Orthodox Portal

How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its identity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all men and the needs of those that pray.

“The Cave in which Christ was born is a type of the Church. St. Athanasius the Great speaks specifically in saying the small room where the Theotokos awaited the birth has been accepted as the type of the Church. The manger is seen as the Altar, Joseph the server, the Magi are the clergy, the Shepherds are the deacons, the angels are the Priests, the Lord is the Bishop, the Virgin is the Throne, the craters in the cave are the chalices, the incarnation is the Vestment, the Cherubim are the [liturgical] fans, the Holy Spirit is the paten, the Father Who overshadows all things with His power is the veil covering the paten.” (The Twelve Feasts of the Lord. pg. 60.)
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The original Santa Claus was…of course St. Nicholas. In the 16* century in Holland, Dutch children would place their wooden shoes by the hearth in hopes that they would be filled with treats. The Dutch spelled St. Nicholas as Sint Nikolass, which became corrupted to Sinterklaas, and finally, in Colonial America’s New Amsterdam (which would later become New York), it was changed to Santa Claus.
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The Akathist, also called the “Akathist of Thanksgiving” was composed by Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov shortly before his death in a Soviet prison camp in 1940. The title is from the words of St. John Chrysostom as he was dying in exile. It is a song of praise from amidst the most terrible of sufferings.
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In order for one to realize his weak nature, he must encounter many great temptations. And then, through many trials he is humbled and learns true humility. But it takes time. Humility does not consist in words such as ‘I am a sinner…’ and so on. Humility is the truth. To learn that you are nothing. Nothing is what existed before God created everything: nothing. So this nothing is what we are. Your root, your existence began with nothing, and your mother is clay, but your Creator is God. ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it?’ It is a great gift of God for one to learn the truth. And the Lord said that this truth frees us from sin (John 8:32.) (Monastic-Wisdom, pg. 287.)