ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2017
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Old Style
December 1
Thursday
New Style
December 14
28th Week after Pentecost. Tone 2.
Nativity Fast.
Wine and oil allowed.

Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомProphet Nahum (7th c. b.c.).

Righteous Philaret the Merciful, of Amnia in Asia Minor (792). Martyr Ananias of Persia.

New Hieromartyr Innocent (Letyaev), archbishop of Kharkov and Akhtyra (1937).

St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon (Neth.) (660). St. Botolph, abbot and confessor, of Ikanhoe, England (680). St. Anthony the New, monk, of Kios in Bithynia (865). St. Theoclites, bishop of Sparta (870). St. Onesimus, archbishop of Ephesus. Sts. Ananias and Solochonus, archbishops of Ephesus.

Repose of Righteous Virgin Barbara (Shulaeva) of Pilna (1980).

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

Thursday. [Tit. 1:5-2:1; Luke 20:9-18]

           The parable about the vineyard portrays the Old Testament Church; the husbandmen are the hierarchy of those times. Because it was not fulfilling its purpose, a sentence was pronounced over it: to take its vineyard and give it to others. These others were first the holy Apostles, then their successors—the bishops with all the priesthood. God’s vineyard has been the same from the beginning of the world, and the purpose of its husbandmen was, is, and will be the same until the end of the world—to bring to the Lord fruit of the vine—saved souls. This is the task of the Christian hierarchy, and thus, our task. The extent of its fulfilment we can all see. What can one say to this? About many things—glory be to God! But about many, many things one cannot help but to desire better. This particularly concerns the preaching of the word of God. Somewhere preaching is heard; and yet this is only one garden knife in the hands of the husbandmen of God’s vine. Let this not be fulfilled over us: The lord of the vineyard shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. But what if these others should break in on their own, and destroy not only the husbandmen, but the vine itself…

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