Encouraging Words...Pondering Encouragement

Mr. Husband and I, 

on our drive back from our far away church,

in which I was knitting baby blue squares for a future baby blanket,

were talking... and one of the things that Mr. Husband said is that my lastest

favourite word is

encouraging. 

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I had just done two weeks of booksales for our small beloved far away church

and had written book reviews for 7 of the books for sale...

and I had chosen and focused on books that I found

encouraging to us for Lent, our lives and for feeding our souls.

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I have been thinking about this for a while now, as I have realized 

again how discouraged I can feel at home.

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I hope to write on this more as I think it is 

of real importance to our lives and something I really need to get

a better handle on myself.
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One of the ways I am thinking about this is how the 

prince of lies, the devil, wants to lead us to despair.

Here is a Saint's story about this 

that can give us one way to think on this and that I have been

pondering as I think about what it means

to be a Christian, what humility is and what it is not and

how discouragement, encouragement and despair play out

in this search.

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2. THE VENERABLE ERASMUS

Erasmus was a monk in the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. 

He inherited great wealth from his parents and spent all on adoring churches, 

especially on silver-plating and gilding icons. 

When he had become impoverished and remained without anything, 

he was despised by all. 

The devil whispered to him that he squandered his estate in vain; 

instead of distributing his wealth among the poor,

he gave it for the adornment of churches. 

Erasmus succumbed to this temptation and 

believed it for which he despised himself

and fell into a state of despair and began to live aimlessly and lawlessly. 

When the hour of his death approached the brethren assembled around him

 and discussed his sins which he himself was not conscious of. 

All at once, he straightened up in bed and said: 

"Fathers and brothers, it is as you say; 

I am sinful and unrepentant, but behold St. Anthony and St. Theodosius appeared to me and after that, the All-Holy Mother of God told me that the Lord gave me more time for repentance." 

The Mother of God also spoke these encouraging words to him:

 "The poor you have with you in every place and my churches you do not." 

Erasmus lived for three more days, repented and fell asleep in the Lord. 

This teaches us that zeal for the Church and 

adornment of the churches is a task pleasing to God. 

St. Erasmus died in the year 1160 A.D.

~Prologue of Ohrid Feb 24

(emphasis mine).

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By this story we can see that the devil lies to us, tempting us to think

that our efforts to love God and His Church were

wasted, done wrongly and fruitless.

We can see that other people can also wrongly judge and contribute

to a person's discouragement and despair. 

We can see that God, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Saints

can rescue us from despair and discouragement.

We also see that repentance is the opposite of despair and discouragement. 

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Lent is a time when many us spend seeking to learn humility and 

repentance... we can see by this story that humility and repentance

are NOT in line with discouragement and despair but

are the opposite, to bring us life and ultimately to open the doors of heaven to us.

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I do hope to write on this again; 

I think it is vital for us in our struggles, which are so very many;

I see that again and again,

that we seek to live in HOPE, in being ENCOURAGED in the midst of

our struggles and to remember that God is the God of LOVE...