Ornament - Baby in Basket
Materials - Doll house basket, rafia, felt, wooden bead, hot glue, twine, brown pen
-Elder Cleopa of Romania, Truth of Our Faith: A Discourse from Holy Scripture on the
Teachings of True Christianity
From the time of Adam until that of Abraham, according to the old chronologies, 3,678 years passed,
and if we add 430 years when the Israelites remained in Egypt, we have 4,108 years. Throughout this
period of time Holy Scripture neither existed nor was the Sabbath considered as a feast among the
people. During this period of many thousands of years the faithful and chosen people were guided to
the path of salvation only by Holy Tradition, namely, from the teachings about God which they
received from a living voice. Only for the duration of 1400 years - from the time of Moses until the
advent of Christ - were they guided by the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.
-St. Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory
Moses sought to see God, and this is the instruction he receives on how he is to see Him: seeing God
means following Him wherever He might lead. Anyone who does not know the way cannot travel
safely without following a guide. The guide shows him the way by walking ahead of him, And the one
following will not get off the right path if he keeps constantly watching the back of his guide. On the
other hand, if he moves off to one side, or tries to bring himself face to face with his guide, he will be
setting out on a different path from the one which his guide is showing him. Thus the Lord says to
those who are being guided: You shall not see My face, or, in other words: Do not face your guide. For
then you will be going in a completely opposite direction.
From the Prologue from Ohrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, December 16
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3).
A chosen man, a great wonderworker, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in his miracles, a victor in Egypt,
a victor in the wilderness, the leader of a people-how could he not be proud? But if he had become
proud, Moses would not have been all that he was. They become proud who think that they do their
own works and not God's in this world, and who think that they work by their own power and not by
God's power. But the great Moses knew that he was the doer of God's works, and that the power with
which He did them was God's power and not his. That is why he did not become proud because of the
awesome miracles he performed, or the great victories he obtained, or the wise laws that he gave to the
people. The Lord is my strength and my song (Exodus 15:2), said Moses. Of the entire assembly of the
Israelites in the wilderness, no one felt his own particular weakness as much as he, the greatest one of
that assembly. In every task, in every place and in every moment, he expected help only from God.
``What shall I do?'' he cried to God, and he ceaselessly listened for God's reply and sought God's
power. ``Meek above all men on earth.'' For all the others considered themselves as being something,
trusted themselves as being something, but he-nothing. He was completely absorbed in God,
completely humbled before God. If the people needed to be fed and given drink, he turned to God; if it
was necessary to do battle with his enemies, he raised his hands to heaven; if it was necessary to calm
an uprising among the people, he cried to God. The meek, the all-meek Moses! And God rewarded his
faithful servant with great glory and made him worthy to appear on Mount Tabor with Elias alongside
the Lord Savior.
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