St. Isaac the Confessor, founder of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople (383).
St. James, monk of Starotorzhok Monastery in Galich (Kostroma) (15th c.-16th c).
St. Macrina, grandmother of Sts. Macrina, Basil the Great, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste, and Gregory of Nyssa (4th c.). St. Venantius of Gaul, brother of St. Honoratus of Lerins (374). St. Hubert, bishop of Liege (727).
Repose of Abbot Ephraim of Sarov (1778) and Hieromonk Benedict (Ghius) of Romania (1990).
Tuesday. [Rom. 7:14-8:2; Matt. 10:9-15]
The Lord also said to the apostles that
if a city does not receive them, and will not hear their
words, then It shall be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that
city. And what will happen to us for our not hearing
the words of Divine Revelation? It will be immeasurably
intolerable be for us. To disbelieve the truth of God
after so many tangible proofs is the same as reviling the
Holy Spirit, and blaspheming. And yet we have no fear. The
spiritists [and Hindus] say, “What judgment! We just
have to be born a few more times.” The scientists
say, “Whom is there to judge? Everything is made of
atoms; they will fly apart and that will be the
end.” But, my friends, the hour of death will come;
these dreams will fly away like phantoms, and we will all
be faced with inevitability reality. What then?…
What wretched times we live in! The enemy has contrived to
destroy our souls. He knows that fear of death and
judgment is the strongest means for sobering up a
soul—and so he makes every attempt to drive this
away; and he succeeds. But extinguish the fear of death
and fear of God will disappear; and without the fear of
God the conscience becomes mute. The soul becomes empty,
it becomes a waterless cloud, carried by any wind of
teachings and various fits of passions.