Learn Greek with Comprehensible Greek Audiobooks

---

PATROLOGOS edutainment

God had said to the first married couple, 
when he had blessed and holified their bond and their union: 
«expand and multiply and fill the earth». 

And these words by God, these words and command of the almighty God, 
Who holds in His hands the whole creation, 
have not lost their power, even though Adam and Eve 
disobeyed God's command 
and were expelled from Paradise. 
The difference is that now Eve is being condemned 
to bring forth her children with sorrows and with pains. 

Once however the earth was designated 
by the almighty Ruler of the creation 
to be of man's the dwelling and heritage, 
Adam and Eve would not remain childless, 
neither would they be sentenced to live alone, without a heir, 
who would take care of them at their old age 
and would recuperate with reverence their remains, when they would die, 
without a heir, to spend the remaining bitter 
and miserable days of their lives. 

Therefore, they would have many children. And they had children. 
Cain and Abel were the first children, which Eva gave birth to, 
older than the others, which she had later. 
Cain was the first. And Abel was second. 

What emotion Eve must have experienced, 
when she heard the first voices, 
that directly after he fell from the womb of his mother 
Cain cried out! 

All the pains that she experienced 
during her childbirth our poor foremother, she immediately forgot, 
when she saw that beloved baby of hers, 
that was giving to her at that moment the blessing of God, 
which holified and made fertile 
her marriage with Adam. 

«And said Eve; I have acquired a man from the Lord». 

Eve feels it at that time. 
She admits it with all her soul and her heart, 
that God gave her that child, 
which with so many sorrows she gave birth to, 
and also with many hopes she now sweetly hugs in her bosom. 

And she declares it with gratitude. 
And she speaks it out loud: «I have acquired a man, 
a son similar to me and to his father, from God, 
with the power and the blessing of God». 

Hear it, parents! The children, that you have, they are not yours. 
Someone else gives them to you, God. 
He is the one who gives life in your bodies 
and rises up from your bloods 
the sons and the daughters, about which you are proud 
and for which, you are happy. 

He gives them to you and to Him they belong 
and His creation they are, which was trusted to you. 
Do not therefore fall in the excitement, 
nor when you have them in the full of affection armful of yours, 
neither when death comes 
to separate you from them cruelly. 
Always remember that they are not yours. 

They are of course yours as well, because you have given them birth, 
but first of all they belong to God, 
with the blessing of Whom you have acquired them. 

He wanted at that time and He gave them to you. 
He wants now and takes them back from you. 
Surrender without any complaint 
and without any disputation to His will. 
What is it that He wants, that is not benevolent, 
useful, righteous and holy for everyone? 

But all of you also, who are married, 
and you have not been happy to become fathers and mothers; 
all of you who have not acquired children from your marriage, 
pay attention to these words of Eve. 
The fact that you do not have children, is not due to some misfortune of yours. 
It is the will of God. 

And you might think, that you would be happy, 
if you would have had children and if you would see your own descendants as well. 
Delusion! And a great delusion indeed! 

The happiness and the safety of the man 
is not in that, that he wants for himself 
but it is in that, which God, the benevolent God, 
the most benevolent God wants, and decides for him. 

Yes, my brother. 
Ourselves, blinded many times from our ungovernable emotions, 
we seek and we desire, without not even understanding it, 
our unhappiness, and our disaster. 
However, our benevolent and most wise Father, 
who is in the heavens, 
is not ever possible to be deceived, 
nor it is ever possible to prepare 
our disaster and our unhappiness. 

Why therefore 
should we not trust ourselves to His providence 
and should we not remain completely confident 
in what He decided and wants for us? 

Until Eve gave birth also to her second child Abel, 
Cain was alone, without any other company, 
except the company of his parents. 
For this reason the company of his brother Abel, 
when he was born and was grown a little, 
must have been much in request and very pleasant for little Cain. 

With who else would Cain play, 
but only with his brother? 
Other child there were none yet. 
Only these two children lived, the two alone, almost at the same age, 
alone companions in order to spend together the years of their childhood youth. 

Together these two children at lunchtime, 
together during the day, together also during the night, 
together in the hut where they must have been born 
and near where they must have lived with their parents, 
together also at the fields and in the desert countryside and the quiet and silence one. 

It would therefore be natural that they were very connected. 
Thus at least each one of us would consider from a first point of view 
for these two brothers. 
Cain must have been very fond of his young brother, Abel. 
And the more time was passing 
and they grew older these two brothers, 
the more they must have become connected one with other. 

And at least as it seems, 
their loving ought and their connectivity to be so great, 
so that one would not be able to be without the other; 
and neither would be possible one to live without the existence of the other. 

And despite all these, my reader, 
the facts were completely different. 
The sin, you see, so much distorts the nature of man, 
that the most unnatural and the most perverse emotions and wills 
are being born and grown with the highest ease 
within our volition and within our heart. 

