Oh my goodness....
Jan. 23rd, 2008 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mommydamaNew Martyr Maria, commemorated on January 26th
"Depression is a spiritual cross," she stated. "It is sent to help the penitent who does not know how to repent, that is, who after repentance falls again into the earlier sins….And therefore, only two medicines can treat this sometimes extremely difficult suffering of the soul. One must either learn to repent and offer the fruits of repentance; or else bear this spiritual cross, one’s depression, with humility, meekness, patience, and great multitude to the Lord, remembering that the bearing of this cross is accounted by the Lord as the fruit of repentance….And after all, what a great consolation it is to realize that your discouragement is the unacknowledged fruit of repentance, an unconscious self-chastisement for the absence of the fruits that are demanded….From this thought one should come to contrition, and then the depression gradually melts and the true fruits of repentance will be conceived…"
--New Martyr Maria
http://www.antiochian.org/martyr_maria
O our blessed Mother Maria, who didst bear the cross of illness so meekly and humbly, with such sobriety and prayer that God granted thee the gift of the consolation. Pray for us sinners who know not how to repent, that God may grant us His great mercy. (Troparion to New Martyr Maria, Tone 4)
Incredible. I'm....speechless.
"Depression is a spiritual cross," she stated. "It is sent to help the penitent who does not know how to repent, that is, who after repentance falls again into the earlier sins….And therefore, only two medicines can treat this sometimes extremely difficult suffering of the soul. One must either learn to repent and offer the fruits of repentance; or else bear this spiritual cross, one’s depression, with humility, meekness, patience, and great multitude to the Lord, remembering that the bearing of this cross is accounted by the Lord as the fruit of repentance….And after all, what a great consolation it is to realize that your discouragement is the unacknowledged fruit of repentance, an unconscious self-chastisement for the absence of the fruits that are demanded….From this thought one should come to contrition, and then the depression gradually melts and the true fruits of repentance will be conceived…"
--New Martyr Maria
http://www.antiochian.org/martyr_maria
O our blessed Mother Maria, who didst bear the cross of illness so meekly and humbly, with such sobriety and prayer that God granted thee the gift of the consolation. Pray for us sinners who know not how to repent, that God may grant us His great mercy. (Troparion to New Martyr Maria, Tone 4)
Incredible. I'm....speechless.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-23 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-23 05:48 pm (UTC)It means, for me, that I can have hope that the pain of depression will lead me closer to God.
By the way, I am on medication.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-23 09:56 pm (UTC)(I also take anti-depressants)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 05:20 pm (UTC)