Memhir Esuendale:
#Feasts of #Megabit_2
✞✞✞On this day we commemorate the departure of Saint Gregory the Seer of Heavenly Mysteries✞✞✞
✞✞✞In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen!✞✞✞
✞✞✞Saint Gregory the Seer of Heavenly Mysteries✞✞✞
=>St. Gregory is from Roha (around Syria, Edessa) and is known as “Reaye Hibuat” - “Seer of the Hidden/Heavenly Mysteries”. If asked how that name came to be, it was as follows.
✞In the place where the Saint was born and grew up, he was a sinner to the fullest sense. Though he was a grave sinner, he used to love our Lady, the Virgin St. Mary, with all his heart. And she enabled him to repent on a day of salvation, by a call to penance.
✞And starting that day, he became a holy man of God, a pure sacrifice of the Church and a firm pillar in the desert. And our Lady, the Virgin, took him up in the flesh to heaven and showed him paradise and hell. She also presented him to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, King David and saints of such status and revealed to him many mysteries that cannot be uttered by a mortal tongue and brought him back to earth.
✞During his stay/visit in/to paradise, he saw and was amazed by the glory of the saints. Particularly, he saw male and female saints that had kept their purity and were virgins living with the Theotokos, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, our Lady, the Virgin Saint Mary.
✞He stated, “The vestments which were worn by them were indescribable through the tongue of a created being.” And added that the faces of the virgins shone 7 times brighter than the sun and that their majesty instilled reverence.
✞While he was still in heaven, he also saw this. One elder, who had a long beard, came wearing a cope of light. And while that elder was surrounded front and back, left and right by angels, he started praising God.
✞And when he said, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” (Ps.8:1/9) the angels started to sing with him as well and a great tremor took place at that moment. Then the virgins took the elder’s blessing.
✞This praising elder was the righteous, the meek, the one who was after God’s own heart, the King of Israel, David. If asked how that was known, he was identified because of the harp that he had and also because Gregory had heard our Lady call him, “My father David!”
✞Finally, St. Gregory saw our Lady in great honor and majesty and was delighted. And the Mother of Light honored St. Gregory saying, “You are a beloved and pure person”. She also sent a message through him to this world. It said;
✞”My children! Why have you chosen darkness over light, evil over goodness, sin over righteousness . . . ? I live everyday beseeching for you. Please repent so you will not go to hades!”
✞Then, after she had told the Saint this, being followed by St. David and surrounded by angels entered into the tabernacle which had fiery veils. And there she was exalted.
✞That’s why the scholar Abba Giorgis of Gasicha praised her saying, “The Angels venerate Mary within the veil saying, ‘Salutation to you, Mary, His young calf.’”
✞After his return from heaven, St. Gregory wrote down what he had seen and gave it to the fathers. And so he is called ‘”The Seer of Hidden/Heavenly Mysteries”. The Saint completed the rest of his life with spiritual strife and departed on this day.
✞✞✞ May the Mother of Light, the Virgin, the Lady of the Saint, multiply in us the tang of her love.
✞✞✞ Annual feasts celebrated on the 2nd of Megabit
1. St. Gregory the Seer of Heavenly Mysteries (of Roha)
2. The Righteous Abune Mekfelte Maryam (Ethiopian)
3. Abba Macrobius (Makrawy) of Nikiu (Nakiyos) (Elder, Righteous, Bishop and Martyr)
✞✞✞Monthly Feasts
1. St. John the Baptist
2. St. Thaddeus the Apostle (One of the 12)
3. The Righteous and Longsuffering St. Job
