What do we learn from the life of Maria Egyptian

The Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Mary Egypt on April 1 and on the Sunday of the Great Lent. Saint Mary Egyptian is, par excellence, an example of a Christian repentance, for he left the life of which he led, living in the desert a life of extreme asceticism, for prayer.

The transformation of the Egyptian Mary began the great feast of the Holy Cross, which many people left for Jerusalem to worship. Influenced by the special popularity of this event, as carried by the wave, she decided to go to Jerusalem.

Located in the door of the church, Mary is not allowed to enter, but she did not go away with despair, nor did she return to Egypt.

Crying, she sat at the icon of the Virgin Mary, asking her to see them to see the cross of Jesus Christ.

This settlement to the face of the two seas: Mary and the Virgin Mary, the image of the fall and the scale of salvation, is not accidental.

In the icon of the Virgin Mary, God showed Maria fallen that nothing can give man more hope than his relationship with the body with God Himself.

After a lot of prayer with tears and the promise of straightening, Maria Egyptian was received to worship Honest and Life of the Cross.

He will then go into the wilderness, where for 48 years, in need, struggle and incessant prayers, Maria deleted the traces of her sins ascending through the grace of God the steps of perfection.

Saint Mary Egyptian is painted in churches at the entrance doors, which reminds us that in the Church, that is, to God, we enter the doors of repentance, the narrow gate.

All people are sinners, many rebuke their consciousness for the sins committed, but few know the true repentance. For, says Saint John the Scărarul, « one is the sad humility of those who repent, and another rebuke of those who still sin. » Without true repentance we cannot approach God.

What do we learn from the life of Maria Egyptian?

• The life of Sf. Maria Egyptian represents a special case, perhaps unique in the history of the Church and the great Christian conversions, because it has reached the last step of moral decay, to a strong faith in Jesus Christ, living with Him for 47 years.

• Saint John the Golden Mouth teaches us that no sin is so great that can conquer the generosity of the master and it was encountered by Saint Zosima during the Great Lent, receiving the last communion on the Great Thursday

• From the depths of the precipice of sin at the top of holiness. She became an example of repentance, like Manasseh, Zaheu, David, the wicker on the cross or the wasteful son.

• From the life of Maria Egyptian we could learn about the icon of her life, which has two faces: one dark one of the bad behavior and the bright one of repentance and holiness.

Metropolitan Bartolomeu, message to young people

« God throughout your life will take you up and down, be careful when you are on the top of the mountain not to dizzy, because it is much easier to dizzy, and when you are at the bottom of the gap you do not despair.

Look up at the blue sky stain and you will find resources to pass well, but it is important to know that you have a father and the peaks, but also in the precipice.

That’s why Octavian Goga when he was 24 years old he wrote a poem …

Wandering with troubled eyes/with the body tired of the path/I fall helplessly in front of your brilliance.

On my way the gaps are broken/And in the black the zarea is clogged/I on my knees for you/Father I order the path. Amen!

Source: Pr. Vasile Beni/Rasunetul.ro