St. Symeon the New Theologian
Saint Symeon was born in 949 in Galatea of Paphlagonia and educated at Constantinople, where he served at the imperial court before entering monastic life under the elder Symeon the Pious of the Studion Monastery.
As abbot of the Monastery of Saint Mamas he taught that every Christian is called to a conscious experience of God as divine light through the grace of the Holy Spirit, a teaching that provoked opposition from church authorities and led to his exile across the Bosphorus, where he restored the Monastery of Saint Makrina and reposed about the year 1021. His Hymns of Divine Love, Catechetical Discourses, and texts preserved in the Philokalia earned him the title "the New Theologian," shared only with Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus.
Do not say that it is impossible to receive the Spirit of God. Do not say that it is possible to be made whole without Him. Do not say that one can possess Him without knowing it. Do not say that God does not manifest Himself to man. Do not say that men cannot perceive the divine light, or that it is impossible in this age.
God is light, and those to whom it has been granted to see Him have all beheld Him as light.
It shines on us without evening, without change, without alteration, without form. It speaks, works, lives, gives life, and changes into light those whom it illuminates.
Faith is readiness to die for Christ's sake, for His commandments, in the conviction that such death brings life; it is to regard poverty as riches, insignificance and nothingness as true fame and glory and, having nothing, to be sure that you possess all things.
Prayer of St. Symeon the New Theologian Before Holy Communion
From sullied lips, from an abominable heart, from an unclean tongue, out of a polluted soul, receive my prayer, O my Christ. Reject me not, nor my words, nor my ways, nor even my shamelessness, but give me courage to say what I desire, my Christ. And even more, teach me what to do and say. I have sinned more than the harlot who, on learning where Thou wast lodging, bought myrrh, and dared to come and anoint Thy feet, my Christ, my Lord and my God.
Troparion
Since you received divine enlightenment within your soul, O Venerable Father Symeon, you were shown to the world as a most radiant light, driving away its darkness, and persuading all to seek the grace of the Spirit which they had lost. Earnestly intercede with Him to grant us great mercy.
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