Saints of the Day & More

The Jews held a feast to give thanks for the harvest, 50 days after Easter. Hence the name Pentecost. Then the meaning of the celebration changed to give thanks for the Law given to Moses. In this event recalled the day when Moses went to Mount Sinai and received the tablets of the law and taught the people of Israel what God wanted of them. And celebrated the alliance of the Old Testament God established with the people: they are committed to live according to His commandments and God promised to be with them forever. People came from many places at the Temple of Jerusalem, the feast of Pentecost. As part of this Jewish holiday is where comes our Christian festival of Pentecost. The Promise of the Holy Spirit At the Last Supper, Jesus promised to his apostles: "My Father will give you another Advocate, who will be with you forever-the Spirit of Truth" (John 14, 16-17). Later they said: "I have said these things while I am with you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who...

John's nickname comes from the famous treatise on asceticism written by John and entrusted to the abbot of Raithu, The Ladder of Paradise (Greek climax, which means stairs). His biographer, the monk Daniel Raithu Monastery, southwest Sinai, writes that John was born in Palestine and the age of six left the hometown to retire to a monastery in Sinai. There he received the monastic tonsure at four years of income and lived 19 years in community under the guidance of a holy old man, named Martyrdom. When the master died, John retired to a solitary cell on Mount Sinai, a few miles from the monastery, where he was down on Saturday and Sunday to participate in religious ceremonies with the other brothers. In the cell there was only a wooden cross, a table and a bench that served as chair and bed. Their only wealth were the books of Holy Scripture and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, including Pastoralis Regula of St. Gregory the Great, translated into Greek by a patriarch of An...