Forefeast of the Transfiguration.
Martyr Eusignius of Antioch (362).
Hieromartyrs Antherus (236) and Fabian (250), popes of Rome. Martyr Pontius, at Cimella in Gaul (ca. 257). Righteous Nonna, mother of St. Gregory the Theologian (374). Monk-martyr Job the Gorge-dweller, on the Mezen River (Solovki) (1628). Martyrs Cantidius, Cantidian, and Sibelius, of Egypt (4th c.).
New Martyrs Eudocia Shikova and Novices Daria Timolina, Daria Siushinskaya, and Maria, of Puzo (1919). New Hieromartyr Simon (Shleyev), bishop of Ufa (1921).
Martyr Oswald, king of Northumbria (642). St. Euthymius, patriarch of Constantinople (917). New Martyr Christos of Preveza, at Kos (1668). St. Eugenius, monk, of Anatolia (1682). Uncovering of the relics of St. Arsenius the New, of Paros (1967).
Saturday. [I Cor. 1:26-29; Matt. 20:29-34]
The two blind men of Jericho cry out,
and the Lord returns their sight to them. But could these
blind men have been the only ones in those places? Of
course not. Why did these receive vision, but not the
others? Because those did not cry out; and they did not
cry out because they did not have hope; they did not have
hope because they did not please God; they did not please
God, because they had little faith. When true faith comes
to man, he begins to please God from that very moment;
with pleasing God hope comes hope, and from all of this
comes prayer, compelling every help from above. Such
people meet no refusal. They know both how to ask, in fact
know that they should ask, they understand the limits to
their asking, and they have patient persistence in prayer.
All of this is indispensably necessary for success, for
prayer by itself has feeble wings.