The sin, which in this case also penetrated in the children of Adam 
and which distorted the heart 
not of the benevolent and devout Abel, 
but of the cunning and malicious Cain, 
very soon presented its disastrous results and its disastrous fruits 
that would give to the ever growing humanity 
to savor and to try. 

And thus, as after a while 
the story of Cain and Abel will show to us, 
even before they had the chance the world of the humans to be multiplied, 
even before they had the chance the descendants of Adam 
to leave the house in which they were born, 
the sin divides them and separates them. 

And it immediately occurs the distinction and the separation in just and unjust, 
in benevolents and evils, in virtuous and sinisters. 
And it immediately begins the competition between wickedness and virtuousness, between justice and injustice. 
And it doesn't take long before it is declared the hard, the implacable, 
the even tainted with bloods persecution of the evilness against the unarmed virtue. 

And if Adam with Eve represent now the whole of humanity, 
their two children, Cain and Abel, 
they represent the two crowds, 
in which is about to be split the humanity. 

One of them represents the cunning offspring of the serpent, 
the massive group of these people, 
who are inspired by the criminal serpent, 
the cunning and homicidious devil. 
The other represents the unarmed and harmless 
and innocent lambs of the woman's descendant, of Jesus Christ. 

Oh you, my Christian, you who honestly desire and from your heart 
to become a lamb of the corral of Christ, 
do not forget what your heritage is. 

You will be persecuted, you will be ignored, 
you will be supplanted, you will be slandered, 
and it's not a paradox if as a lamb 
you will be taken to be slaughtered. 

You should not feel surprised, when anyone 
of the above mentioned calamities is found in your path. 
This is the history of virtue 
since this world exists; 
this is the heritage of the children of God, 
since humans were born. 

Let us study the history 
of the first two children of Adam, 
and immediately we will be convinced. 

When the two children of Adam grew older, 
each of them started to occupy himself 
with his very own, distinct profession. 
«And Abel became shepherd of lambs, 
and Cain a tiller of the ground». 

A keeper of sheep, a shepherd guiding to the pastures 
his sheep was one of them, the younger Abel; 
a farmer cultivating 
and working the earth 
was the other, the older Cain. 

They were two, 
from nobles, both of them, parents descending from, 
and from exactly these very parents, 
from whom later would descend all the kings of the world 
and all of the world the nobles. 

Two they were, Cain and Abel, 
sole heirs of the earth in those times, 
very easily being able both of them 
to survive even with the wild fruits, 
which without any difficulty they would be able to find. 

And despite all that you see, 
that their parents very soon 
take care in order to teach them 
a different each one profession. 
They don't tell them; eat, children, from these prepared food, 
which God gave to us. 

They don't show to them that vast heritage, which God had given to them, 
in order to tell them, rest, uselesses and lazies, 
without sweating at all in that globe of the earth, 
which, as long as you live, it is all yours. 

But what do they tell them? In order to eat, 
you must first work. 
And you must sweat, in order to acquire with your own effort 
your bread and your dresses. 

Behold therefore, descendants of Adam, 
all you who are reading these lines, 
what is our duty and our obligation. 
The indolence and the laziness is wickedness, 
which is never justified for the man. 

Even if someone is financially independent, he must never be idle. 
He must be working. 
And if the fruits from his work are not necessary to him, 
let him work for the good of others. 

Is there any other greater happiness 
other than for us to toil in order to provide repose 
to the sick and to the elders, 
who are not able to work? 

And is there any other greater disgrace 
other than for the man to be transformed to a useless animal, 
which no other purpose will not have, 
but only to eat and to sleep 
and to crawl like worm 
to the vacations and to the pleasures? 

Oh you parents, who toil and care 
in order to multiply the heritage, 
that you will leave behind to your children. 
Be well aware about who you are accumulating wealth 
and for whose the heritage you fatigue. 

Could it be that your children, for whom you are working, 
are friends of indolence and of laziness? 
Alas! in vain you accumulate wealth and without any purpose you toil. 
These lazies will squander someday your treasures 
and will end up poor and beggars. 

Don't you see at Adam? 
The whole earth was a heritage of him and of his children. 
Despite all that one of his first concerns 
was to teach both his children of how to work. 

And as a resource that is more valuable than any heritage, 
as a wealth that is more useful than any other possession and money, 
he considers the profession and the act of working, 
to which very early his two children are getting used to. 

Likewise you too, father, no matter who you are and how much wealth you possess, 
do what is necessary, if you want to guarantee the life of your child, 
to teach it how to work and to abhor the indolence and the laziness. 

Don't be confused. 
The only safe heritage, that you can leave to your children, 
to be sure that they will never be unhappy, is this: 
Give them first of all in their hands the Holy Bible 
teaching them the piety and solidifying their hearts in the fear of the Lord. 

