St. Barbara the Great Martyr (source)
...But to me, you are a lamb of Christ,
and dove, and bride, and every other name that is good, and
grace-filled, and precious. Rejoice, for you bravely passed through
the paths of struggles. Rejoice, for you worthily partake of the
spoils of your struggles. Rejoice, for you were granted many rewards
for your struggles. Rejoice, for you kept the passionate body and the
racing thoughts in chastity. Rejoice, for you preserved your senses
from a young age, and were trained with a proper mind. Rejoice, you
who kept virginity before your martyrdom, preserving yourself, having
been presented to Christ as spotless and undefiled. Rejoice, you who
did not soil your bodily beauty by the passions, but kept it
untouched and offered to the Creator. Rejoice, you who in the tower,
as in a secure fortress, kept virgins supported, strong and
untouched, offering up prayers to God, and ascribing the theoria of
things that exist to the Creator unerringly, you were nourished alone
by the good and beloved. Rejoice, you who at the waters purifying
bodily stain [the bathhouse], symbolized the Trinity through the
depicting of three sources of light, thus depicting the three-fold
giving of mystical and saving light, depicting baptism. Rejoice, you
who forthrightly and boldly confessed the consubstantial Trinity with
a most theological mouth. Rejoice, you who boldly preached the One of
the Holy Trinity Who took on flesh for our salvation. Rejoice, you
who trampled upon the wealth and nourishment, and royal garments, and
gold and pearls, and every bodily adornment and beauty, and the joys
of this world, and therefore inherited instead the eternal good and
unspeakable things, that surpass the vision of the eyes, and the
hearing of the ears, and every sense and thought. Rejoice, you who at
a young age and weak gender, bravely and manfully were strong with
all of your mind. Rejoice, you who were not worried by tortures or
blows, but bravely went towards every type of unique and twisted
torture. Rejoice, you who in the flesh were made worthy to behold the
glory of Christ, as the First-ranked of the Disciples did on the
mountain [Tabor], and beheld, as did Elias and Moses, who stood by
Him blessing Him. Rejoice, for you endured the pains of scourging,
and the burning of iron, and being pierced with a garment of hair,
and the shedding of streams of your blood, and the flames of fire,
and the cutting off of your members, and being paraded naked, and the
removal of your head and of your life, all on behalf of Christ, that
your body might therefore receive the shining rays of undying
incorruption, and the unspeakable and incomparable woven robe of
glory. At your righteous endurance, men were amazed, and angels,
beholding the struggle, clapped their hands, and sang hymns, while
the demons, at this hymnody, were struck with a state of fear, and
shame, and wailed of their eternal shame. O you the adornment and
sanctity of the female gender, which having beheld the manliness of
your struggles, takes courage and is benefited! In you, the
fore-mother makes boast, as one of her daughters struggles
straightaway with the enemy dragon, and trampled upon him, calling up
and bearing the radiant trophies of victory. You were like the
Theotokos, the holy of holies and fore-mother, the Virgin and Mother
of God, who is first among women and only glorified, more than all
men and women, and who reigns in heaven and on earth, as the Mother
of Him Who rules over all things...
(source)
Sts. John of Damascus and Barbara the Great Martyr, who both are celebrated on December 4th (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
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