19 May 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Holy, Righteous and Long-suffering Job

Job was a descendant of Esau the grandson of Abraham, and lived in Arabia about 2,000 years before Christ, His father’s name was Zareth and his mother’s Bosom; his full name was Jobab. He was an honourable and God-fearing man, and was very rich. But when he reached the age of seventy-nine, God permitted heavy temptation from Satan to fall on him, as is written in detail in the Book of Job, In one day, Job lost all his great possessions and his sons and daughters. Then a great sickness fell on him, from which his whole body was covered with sores from top to toe, and Job lay on a rubbish heap outside the town and scoured his boils with sherds of broken pottery. But Job did not complain of God, but patiently endured all his sufferings to the end. Therefore the Lord restored his health and gave him riches greater than he had had before, and there were born to him seven sons and three daughters; as many as he had had before. And Job lived for 248 years, glorifying and praising God. Job is regarded as the model of patient endurance of every suffering that God sends us, and is a type of the suffering Christ.

Catholic Calendar

St. Celestine

When the father of this Italian saint died, his good mother brought up her twelve children well, even though they were very poor. “Oh, if I could only have the joy of seeing one of you become a saint!” she use to say. Once when she asked as usual, “which one of you is going to become a saint?” little Peter (who was to become Pope Celestine) answered with all his heart, “Me, mama! I’ll become a saint!” And he did. When he was twenty, Peter became a hermit and spent his days praying and reading the Holy Bible. If he was not praying or reading, he would copy books or does some hard work so that the devil would not find him doing nothing, and tempt him. Because other hermits kept coming to him and begging him to guide them, he started a new Order. Peter was an old monk, eighty-four years of age when he was made Pope. It came about in a very unusual way. For two years, there had been no Pope, because the Cardinals could not decide whom to choose. St. Peter sent them a message to decide quickly, for God was not pleased at the long delay. Then and there, they chose the holy old hermit himself! Poor Peter wept when he heard the news, but he sorrowfully accepted and took the name Celestine V. St. Celestine hoped to live in one of his monasteries in peace. But the new Pope thought it would be safer to keep him where wicked people could not take advantage of him. The saint was put in a cell and died there. Yet he was cheerful and close to God. “You wanted a cell, Peter,” he would repeat to himself, “and a cell you have.” His feast day is May 19.