Buddhist Prayer for Animal Liberation

[JustinHesychast]

A nature and animal love as myself, I really like this. I respect Buddhism, but I see a whole lot of wrong in it. I did find this, though, and I really liked it. Is there anything similar in Orthodoxy?

I often notice, in my worthless opinion, a lack of reverence for God's creatures by many Christians.

[Orthosdoxa]

Read about St. Tryphon.

[ma2000]

The Spiritual Meadow

by John Moschus

Chapter 107

THE LION AND ABBA GERASIMUS

About a mile away from the Jordan River lies the monastery of Saint Abba Gerasimus.
When I visited this monastery, the fathers told us about Saint Gerasimus the following:
One day, while he was walking on the banks of Jordan River, he saw a lion that was roaring loudly, because his paw was hurt. He had a thorn in his paw and, because of it, the paw was swollen and festered. When the lion saw the monk, it came to him and showed him the paw wounded because of the thorn. The lion was almost crying and was asking the monk to heal him. Seeing him in such a great pain, the monk sat down, took its paw and took the thorn out along with a lot of pus. After he cleaned the wound, he tied the paw with a cloth and set the lion free. But after it was healed, the lion never left the elder but followed him wherever he went, just like a true apprentice, amazing the elder of such gratitude.
Since then, the elder fed him with bread and seeds.

* * *

Abba Gerasimus had a donkey in the monastery for carrying water, because the fathers drank water from the Jordan River. The monastery is far from the river, about a mile away. The fathers used to let the lion guard the donkey while it was grazing on the banks of the Holy Jordan River. One day, when the donkey was grazing guarded by the lion, the lion wandered a bit far from the donkey. Some camel riders coming from Arabia were passing by. When they saw the donkey all by itself, they took it and went on their way. When the lion saw the donkey was gone, it came to the monastery very upset. Abba Gerasimus thought the it had eaten the donkey and asked:
– Where’s the donkey?
The lion was standing silent like a real person and looking down. The elder said:
– Did you eat it? Blessed be Lord! Then you will do the donkey’s job from now on.
Since then, following the elder’s orders, the lion was carrying four pots in which it carried water to the monastery.

One day, a soldier came to the elder to ask for his prayers. When he saw the lion carrying water and found out the cause, he gave the elder three coins to buy a donkey and free the lion from its duty. After some time, the camel rider who had taken the donkey came to Jerusalem to sell wheat and took the donkey with him. When he went across the Jordan River, the lion saw him and recognized the donkey. The camel rider fled from the lion and left all the animals. The lion ran after the donkey, grabbed it by the halter and carried with it the donkey and the three camels. Being very glad and roaring because he had found the donkey, it came to the elder. Then the elder realised that the lion was innocent. And he named the lion Jordan. The lion stayed in the monastery with the elder for five years and they never parted.
When Abba Gerasimus went before God, the lion wasn’t in the monastery. After some time it came looking for the elder.
His apprentice, Abba Sabbatius, said to the lion:
– Jordan, the elder left us orphans and went before God. Come and eat!
The lion didn’t want to eat and was constantly looking around for the elder and roaring. Abba Sabbatius and the other elders patted it on its back and said.
– He went before God and left us.
Although they tried to calm it, they couldn’t make the lion stop roaring. The roars increased in intensity and the lion was expressing its sorrow because he couldn’t find the elder.
Then Abba Sabbatius said:
– Come with us and we will show you the tomb.
And he took the lion to the place the elder wad buried. The tomb was far from the monastery, about half a mile away. Abba Sabbatius stopped before the tomb and said to the lion:
– Here lies our elder!
Abba Sabbatius kneeled. When the lion saw this, he struck his head against the ground, roaring, and died instantly over the elder’s tomb.

All these had happened not because the lion had a thinking soul, but because God wanted to show us that He blesses those who bless Him not only during their lifetime, but also after their death and to show us how obedient to Adam the animals were before he broke the law and was sent away from Heaven.

(translated and adapted by me from Romanian)

[ma2000]

http://ocafs.oca.org/GetImageDetail.asp?IP=march%2F0304gerasim%2Djordan03%2Ejpg

Commemorated on March 4

Saint Gerasimus was a native of Lycia (Asia Minor). From his early years he was distinguished for his piety. Having received monastic tonsure, he withdrew into the desert of the Thebaid (in Egypt). Thereafter, in about the year 450, the monk arrived in Palestine and settled at the Jordan, where he founded a monastery.

For a certain while St Gerasimus was tempted by the heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus, which acknowledged only the divine nature in Jesus Christ, but not His human nature (i.e. the Monophysite heresy). St Euthymius the Great (January 20) helped him to return to the true Faith.

St Gerasimus established a strict monastic Rule. He spent five days of the week in solitude, occupying himself with handicrafts and prayer. On these days the wilderness dwellers did not eat cooked food, nor did they kindle a fire, but ate only dry bread, roots and water.

On Saturday and Sunday all gathered at the monastery for Divine Liturgy and to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In the afternoon, taking a supply of bread, tubers, water and an armload of date-palm branches for weaving baskets, the desert-dwellers returned to their own cells. Each had only old clothes and a mat, upon which he slept. When they left their cells, the door was never locked, so that anyone could enter and rest, or take whatever he needed.

St Gerasimus himself attained a high level of asceticism. During Great Lent he ate nothing until the very day of the All-Radiant Resurrection of Christ, when he received the Holy Mysteries. Going out into the desert for all of Great Lent, St Gerasimus took with him his beloved disciple St Cyriacus (September 29), whom St Euthymius had sent to him.

When St Euthymius the Great died, St Gerasimus saw how angels carried the soul of the departed up to Heaven. Taking Cyriacus with him, the monk immediately set off to the monastery of St Euthymius and consigned his body to the earth.

St Gerasimus died peacefully, mourned by his brethren and disciples. Before his death, a lion had aided St Gerasimus in his tasks, and upon the death of the Elder it died at his grave and was buried nearby. Therefore the lion is depicted on icons of the saint, at his feet.