Martyrs Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus, at Tarsus in Cilicia (304). St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, bishop of Maiuma (ca. 787).
Martyr Domnina of Anazarbus (286). St. Martin the Merciful, bishop of Tours (397). Sts. Amphilochius (1452), Macarius (1480), and Tarasius (1440), abbots, and Theodosius, monk (15th c.), of Glushitsa Monastery (Vologda), disciples of St. Dionysius of Glushitsa. St. Arsenius, archimandrite, of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1859). St. Euphrosyne (Mezenova) the Faster, schema-abbess, of Siberia (1918). Glorification of St. Philaret, archbishop of Chernigov (2009).
New Hieromartyrs Juvenal (Maslovsky), archbishop of Ryazan (1937) and Lawrence (Levchenko), hieromonk, of Optina Monastery (1937). New Hiero-confessor Nicholas (Mogilevsky), metropolitan of Alma-Ata (1955).
“Jerusalem” (48) and “Kaluga” (1748) Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Hieromartyr Maximilian, bishop of Noricum (284). St. Mobhi of Glasnevin (Ireland) (544). Martyr Edwin, king of Northumbria (633). St. Wilfrid, bishop of York (709). Translation of the relics of St. Sabbas the Sanctified from Rome to Jerusalem (1965). Virgin-martyr Anastasia of Rome (ca. 250). St. Theodotus, bishop of Ephesus. St. Jason, bishop of Damascus. St. Symeon the New Theologian [transferred from Great Lent, March 12] (1022). St. Theosebius the God-bearer, of Arsinoe on Cyprus.
Thursday. [Col. 1:24-29; Luke 9:7-11]
Hearing about the works of Christ the
Saviour, Herod said, “John I beheaded; but who is
This?”—and he desired to see Him. He desired
to see Him and sought an opportunity for this, but was not
made worthy, because he sought not unto faith and
salvation, but out of empty curiosity. Inquisitiveness is
the tickling of the mind; truth is not the road to it, but
news, especially sensational news. That is why it is not
satisfied with the truth itself, seeks something
extraordinary in it. When it has contrived something
extraordinary, it stops there and attracts other people to
it. In our days, it is the German mind that does this. The
Germans are obsessed with contriving things. They covered
the whole realm of the truth of God with their
contrivances as with a fog. Take dogma, ethics, history,
the word of God—all are so overloaded with
contrivances that you cannot get to the truth of God.
Meanwhile, these things interest them and those who have
the same mindset. The truth of God is simple; need a proud
mind be occupied with it? It would be better off
contriving its own things. This is sensational, although
empty and weak like a spider’s web. To see that it
is so, look at the current theories of the creation of the
world: they are like a somnambulistic or drunken delirium.
And yet how good they seem to those who thought of them!
How much energy and time are wasted on this—and all
in vain! The deed was accomplished simply: He spake and
it came to be. He commanded and it was created. Nobody
can think up anything better than this solution.