Martyr Emilian of Silistra in Bulgaria (363). Martyr Hyacinth of Amastris (4th c.).
St. Pambo, hermit, of Egypt (4th c.). St. John the Much-suffering, of the Kiev Caves (1160). St. Pambo, recluse, of the Kiev Caves (13th c.). St. Leontius, founder of Karikhov Monastery (Novgorod) (1492).
New Hieromartyr Apollinarius (Mosalitinov), hieromonk of the St. Nicholas Monastery (Verkhoturye) (1918).
“Tolga” (1314) and “Kaluga” (1748) Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Great-martyr Athanasius of Klysma, Egypt (4th c.). St. Barlaam, ascetic, of Bald Mountain, near Antioch in Syria (6th c.). St. Arnulf (Arnold) bishop of Metz (640). St. Frederich, bishop of Utrecht (Neth.) (9th c.). Sts. Stephen, patriarch of Constantinople (928), and John the Confessor, metropolitan of Chalcedon (9th c.). Hieromartyr Cosmas, hieromonk, of Gareji, Georgia (1630).
Repose of Abbess Mavrikia (1867) and Abbess Zosima (1933), both of Goritsy Convent.
Friday. [I Cor. 11:8-22; Matt. 17:10-18]
Concerning John the Baptist the Lord said: Elias
is come already, and they knew him not. Why was
this? Because they did not heed the paths of God and were
not interested in them: they had a different mentality,
different tastes, different views on things. Outside the
range of Divine things, their shrewdness was in play, but
within this range they did not understand anything due to
their estrangement from it. One’s inner mentality
forms a feeling for things, which immediately notices and
determines what is familiar to it, no matter how concealed
it may be. An artist, scientist and economist look at one
thing with equal attention, but each makes a judgment
about it in his own way—one according to its beauty,
the second according to causal relations, the third
according to gains from it. So with the Jews: as was their
disposition, so they judged about John, and then about the
Saviour; but since they were disposed not according to
God, they did not understand them, who carried out the
work of God. Similarly, now people have begun to not
understand the Forerunner and the Lord—and do with
them what they like. A hidden persecution of Christianity
has arisen, which has begun to openly break through, like
recently in Paris. What was done there on a small scale,
is what we must expect with time in big
proportions…Save us, O Lord!
Saturday. [Rom. 13:1-10; Matt. 12:30-37]
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart
bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the
evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. What you put
in the treasury is what you receive: if you put in
gold—you will take away gold; if you put in
copper—you will take away copper. Of course, copper
can be passed off as gold; but an expert will immediately
recognize the forgery. How can we make it so that in our
treasury there is only gold; that is, so that in the heart
there is only good? The heart by its nature is a treasury
of good things; evil came later. Take an anatomical knife
of attentiveness and lack of self pity, separate what is
unnatural and cut it out. One after the other the evil
will leave, while the good will become strengthened and
spread; what will remain, at last, will be only good. The
question is how to determine what is natural and
unnatural. Do not listen to today’s
naturalists;[1] they
explain everything inside out: what is natural, for
them is unnatural; while what is unnatural, for them is
natural—they call evil good, and good evil. Look
at what the Lord says in the Gospels and the holy
apostles in their writings, and according to their
instructions determine what is natural. In such a
manner, at last, you will gather much good and will
bring it forth out of your heart. Pray to the Holy
Spirit: “O treasury of good things, entreasure
good in my heart!”
[1]By
“naturalists” is meant those people who
rely on natural science for answers, and deny religion.