Translation of the relics of St. Job, patriarch of Moscow (1652). Martyrs Theodulus, reader, and Agathopodes, deacon, and those with them, at Thessalonica (ca. 303).
St. Publius of Egypt, monk (4th c.). Sts. Theonas, Symeon, and Phorbinus, of Egypt (4th c.). St. Mark the Anchorite, of Athens (400). St. Plato the Confessor, abbot, of the Studion (814). St. Theodora, nun, of Thessalonica (892).
Virgin-martyr Theodora and Martyr Didymus the Soldier, of Alexandria (304). New Martyr George of New Ephesus (1801). New Martyr Panagiotes of Jerusalem (1820).
Repose of Righteous Symeon Klimych (1837) and Elder Philemon of Valaam and Jordanville (1953). Martyrdom of Optina monastics Hieromonk Basil and Riassaphore-monks Therapontus and Trophimus, on Pascha (1993).
Monday (6th week of Lent).
Thus says the Lord: I am the Lord thy God which
teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way
that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my
commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy
righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had
been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the
gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor
destroyed from before me. Under what condition should
all this come to pass? Go ye forth out of Babylon
(Isa. 48:17–20).
Babylon is an image of all-around
sinfulness. Abandon sin, turn to the Lord with all of your
heart. He will not remember your transgressions, and will
consign all of your unrighteousness to oblivion. You will
enter again into mercy with Him—and then you need
only to walk the way which He will teach you, and your
inner peace will be like a river, the good thoughts of
your heart like the sand, and the fruits of your good
works like the dust of the ground.[1]
[1]
The Slavonic for Isa. 48:19–20 reads:
…and the offspring of thy bowels like the
dust of the ground. The wording, dust of the
ground, in the Slavonic refers to Genesis 2:7.