"By Unceasing Enactment Of The Ascetic Efforts Set Forth In The Gospels, Saints Gradually Fill Themselves With The Holy Spirit." - Justin Popovich.

This Article is taken from ENLARGING THE HEART

Justin Popovich.

Illustration: ENLARGING THE HEART

The Holiness of The Saints — both the Holiness of their Souls and of their bodies — derives from their zealous grace-and-virtue-bestowing lives in The Body of The Church of Christ, of The God-Man.

In this sense, Holiness completely envelopes the human person — the entire Soul and body and all that enters into the mystical composition of the human body.

The Holiness of The Saints does not hold forth only in their Souls, but it necessarily extends to their bodies; so it is that both the body and the Soul of a Saint are Sanctified.

Thus we, in piously Venerating The Saints, also Venerate the entire person, in this manner not separating the Holy Soul from the Holy body.

Our pious Veneration of The Saints’ Relics is a natural part of our pious respect for, and Prayerful entreaty to, The Saints. All of this constitutes one indivisible ascetic act, just as the Soul and body constitute the single, indivisible person of The Saint.

Clearly, during his life on the Earth, The Saint, by a continuous and singular grace-and virtue-bestowing synergy of Soul and body, attains to the Sanctification of his person, filling both the Soul and body with The Grace of The Holy Ghost and so transforming them into Vessels of The Holy Mysteries and Holy Virtues.

It is completely natural, again, to show pious reverence both to the former and to the latter, both to Soul and body, both of them Holy Vessels of God’s Grace.

When the charismatic power of Christ issues forth, it makes Grace-filled all the constituent parts of the human person and the person in his entirety.

By unceasing enactment of the ascetic efforts set forth in The Gospels, Saints gradually fill themselves with The Holy Ghost, so that their Sacred bodies, according to the word of The Holy Apostle, become Temples of The Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19; 3:17), Christ dwelling by Faith in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17) and by fruitful love also fulfilling The Commandments of God The Father.

Establishing themselves in The Holy Ghost, through Grace-bestowing ascetic labours, The Saints participate in The Life of The Trinity, becoming Sons of The Holy Trinity, Temples of The Living God (2 Corinthians 6:16); their whole lives thus flow from The Father, through The Son, in The Holy Ghost.

By piously Venerating The Holy Relics of The Saints, The Church reveres them as Temples of The Holy Ghost, Temples of The Living God, in which God dwells by Grace, even after the Earthly death of The Saints.

And by His Most Wise and Good Will, God creates Miracles in and through these Relics. Moreover, the Miracles, which derive from The Holy Relics, witness also to the fact that their pious Veneration by the people is pleasing to God.

Justin Popovich (1894 - 1979): The Place of Holy Relics in The Orthodox Church @ OCIC.

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia.

Saint Iustin Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Jустин Поповић; 6 April 1894, Vranje - 7 April 1979, Ćelije Monastery, Lelić) was an Eastern Orthodox Theologian, Archimandrite of The Ćelije Monastery, Dostoyevsky scholar, a champion of Anti-Communism, a writer, and a critic of the pragmatic Church (Ecclesiastical) Life. On 29 April 2010, Fr. Justin was Canonised as a Saint by The Holy Synod of The Serbian Orthodox Church.