Ornament - Burning rock
Materials - Package of small, fall-colored, wooden leaves (which look conveniently like little flames), oven-hardening clay, silver and blue paint, drill, and twine
Read 3 Kingdoms [1 Kings] selections from chapters 18 & 19
(Kontakion of Prophet Elijah, Tone 2)
O great Prophet Elijah,/ seer of God's mighty works,/ who didst halt the torrential rain by thy word,/
pray for us to the Lover of Mankind.
(Troparion for the Eve of the Theophany Tone 4)
The river Jordan was once turned back by Elisha's mantle when Elijah was taken up,/ and the waters
were divided hither and thither./ The watery path became dry for him as a type of baptism/ whereby we cross the flowing stream of life./ Christ has appeared in the Jordan to sanctify the waters.
From the Prologue from Ohrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, December 21
As Moses, by living faith and prayer, worked awesome miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness, as
Joshua the son of Nun held back the course of the sun, so also God's prophet Elias shut and opened the
heavens, brought down fire from heaven, and worked other mighty and awesome miracles all through
faith and prayer. God gave Elias the power to work such miracles, for Elias was zealous for the glory of
God and not for his own glory: I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts (I Kings 19:14). This
man of God sought nothing for himself but sought everything for God. God was everything to him: all
glory, all strength, all good. Therefore, God crowned him with immortal glory, awesome might, and
treasure which does not decay and which moths do not corrupt. God did not permit Elias to die but took
him to heaven as he did Enoch. St. Elias had a soul as pure as the morning dew, a body as chaste as a
child's, and a heart and mind as blameless as that of an angel of God. Therefore, he was and remains a
vessel of God's power. He worked wonders then and works them today.
-Archbishop Averky of Jordanville from Saint Elias Publications “Faith and Life”
A striking and extremely clear example of such fiery zeal for God's glory comes to us from the depths
of antiquity of the Old Testament in a great Prophet of God, the flaming Elias, who grieved in soul
when he saw the apostasy from God of his people, led by the impious King Ahab, who introduced into
Israel the pagan worship of Baal in place of the true God.
I have been very jealous for the Lord God Almighty—thus did he exclaim many times, expressing his
grief—because the children of Israel have forsaken Thee: they have dug down Thine altars, and have
slain Thy prophets with the sword, and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it (3 Kings 19: 10) .
And behold, this holy zeal aroused him, by the power of the grace of God which reposed on him, as a
chastisement of Israel which had apostatized from God, to "close heaven" (3 Kings 17:1; 18:42-45.
James 5:17-18), so that there was neither rain nor dew for three years and six months.
This same zeal later aroused Elias to slay the false prophets and priests of Baal, after the miraculous
descent of the fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel, so that these deceivers might no longer turn the sons of
Israel away from the true worship of God (3 Kings 18 :40).
By the power of the same Divine zeal, St. Elias brought down fire from heaven, which burned the
captains and their fifties which had been sent by the king to seize him (4 Kings 1:9-14).
That all this was in reality holy zeal which was pleasing to God is testified to by the fact that the Holy
Prophet Elias did not die the usual death of all men, but was miraculously raised up to heaven in a
chariot of fire, as if signifying his authentically fiery zeal for God (4 kings 2:10-12).
See also Law of God, Sacred History Chapter 37, The Prophets,
http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/law_of_god_slobodskoy_1.htm#_Toc36163705
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