St. Symeon Stylites (the Younger) of the Wonderful Mountain (596).
St. Nicetas the Stylite, wonderworker, of Pereyaslavl-Zalesski (1186).
Martyrs Meletius Stratelates, Stephen, John, and 1,218 soldiers with women and children, including: Serapion the Egyptian, Callinicus the Magician, Theodore, Faustus, the women Marciana, Susanna, and Palladia, two children Cyriacus and Christian, and twelve tribunes: Faustus, Festus, Marcellus, Theodore, Meletius, Sergius, Marcellinus, Felix, Photinus, Theodoriscus, Mercurius, and Didymus—all of whom suffered in Galatia (ca. 218). St. Gregory, archbishop of Novgorod (1193).
Nun-martyr Martha, abbess, of Monemvasia (990). Translation of the relics of St. George of the Holy Mountain and Georgia (ca. 1067).
Repose of Monk Cyriacus of Valaam (1818) and Blessed Amphilochius of Rostov (1824).
Wednesday. [Rom. 4:13–25; Matt. 7:21–23]
Not everyone that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven (Matt. 7:21). You will not be saved
through prayer alone; you must unite with prayer
fulfilment of the will of God—all that lies upon
each person according to his calling and way of life. And
prayer should have as its subject primarily the request
that God enable us not to depart in any way from His holy
will. Conversely, he who is zealous to fulfil God’s
will in all things has boldness in prayer before God and
greater access to His throne. Moreover, prayer that is not
accompanied by walking in God’s will is often not
true, sober and heartfelt prayer, but only external
reading, during which one’s moral dysfunction is
concealed by a multitude of words like a mist, while the
thoughts are actually disorderly and wandering. Both must
be made orderly through piety, and then there will be
fruit.