ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2016
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December 22
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January 4
29th Week after Pentecost. Tone 3.
Рождественский пост.
Monastic rule: xerophagy (bread, uncooked fruits and vegetables).

Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомGreat-martyr Anastasia of Rome, the Deliverer from Bonds (ca. 304), and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them Martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others, who suffered under Diocletian (304).

St. Boris (Talantov) of Kostroma (1970).

Repose of Monk Dositheus, hermit, of the Roslavl Forests and Optina Monastery (1828).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Wednesday. [James 1:1-8; Mark 10:11-16]

           With what love the Lord treated children! Who doesn’t treat them with love? The longer one lives, the more one loves children. In them is seen freshness of life, cleanness and purity of disposition, which cannot but be loved. Looking at the innocence of childhood, some suppose that there is no original sin, that each person falls himself when he comes of age and meets with immoral urges, which, it seems to him, he does not have the strength to overcome. Everyone falls himself, yet the original sin nevertheless is present. Apostle Paul sees in us the law of sin, warring against the law of the mind. This law, like a seed, at first is as if not visible, but then is revealed and entices. Those who are born of lepers do not manifest leprosy until a certain age, but then it is revealed, and begins to consume them just as it did their parents. Where was the leprosy before this time? It was hiding within. So does the original sin hide until the time, and then comes out and does its business. Environment means a lot for both suppressing this sin and revealing it. If there were no sinful elements all around, there would be nothing with which to feed this hidden sin, and perhaps it would dry up of its own. But herein is our sorrow: that all around there is very much favourable food for it. There is much sin in every person as well as in society; but all of this does not necessarily determine that we will sin. Sin is always a matter of freedom—struggle and you will not fall. Only he who does not want to struggle falls. Why do we not want to struggle? There are no regulations concerning desire and lack of desire: I want to, because I want to; and I don’t want to, because I don’t want to. Self-rule is the original principle—one cannot go beyond it.

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