The Holy Hieromartyrs of Chersonese: Basil, Ephraim, Capiton, Eugene, Aetherius, Elpidius, and Agathadorus (4th c.).
St. Paul the Simple, of Egypt (4th c.). St. Paul the Confessor, bishop of Plousias in Bithynia (9th c.). St. Emilian, monk, of Rome (6th c.).
New Hieromartyr Nilus (Tyutyukin), hieromonk of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk Monastery (1938).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Surety of Sinners” (Moscow) (1848) and “Of Czestochowa.”
Sts. Nestor and Arcadius, bishops of Tremithus (4th c.). St. Ephraim, patriarch of Antioch (546). St. Lawrence, founder of the monastery of the Mother of God on Salamis (1707). St. Dandus and All Saints of Thrace. Martyrs Codratus, Saturninus, and Rufinus, of Nicomedia (250-259).
Repose of Schemamonk Sisoes of Valaam (1931).
Wednesday.
When Moses and Aaron began to intercede
before Pharaoh to let their people go, the answer to this
was increased work for oppressed Israelites, to the point
that they raised an outcry against their intercessors:
ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of
Pharaoh (Ex. 5:21). This is exactly what the soul of a
repentant sinner experiences. When the fear of God and
one’s conscience—the inner Moses and
Aaron—begin to inspire a soul to finally rise up
onto its feet and shake off the yoke of sinful slavery,
joy passes through all of its members. But the enemy does
not sleep; he heaps mountains of mental
obstacles—thoughts that sin is insurmountable, and
brings in fear from all sides—fear for one’s
prosperity, for external relationships, for one’s
influence, even for one’s life. It even happens that
one stops having only just begun. Be inspired brother!
The Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and
God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness
(Is. 5:16). God is stronger than the enemy. Cry out to
Him, and you will hear the same thing that Moses heard
then: Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh
(Ex. 6:1).
The enemy does not have power over a
soul; he only can frighten it with illusory terrors. Do
not give in, endure, go forward courageously, saying to
yourself: I will not give in even unto death, and I will
go bravely wherever the Lord calls me, with the spirit of
repentance which now acts in me.