Today the Church celebrates two important feasts of St. Mary the Virgin Lady. The feast of consecration of the first church in her name and the second feast is the miracle of St. Mary the Virgin when she came on a cloud from Jerusalem where she lived in the house of St John the beloved ………… She stood at the gate of the prison, and the Virgin prayed to our LORD JESUS CHRIST to dissolve the iron to save Matthias the Apostle from prison, so the LORD responded to her intercession, and melted the iron, the chains, and the weapons of the soldiers, and all the iron present in the city. The governor and all the people of the city believed in Christianity and were baptized by Saint Matthias the Apostle and the Iron returned to its normal state again.

This miracle shows that the LORD GOD can deliver HIS people from every tribulation this makes us confident that we have confidence, trust and joy that our GOD is present among us, no matter what circumstances we pass by. We are sure million % that we shall not be harmed because our GOD is in our midst. Our LORD sometimes might allow HIS children to enter into distress or hardships, but HE says “Isa 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them”, and HE will be with us and HE will not leave us.

Sometimes we say that hardships should not happen but our LORD permitted that there should a furnace, lion’s den and a prison, and permitted that one of HIS people to be thrown in the furnace, the Lion’s den and the prison, but they were not harmed. Of course, GOD will be glorified more when there is a fiery furnace, and people will enter in it, and then they will not be harmed and when one is thrown into a Lion’s den and is surrounded by beasts that can eat him up in no time, but the LORD GOD shuts their mouths and thus he will not be harmed. Because of this, sometimes things happen and we do not understand them, and we are surprised, we censure our Lord, and we say to HIM: Why? Why so, LORD, and HE says to be glorified through and by you. Ok, we do not bear it, HE says, I shall carry the burden in your place, don’t be afraid, because of that the Christian man would be in a state of constant assurance and tranquility.

Ok, if the opposite happened, what is the opposite? If our LORD freed St Peter from prison, notice that in the book of Acts before the incident that our LORD allowed Jacob, the brother of the LORD, to be arrest and killed, and before they arrested St Stephen and stoned him, in addition, that in the history of the church many of the Fathers were martyred. We read in the Synaxarion every day about different saints that they were captured and tortured severely and at the end they beheaded him or her.

If the 3 young men were casted in the fiery furnace but they were not harmed, there is a saint named Saint Polycarp, in the second century AD, seared died in the furnace of fire, in the twentieth century St Seedhom Bisha, died in boiling tar. Sometimes, this means our LORD permits, but this will be a reason for the glory of the Church, because as long as some of the children of the Church give their lives cheap for GOD’S sake, this is a glory to the Church and a proof of the sincerity of faith, and they themselves were not harmed.

The martyr St Stephen, while been stoned, his face was like the face of an angel, he saw the sky open, and he saw CHRIST sitting on the right of GREATNESS. This was the concern of St Stephen, to the point that he was not feeling the stones that you were throwing at him, He was concerned by something else and at the end our LORD took His Spirit to Heaven and became dignified……he is the first martyr in Christianity, he was not harmed, the Church was not harmed and the faith prevailed. If it happened that the enemies of the church once killed a person or burned a person or harmed a person, then this harm is formal, but in its essence is useful, blessing, dignity and glory, and the church is very strong when it is in distress and hardship. Because of this our Church has heroes in the faith, heroes in monasticism, and heroes who lead their people with courage. In any case, we are reassured, optimistic, and happy with our GOD who can “Judges14:14 Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” (Eater) is the predatory lion who is coming to eat you and from whom you are afraid our LORD gets out of it honey that you eat from it, this happened with Samson. Because our GOD is strong and can make a way through the sea, the sea that will drown you up, HE makes a way for it through it. We have many promises in the Holy Book of our GOD, It is not possible for us to be abandoned in any circumstance, even when we sin so that you rest assured that our LORD never forgets that we are HIS children and never denounces HIS father ship for us, but it is not because of this absolute confidence in GOD’S works with us that we forget our LORD. We should actually return to GOD. If we see a hardship coming along go to GOD and hold tight on to HIM. Just like the child who holds his father’s hand to feel safe when he sees something that frightens him, and it is possible that this thing is not frightening, maybe a cat and cats do not frighten, but still the child will feel safer when he holds his father’s hand. So if we see something that frightens us, like this child, what shall we do? We run to our heavenly father in WHOM we rest and hold on to HIM while HE protects us and keeps us safe and gives us peace and security.

Our Church has a mighty hidden power supporting it, she has a mighty KING supporting her. We are supported by our LORD, because we have an honest intercessor for the race of our humanity. The Virgin Lady can dissolve the Iron, but we should ask in faith and belief. She is the faithful intercessor, and you are all tested, and you all love her. Good News.