Give them secondly a useful profession and a beneficial one, 
that one preferably, in which they feel inclination by nature, 
and teach them 
how to work honestly and with lawfulness and to hate the indolence. 

In that case, even if money you don't leave them as heritage, God will be with them, 
and also be sure, that they will never go hungry. 

The two brothers, Cain and Abel, also had two professions. 
Other profession the first and other the second one. 
According to his own character each one 
and according to his aptitudes 
he also received his profession. 

More rough, 
as he was proven afterwards Cain, 
he is destined for a tougher task. 
For a more laborious task, in which many sweats he was called to shed. 
And such was the task of cultivating the earth, 
which he digged and cleaned its weeds and managed. 

Calmer and more peaceful was Abel, and more tranquil he has the profession. 
It is a profession, to which afterwards occupied themselves during some period of their lives 
also other great men, Moses and David. 

And as to them that profession 
gave the oportunity for tranquil and peaceful thoughts 
in the midst of the peaceful and tranquil nature, 
likewise it was also for Abel. 

His pastoral profession continually attracted him to the countryside 
and being there alone Abel during the day 
he received many times the occasion to admire the creation of God 
and to glorify the omniscient 
and almighty Creator of nature. 

And also many times even when being awake at night with his flock 
at the quiet fields of the meadows with the sky full of stars again, 
he even deeper understood the grandeur of the Creator, Who everything created with wisdom. 

One was cultivating the fields, the other was pasturing ship. 
Two professions equally useful and necessary. 
The most ancient, and also the most important and most needed professions. 

Without these professions every human industry becomes useless and unnecessary. 
Also these professions provide the food and the raw material 
to every other industrial initiative, that the earth has seen untill today. 

The bread and the milk 
and the wool for our clothes and the meat, 
all these all that are enough in order to live and to live well a man, 
gives them to us the field of the farmer on the one hand, 
and the sheepfold of the shepherd on the other hand. 

Let the farmer out of the picture and very soon you will see 
where will end up the high-ranking man of the city, 
who sits calm in the capital city 
and eats already prepared the white and fluffy steaming hot bread. 

Let the shepherd out of the picture and the animal breeder 
and we 'll see that happens to the majestic hotel lobbies 
and to the crystals at the showcases of the dressing shops. 
Let the grain out of the picture, the meat and the wool, 
and then, oh world, we 'll see, what will happen to you. 

Truly, my God, everything with wisdom You have created. 
Without the artist and the musician and the composer, 
of whose the profession is considered noble and celestial, the world can go on living. 

Without the inconspicuous and despised farmer and shepherd, 
no, the world cannot live. 
You combined, oh God, the useful with the humble, 
the necessary with the inexpensive, 
in order for no one to be arrogant, in order for all of us to be humble, in order for no one to boast. 

Two different professions they have the two children of Adam. 
And thus they shall be able each to be useful also to the other. 

Useful is Cain to Abel, 
because he will give to him from the products of his fields. 
Useful is also Abel to Cain, 
because he will give him milk and cheese and butter 
and meat and wool for him to eat and dress himself. 

And thus since the beginning already, 
when it was first established the human society, 
since when they were one only couple 
and two children of this couple, 
and even back then it occurs also the separation of the professions. 

Society means exactly that; for many people to live together, 
that they have many and various professions 
and to give one to the other, 
and to receive one from the other, 
by exchanging his fatigue with the fatigue of the other, 
his labor with the labor of the other, 
the product of his own effort with the product of the other. 

The same task and the same profession it is impossible for everyone to have. 
It is impossible, because they are not all made for the same work 
and do not all have the same inclination for the same profession. 

But it wouldn't either be right, nor useful 
for everyone to have the same profession. 
Alas then, the society would be destroyed 
and would not be able to prosper. 

Exactly like with your body also, my reader. 
Can it be that all your members have the same function? 
Alas in that case; your body will then be impossible to live. 

Likewise also with the society. It is a body, it is an organism. 
It is a body with members, each one of which has its task, 
which is useful and necessary for the conservation and progress of the whole organism. 

The various professions cannot, 
and should not ever miss from the society. 
They are a social necessity, 
and this difference of the professions is the foundation, 
in which the society is based. 

That thing that must be extinct one day and propably will be extinct, 
are the so called titles of nobility. 

If you think that you have a more noble profession than me, 
who I am laboring from morning until afternoon 
to the laboratory of the shoe maker 
or of the blacksmith or of any other craftsman, 
it doesn't mean by that, that you can and you have the right to despise me. 

I am also member of the same body, in which you also belong. 
And if you want this body, that is called society, to go on forth and to progress, 
you must not forget, that its members 
must live together in peace and in harmony, 
and that each one must respect and honor the other. 

End of chapter 1