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Thursday |
New Style
January 29
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| 34th Week after Pentecost. Tone 8. |  Fast-free period.
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Veneration of the Precious Chains of the Holy and All-glorious Apostle Peter. 
Blessed Maximus, priest of Totma (Vologda), fool-for-Christ (1650).
Martyrs Speusippus and his brothers Eleusippus and Meleusippus, their grandmother Leonilla, and with them Neon, Turbo, and Jonilla (Jovilla), in Cappadocia (161-180). Martyr Danax the Reader, in Macedonia (2nd c.).
St. Honoratus, archbishop of Arles and founder of Lerins Monastery (429). St. James of Tarentaise (429). Martyr Sigebert, king of the East Angles (635). St. Fursey, Irish missionary monk of Burgh Castle (East Anglia), Lagny, and Peronne (Gaul) (650). St. Romilus the Sinaite, of Ravanica Monastery (Serbia) (1375). New Hieromartyr Damascene of Gabrovo, hieromonk of Hilandar, at Svishtovo (1771). New Hieromartyr Nicholas, priest, of Mytilene (1777).
Repose of Elder Theodore of Irkutsk (1923) and Priest Demetrius Gagastathis of Platanos, Trikala (1975).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Thursday. [I Pet. 4:12–5:5; Mark 12:38–44]
The widow placed in the treasury (the church collection box) two mites (a half-kopeck piece, approximately); but the Lord said that she cast in more than anyone, although the others were casting in rubles and tens of rubles. What gave extra weight to her mite? It is the disposition with which the offering was made. Do you see the difference between the doing of good without soul, by habit, and the doing of good with soul and heart? It is not the external aspects of a deed which give it value, but the inner disposition. It may happen that a deed which is outstanding in every regard has no value whatsoever before God, yet a deed which is insignificant in appearance is valued greatly. What follows from this is evident in and of itself. But do not take it into your head to be careless about external things, intending to limit yourself only to inner things. That widow would not have received approval if she had said to herself, “I too have the desire to put in money—but what should I do? I only have two mites. If I give them away, I myself will be left with nothing. She had the desire and acted upon it as well, committing her life into the hands of God. Nobody would have condemned her If she had put in nothing—neither people, nor God. But then she would not have revealed such a disposition, which singled her out from the ranks of others and made her renowned throughout the entire Christian world.