St. Chariton the Confessor, abbot, of Palestine (350). Sts. Cyril, schemamonk, and Maria, schemanun, parents of St. Sergius of Radonezh (ca. 1337).
Prophet Baruch (6th c. b.c.). Martyrs Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark the Shepherd, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus, and 24 others, in Pisidia and Phrygia (4th c.). Martyr Wenceslaus (Vyacheslav), prince of the Czechs (935). St. Chariton, abbot of Syandema Monastery (Vologda) (1509). St. Herodion, founder of Iloezersk Monastery (Belozersk) (1541). Synaxis of the Holy Fathers of Kiev whose relics lie in the Near Caves of St. Anthony.
New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Gromov), hieromonk, of Petushki (Vladimir), and New Martyr Michaela (Ivanova), schemanun, of Aksinyino (Moscow) (1937).
St. Faustus, bishop of Riez (495). St. Alkison, bishop of Nicopolis (Preveza) in Epirus (561). Hieromartyr Annemund, archbishop of Lyons (658). St. Leoba, abbess of Tauberbischofsheim, English missionary to Germany (779). St. Auxentius the Alaman, wonderworker, of Cyprus (12th c.). Martyr Eustace of Rome. Translation of the relics of St. Neophytus the Recluse, of Cyprus (1214).
Thursday. [Phil 1:20-27; Luke 6:12-19]
And He continued all night in prayer
to God. Here is the foundation and beginning of
Christian all-night Vigils. A prayerful heat chases away
sleep, and exhilaration of the spirit does not allow one
to notice the passing of time. True men of prayer do not
notice this; it seems to them that they had just begun to
pray, meanwhile day has already appeared. But until one
reaches such perfection, he must take on the labour of
vigils. Solitaries have borne this and bear it; cenobitic
monastics have borne this and bear it; reverent and
God-fearing laypeople have borne this and bear it. But
though vigil comes with difficulty, its fruit remains in
the soul, directly and constantly present—peace of
soul and contrition, with weakening and exhaustion of the
body. It is a state very valuable for those who are
zealous about prospering in the spirit! That is why in
places where vigils are established (on Athos), they do
not want to give them up. Everyone realizes how difficult
it is, but nobody has a desire to rescind this order, for
the sake of the profit which the soul receives from
vigils. Sleep, more than anything, relaxes and feeds the
flesh; vigils more than anything humble it. One who sleeps
abundantly is burdened by spiritual deeds and is cold
towards them; he who is vigilant is quick in movement,
like an antelope, and burns in the spirit. If the flesh
must be taught to be good, like a slave, then there is no
better way to succeed in this than through frequent
vigils. Here the flesh fully feels the power of the spirit
over it, and learns to submit to it; while the spirit
acquires the habit of reigning over the flesh.
Friday. [Phil. 1:27-2:4; Luke 6:17-23]
The Lord blesses the poor, those who
hunger and weep, and the persecuted under the condition
that it is all for the sake of the Son of Man; this means
that He blesses a life which is surrounded by every kind
of need and deprivation. According to this saying,
pleasures, ease, honour are not something good; this is
the way it is indeed. But while a person rests in these
things, he does not realize this. Only when he frees
himself from their spell does he see that they are not the
good, but only phantoms. A soul cannot do without
consolations, but they are not of the senses; it cannot do
without treasures, but they are not in gold and silver,
not in luxurious houses and clothes, not in this external
fullness; it cannot get by without honor, but it lies not
in human servility. There are other pleasures, there is
other ease, other honour—spiritual, akin to the
soul. He who finds them does not want the external ones;
not only does he not want them, but he scorns and hates
them because they block off the spiritual, do not allow
one to see it, they keep a soul in darkness, drunkenness,
and phantoms. This is why such people prefer with all
their soul poverty, sorrow and obscurity, feeling good
within them, like behind some safe fence against the spell
of the deceptions of the world. What about those people
who have all these things without trying? They should
relate to all of these things, according to the word of
the holy Apostle, as one who possesses not (cf. 1Cor.
7:30).