Monday, May 02, 2011

Happy St George's Day



From the Eastern Liturgy:
Liberator of captives, defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Cultivated by God, you became manifest as an honorable tiller gathering for yourself the sheaves of virtue. For you sowed with tears but reaped with gladness; in the contest you competed with your blood and came away with Christ. By your intercessions, O Holy One, all are granted forgiveness of sins.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy St. George's Day to you also. Father.

Michael Petek said...

When Richard the Lionheart was crusading in the Middle East in the twelfth century he had a vision of Saint George who promised him victory in the battle.

Saint George was proclaimed the patron saint of England in the mid thirteenth century and protector of the royal family by Edward III in the fourteenth century.

A few days before Pentecost, one of Emperor Fredrick I Barbarossa's soldiers named Ludwig of Helfenstein reported that he had seen a white clad warrior, identified as Saint George, on a white horse attacking the Turks.

On the evening of May 13, 1190, Frederick's troops were ordered to confess their sins and received penance. During the battle on May 14, the priests and bishops (at the risk of injury or death) went to the front, among the troops, to pray, wearing their white stoles that made them obvious targets for the Muslims. The invocation of Saint George for help had by then become the standard battle cry of the soldiers. The crusaders prevailed in the battle and captured Iconium on May 16, 1190.

Alcoy, in Valencia, Spain, is a locality where Saint George's Day is commemorated as a thanksgiving celebration for the aid the Saint provided to the Christians troops fighting the Muslims in the siege of the city.

On 11 September 2001, the people of God cried out on account of al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood:

"O God, who shall be like to thee? hold not thy peace, neither be thou still, O God. For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy saints. They have said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation: and let the name of Israel be remembered no more." (Psalm 83:1-4).

And so it was that, on the Feast of the Divine Mercy 2011, the King who sits on the Throne of David remembered the reason why the kingship had been taken from Saul and given to David in the first place. (1 Samuel 15).

The King said, "Behold Amalek, the man who would exterminate my people Israel."

And the King said to Osama bin Laden, "As your sword has left women childless, so will your mother be left childless." (1 Samuel 15:33).

Then some American soldiers landed on Osama bin Laden from a great height, and the Angel of Death came with them.

And all the people rejoiced on a happy St George's Day.

Hugh and Co. said...

Goodbye.
Hello to a new ethic after the Rome Blogmeet.

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