October 21, 2020. + Orthodox Calendar

Orthodox Calendar 2020

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October 21

Tuesday

New Style

November 3

22nd Week after Pentecost. Tone 4.

No fast.

St. Hilarion the Great, of Gaza (371-372). Translation of the relics of St. Hilarion, bishop of Meglin, Bulgaria (1206).

Martyrs Dasius, Gaius, and Zoticus, at Nicomedia (303). St. Hilarion, metropolitan of Kiev. Sts. Theophilus and James, monks of Konevits, founders of Dormition Monastery at Omutch (Pskov) (ca. 1412). St. Hilarion, founder of Pskovoezersk Monastery (Gdov) (1476).

New Hieromartyrs Paulinus (Kroshechkin), archbishop of Mogilev, and Arcadius (Yershov), bishop of Ekaterinburg, and with them Anatole Levitsky and Nicander Chernelevsky, priests, and New Martyr Cyprian Annikov (1937). New Hieromartyr Damian (Voskresensky), archbishop of Kursk (1937). New Hieromartyrs Constantine Chekalov, Sergius Smirnov, Basil Kozyrev, Theodore Belyaev, Vladimir Vvedensky, Nicholas Raevsky, John Kozyrev, Basil Nikolsky, Alexander Bogoyavlensky, Demetrius Troitsky, and Alexis Moskvin, priests, and Sergius Kazansky and John Melnitsky, deacons, all of the Tver diocese (1937). New Hieromartyr Alexis (Bui), bishop of Voronezh (1930). New Hieromartyrs Neophytus (Osipov), archimandrite, of Moscow, and Sophronius (Nesmeyanov), hieromonk, of Lozeva (Tver) (1937).

Hieromartyr Socrates, priest, and Martyr Theodote, of Ancyra (ca. 230). St. Ursula and her companions, martyrs at Cologne (beg. of 4th c.). St. Fintan Munnu of Teachmunnu (Ireland) (635). The 63 Martyrs of Jerusalem: Pegasus, Neophytus, Acacius, Dorotheus, Stephen, Dometius, Herman, Dionysius, Epiphanius, Stratonicus, Leontius, Emmanuel, Theophilus, Elias, John, Samuel, Eulampius, Alexius, Photius, Eutrepius, Methodius, Chariton, Theophylactus, Anastasius, Andronicus, Symeon, Theoktistus, Romanus, Paul, Agathonicus, Minas, Athanasius, Jacob, Nicephorus, Porphyrius, Timothy, Irenarchus, Auxentius, Joseph, Gregory, Callinicus, Aaron, Cyriacus, Theodosius, Eustathius, Isaac, Alexander, Eleutherius, Adrian, Christophor, Antiochus, Isidore, Parthenius, Sergius, Euplus, Ignatius, Theophanes, Cyril, Zachariah, and Anthimus (724). St. Malathgeny of Cluain-Edneach (Ireland) (767). Translation of the relics of St. Christodulus the Wonderworker, of Patmos (1093). St. Philotheus of Neapolis and Mt. Athos (14th c.). Sts. Bessarion (Sarai), hieromonk (1745), and Sophronius of Ciorara, monk (ca. 1765), confessors, and St. Oprea of Salistie (18th c.), martyred by the Latins in Romania. New Martyr John of Monemvasia, at Larissa (1773). Hiero-confessors John of Gales, and Moses (Macinic), priests, of Sibiel (Transylvania) (18th c.).

Repose of Schema-archimandrite Herman (Bogdanov) of New Valaam Monastery in Siberia (1938) and Schemanun Seraphima (Bobkova) of Shamordino Convent (1990).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

Wednesday. [Col. 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:44-50]

Whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth Him that sent Me, said the Lord, while He that sent Him is God. Consequently, whosoever confesses the Lord, confesses God; whereas whosoever does not confess Him, does not confess God. You will say: I confess Christ to be a great, most wise, universal teacher. No, confess Him as He Himself speaks of Himself, that He and the Father are one, persons of one Divine nature, separate, but one in honour and coreigning. If one does not confess thus, no matter how much he has honoured the Lord, it is the same as if he does not confess Him; while not being His confessor, he does not confess the Father either, he does not confess God. That is why, no matter what displays you make of honouring God, you do not honour Him if you do not confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the Only-Begotten Son of God, incarnate for our sake, and Who saved us through His death on the cross. It is not all the same which God one confesses as long as one confesses: those who worship the sun and stars, or invented creatures, are not called honourers of God, because they did not consider as God what is God. Thus, whosoever does not confess the Lord is not an honourer of God, because he does not confess the God who is the true God. The true God does not exist without the Son co-eternal and co-unoriginate. Therefore, once you cease to confess the Son, you no longer confess the true God. Only God will discern what your confession is worth; but since for us God is revealed as the true God, apart from this revelation one cannot have the true God.

Tuesday. [Col. 2:20-3:3; Luke 9:23-27]

Do not be ashamed to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God who redeemed us through His death on the cross, who through His resurrection and ascension opened for us the entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. If you shall be ashamed, then He shall be ashamed of you, When he shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy Angels. Now in society there is a trend to not talk at all about the Lord and about salvation, whereas in the beginning these dear subjects were all that people talked about. One’s talk more readily flows from the place where the heart abides. Can it really be that people’s hearts abide less with the Lord? Judging from the talk, this must be the case. Some do not know Him at all, others are cold towards Him. Fearing encounters with such people, even those who are warm towards the Lord do not direct the conversation towards Him, and the priesthood is silent. Now, talk about the Lord and Saviour and about our main concern—salvation—is excluded from the circle of talk acceptable in society. What, you say, are we really supposed to talk only about that? Why only about that? One can talk about anything, but in a way that is shaded by the spirit of Christ. Then it would be possible to guess whether the speaker is Christian or pagan. Now, however, it is impossible to guess what they are, neither by their talk, nor by their writings. Look through all the periodicals—what don’t they write there? But nobody wants to make Christian conversation. What a complicated time!