Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses (1531 b.c.). Hieromartyr Babylas, bishop of Antioch, with Martyrs Urban, Prilidian, and Epolonius, and their mother Christodula (251). New Hieromartyr Parthenius, abbot, of Kiziltash Monastery in the Crimea (1867). Uncovering of the relics of St. Ioasaph, bishop of Belgorod (1911). Second uncovering of the relics (1989) of St. Metrophanes (Macarius in schema), bishop of Voronezh. Synaxis of the Saints of Voronezh.
Martyr Hermione, daughter of Apostle Philip the Deacon (ca. 117). Martyrs Theodore, Ammianus, Julian, Oceanus, and Centurionus, of Nicomedia (288). Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia, and with him 84 children (4th c.). New Hieromartyr Peter, metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia (1941).
New Hieromartyrs Gregory (Lebedev), bishop of Schlisselburg, Sergius (Druzhinin), bishop of Narva, and Stephen (Kuskov), hieromonk, of Nikolskoye (Tver) (1937).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Unburnt Bush.” (1680)
St. Petronius of Egypt, disciple of St. Pachomius the Great (346). St. Symeon, abbot and wonderworker of Gareji (1773). St. Anthimus the Blind, new ascetic, of Cephalonia (1782).
Thursday. [Gal. 3:23-4:5; Mark 6:30-45]
And people ran afoot thither out of
all cities…and came together unto Him. This is
to the Bethsaida desert, where the marvellous filling of
five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes was
performed. What drew the people to the Lord? Sympathy
towards the Divine. The Divinity of the Lord, hidden under
the cover of human nature, revealed itself in word, deed,
gaze, and in all that was visible in the Lord. The
manifestations of the Godhead awakened a feeling of the
Godhead hidden in the heart, and through it drew people to
the Lord. Nobody has power to hold back such a movement
toward the Lord, not even the one who feels it, because it
is deeper and stronger than all other movements. The same
Divinity, manifested later by the Saviour, drew people of
every tongue under the heavens to Him. It has been the
same throughout the entire history of the Church, even to
this day. A small trace of the Divine draws people to
itself. What follows from this experience everywhere and
at all times of our spirit’s aspiration for the
Divine? What follows is that what is Divine, what is
supernatural—is the Godhead, its source. This
aspiration lies in the foundation of our spirit and
constitutes its nature, as anyone can see from our
intellectual, aesthetic and practical concerns. But in
nature there cannot be lies and deception; consequently
they do not exist in this aspiration for the Godhead. From
this it follows that God and the Divine exist, and that
the naturalists, in rejecting what is supernatural, are
going against the nature of the human spirit.