live in the world that we too have the possibility
of being living Icons of Christ in this world.
Through the Prayers of St. Philaret the Almsgiver.....
With humble bow,
Rd. Chrysostomos