St. Isaac the Confessor, founder of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople (383).
St. James, monk of Starotorzhok Monastery in Galich (Kostroma) (15th c.-16th c).
New Hieromartyr Basil Smolensky, archpriest, of Kholmets (Moscow) (1942).
St. Macrina, grandmother of Sts. Macrina, Basil the Great, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste, and Gregory of Nyssa (4th c.). St. Venantius of Gaul, brother of St. Honoratus of Lerins (374). St. Hubert, bishop of Liege (727). St. Walstan of Bawburgh (1016).
Repose of Abbot Ephraim of Sarov (1778) and Hieromonk Benedict (Ghius) of Romania (1990).
Wednesday. [Acts 23:1–11; John 16:15–23]
The Lord says to the holy apostles before His
sufferings: A little while, and ye shall not see
me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see
me (John 16:16). The Lord’s sufferings
and death so struck the holy apostles that the eyes of
their mind became dim, and they no longer saw the Lord as
the Lord The light was hidden, and they sat in a bitter
and wearisome darkness. The light of Christ’s
resurrection dispersed this darkness—and they again
saw the Lord. Thus the Lord Himself explained His words:
ye shall weep, He said, and lament, but the
world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your
sorrow shall be turned into joy (John 16:20). It is
said that every soul on the way to perfection experiences
a similar defeat. Universal darkness covers it, and it
does not know where to go; but the Lord comes, and changes
its sorrow into joy. It is truly as necessary as it is for
a woman to suffer before a man be born of her into the
world. Can’t we conclude from this that he who has
not experienced this has not yet given birth to a real
Christian within himself?