THE RACE OF MANKIND

     According to the Scripture, the descendants of Adam should properly be listed into two separate lines of descent. One line of descent would be that of the unbelievers, irreligious and lawless line of the Evil One, called also the Serpent. The other line of mankind would be the devout and religious children of God. Concerning these two lines of descent there always exists enmity and an implacable war,  as is written: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.”

     The first-born son of Adam and Eve was Cain who became the leader of the unbelievers and irreligious and evil line of decent. Maliciously he attacked and killed his only brother Abel. Abel was of the line of the religious, devout worshipers of God.  Then Adam fathered Seth who became head of the religious and just worshipers.

     Seth begat Enos, who hoped in the Lord. The fifth in descent from Seth was Enoch, son of Jared, and he pleased God so much that he was translated without death. It was revealed to men in those days that a redeemer and savior of the race of man who would live a righteous life before God and man.   But the wicked and corrupt men did not believed or accept a redeemer of men, they lived only for the pleasures of the flesh and delights of this quickly passing life.  They also belittled and mocked the  good counsel of the righteous.

     After two thousand years from the time of Adam, the descendants of Seth called also sons of God, were overcome with the beauty of wicked women, fell from their own moral and upright life and became depraved. Then the Lord by means of the flood destroyed them from off the earth. But He saved Noah, with his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives by means of their preparing an ark built to preserve them.

     After the deluge of the flood the whole race of man was reckoned from the three sons of the Sethite Noah,  Shem Ham and Japheth, of whom Ham after dishonoring his father received a curse in place of a blessing and then became the leader of a new evil line of generation. But the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth, 531 years after the flood in the year 2,715 B.C. were scattered over the face of the earth, founding many nations with different languages.  They forgot God, lived an impious life and impiously worshiped creatures instead of God, corrupting themselves with everything evil thing, indulging solely in wickedness.

     In the year 2100 B.C. the Semite Abram, who was later called Abraham became leader of the religious line of those who inherit the promises of God. God made a covenant of the coming of Christ who  through this man would  come into the world and the salvation of man through their faith in the Savior to be born. The descendants of Adam from the beginning and after the flood, snd  the descendants of Noah were distinguished into two opposing generations, one of God and the other of the Devil, being the enmity which God mentioned. Accepting these two generations one honoring God  and the other serving the Devil, we see the results in the race of men, some doing acts of evil and others doing only acts the are good and beneficial to all.

     The new man Jesus Christ will come just as promised and will bring salvation and life into the world, inviting all men to enter to choose this life and be saved. Many are called but few are chosen.

According to what men choose they can be rendered happy and blessed or render themselves cursed and wretched. May the Lord have mercy upon all of us.

MIRACLES IN ORTHODOXY

“One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, 

now I see” (John (9:25)

     The blind man in the Gospel was asked what happenned and he gave the testimony, saying: “One thing I know . . .” Orthodoxy is well known by many of its adherents for its many supernatural occurrences known as miracles, such as the blind man. Many of these miracles are not well known for they are considered by many Orthodox  faithful not as supernatural but as natural occurences. However this knowledge is of benefit to all for it strengthens and increases faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His holy Church.

     Herein is the story of such a modern miracle concerning a man with destroyed sight and the Greek Orthodox Priest of St. Paraskevi Church in Greenlawn, LI, NY. This is the narration of the miracle, which occurred in November 2013, and the narrator is Father Dimitrios Moraitios the Orthodox Priest.

   “He (the blind man) was wearing dark glasses and carried a walking stick. His wife was also by his side. He introduced himself and wanted to know if I was the Priest at the Greek Orthodox Church in Greenlawn, and I said I was.  He wanted to come by earlier that week to seek permission to walk his new guide dog in our parking lot. The high school next door had told him that he could no longer walk his dog on their property because he was an insurance liability. So of course I said that it wouldn’t be a problem.  I gave him my card and told him that when he comes to walk his dog to please be sure to come inside so that I could read a prayer over him and anoint him with holy water from the Shrine of St. Paraskevi. He said he would love to. 

     He e-mailed me that night and asked if I would be willing to hear his confession as well. I told him that I would. When he came to me and began telling me about his tragic and sad life, I cried. For those two hours I listened to him so intensely, I felt that I was with him, living through it with him. It seems that every evil conceivable that could have come upon this man came upon him from his childhood, to his parents, to his first wife.  

     After he finished his confession I wanted to read some prayer over him, and he insisted on kneeling.  As I put my hand on his head some vibration came through my head/ into my right hand and on top of his head, causing him to shutter.  I’ve heard hundreds and hundreds of confessions, and this has never happened to me.  We cried together knowing that we were both touched by something supernatural/ We got up and went down to the shrine and I read the prayer of healing over him. He began to wash his face with the holy water as if he was in a sink basin. As he got up he began to look to his left and said there is a woman here as looked at the icon of St. Paraskevi.  He then turned to my face and he looked at me in an odd way and he said: “You have light brown eyes. I have not seen a color In seven years. I can see your light brown eyes.”  

     He then proceeded to tell everything he was able to see around the grotto shrine and I started crying, he also started crying, even his wife was crying.  This man had absolutely zero vision in his right eye and could barely see shadows with his lefteye  as a result of being exposed to chemicals as a rescue diver for the fire department.  

     That afternoon he e-mailed me again saying that he was in his backyard, not only able to see the different colors of the cars that were passing, but able to make out the make of each car as well. The next morning he came back to the church and placed his glasses upon the relics of St. Paraskevi. 

     He walked down the stairs to the shrine, this time without a walking stick or his guide dog.  He didn’t even have to use the handrail, he simply walked down. He has been at church every morning even staying for every Liturgy.  I told him, that he has helped to open my spiritual eyes to a vision that I have not see in many years. And perhaps in my heart of hearts I think that I have been more healed than he has.  He’s trying to understand why this miracle happened ro him, and what should he do now. Every day we talk and every day God reveals His will to us.  This happened on November 18, and today his eyesight is better than mine. Glory be to God!”