Tuesday. [I Pet. 3:10–22; Mark 12:18–27]

   But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts (I Pet. 3:15). Sanctifying the Lord in one’s heart is the soul and spirit of the hidden man of the heart depicted above. As in the beginning, God created the body of man out of particles of dust, breathed into him the breath of life (cf. Gen. 2:7), and man became as he ought to be, so the hidden man of the heart, created on the inside from the indicated virtues, is only a real spiritual man when his heart sanctifies the Lord God. Thus, we read in the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed^[1] Be Thy Name.” If this does not occur, then the man, who was modelled from the aforementioned virtues, will end up a stillborn child, without the spirit of life. Let this be known to those who think to get away with a few virtues without having any relationship to God! What does it mean to sanctify God in the heart? It means showing great reverence before Him unceasingly, always bearing in mind the thought of His omnipresence; being eager at every instant to zealously please Him, and with all fear to beware of everything unpleasing to Him. Especially, it means committing all of your temporal and eternal life unto His fatherly care; to accept all that happens humbly, submissively and thankfully, as coming straight from His hand.

^[1]In the Slavonic, the words “sanctify” from the Epistle is the same as word as “hallowed” in the Lord’s prayer.