Old Style
October 18
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Wednesday |
New Style
October 31
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23rd Week after Pentecost.
Tone 5.
Fast Day.
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Wine and oil allowed.
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Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke (1st c.). St. Joseph, founder of Volokolamsk (Volotsk) Monastery (1515).
Martyr Marinus the Elder, at Anazarbus (4th c.). St. Julian the Hermit, of Mesopotamia (4th c.). St. David, abbot, of Serpukhov (1520).
Hieromartyr Mnason, bishop of Cyprus (1st c.). Sts. Symeon, Theodore (monks), and Euphrosyne, who found the Icon of the Mother of God in the Great Cave of the Peloponnese (9th c.). New Martyrs Gabriel and Cirmidol, of Egypt (1522). St. Peter of Cetinje, metropolitan of Montenegro (1830).
Slaying of Jose Muñoz-Cortes (in monasticism Monk Ambrose), guardian of the myrrh-streaming “Montreal” Iveron Icon of the Theotokos (1997).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Wednesday. [Col. 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:44-50]
Whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth Him that sent
Me, said the Lord, while He that sent Him is God.
Consequently, whosoever confesses the Lord, confesses God;
whereas whosoever does not confess Him, does not confess
God. You will say: I confess Christ to be a great, most
wise, universal teacher. No, confess Him as He Himself
speaks of Himself, that He and the Father are one, persons
of one Divine nature, separate, but one in honour and
coreigning. If one does not confess thus, no matter how
much he has honoured the Lord, it is the same as if he
does not confess Him; while not being His confessor, he
does not confess the Father either, he does not confess
God. That is why, no matter what displays you make of
honouring God, you do not honour Him if you do not confess
the Lord Jesus Christ as the Only-Begotten Son of God,
incarnate for our sake, and Who saved us through His death
on the cross. It is not all the same which God one
confesses as long as one confesses: those who worship the
sun and stars, or invented creatures, are not called
honourers of God, because they did not consider as God
what is God. Thus, whosoever does not confess the Lord is
not an honourer of God, because he does not confess the
God who is the true God. The true God does not exist
without the Son co-eternal and co-unoriginate. Therefore,
once you cease to confess the Son, you no longer confess
the true God. Only God will discern what your confession
is worth; but since for us God is revealed as the true
God, apart from this revelation one cannot have the true
God.
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