| VI. Choir | 5 January |
|---|---|
| Angel of homes |
Standing before God’s Throne today is a prince, radiant as a blue mountain sky and variegated as a flower garden, full of colour, warmth and fragrance. It is Saint Ghasel, the silent prince, the angel of decorative sense.
Everything created by God in creation can serve Him for His glory and this is also true of the sense of adornment. This prince, who literally precedes the Magi with his glittering pearls and precious stones, with his delight in precious oils, in nard and sandalwood, in fine carpets and fabrics and his desire to bring them all to the Lord of the world, like the living, beautiful creation, stands before the Lord so that the Eye of God may rest upon him with pleasure—“and God saw that it was good.”
The evil one with his helpers, however, always rises an hour before man to poison and turn him away from all his toil, his plans, and his works, and make them worthless to God. So it is here also. For the most part, the evil one has conquered as his possession that which is glittering and warm, in which man wraps himself comfortably, which flatters his senses, as his lure and means of deception. We know from our own experience that if a person has a beautiful, warm home, then he is not so easily lured out into hardship, struggle and renunciation. And if he takes pleasure in beautiful possessions, he never wants to give them away. He wants to cling to everything, whereas he should only cling to the One, to God alone. Thus beauty and possessions easily become the snare that the evil one lays in order to secure the prey for himself. You can also see it in history. Those monasteries that offered everything to God, that transferred all their sense of adornment and beauty to the Temple of God, produced saints in their simple cells. For one can and should love the beautiful, and yet attribute it to the One. But those splendid country residences of old bishops, full of pomp and splendour, have not produced saints and have become places of richest prey for the infernal adversary.
Saint Ghasel shows us the right way here. These Magi from the Orient offered heavy chests full of glorious treasures to the Child and the Child blessed everything, and with this blessing He also blessed the distant possessions of these men, and no devil could seize them any more. The first fruits, the first and most beautiful things of our possessions, should always be given to God… then there is blessing upon blessing on everything. When the most beautiful place of the home belongs to God, then no devil can stand in that home.
Prayer: Great Prince, Saint Ghasel, let us in all reverence always make God the goal and centre of our striving for beauty… then in our home and in our work, with Thy help, there will also always be peace and the beauty of God’s love. Amen.