Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, and those with them at Rome: Claudius the Tribune, his wife Hilaria, their sons Jason and Maurus, the priest Diodorus, and the deacon Marianus (283). St. Sophia of Slutsk and Minsk (1612).
Martyr Pancharius, at Nicomedia (ca. 302). St. Bassa, nun, of Pskov Caves (ca. 1473). St. Innocent, founder of Komel Monastery (Vologda) (1511-1522). St. Symeon (Popovic), archimandrite, of Dajbabe, Montenegro (1941).
Smolensk “Umileniye” (“Tender Feeling”) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1103).
Martyr Alcmund, prince of Northumbria (800). Righteous Maria, wife of Vsevelod III (1206). New Martyr Demetrius, at Constantinople (1564). New Martyr Nicholas Karamanos of Smyrna (1657).
Thursday.
In the multitude of words there
wanteth not sin (Prov. 10:19).[1]
Christians who are attentive toward themselves call all
the senses the windows of the soul; if these windows
are opened, all the inner warmth will leave. But the
most spacious doorway that releases this warmth
copiously is a tongue given freedom to speak as much
and whatever it wants. A multitude of words causes the
same degree of harm to attentiveness and inner harmony
as is inflicted by all of the senses in total, for
words stimulate all the senses, and force a soul not
seeing to see, not hearing to hear, not touching to
touch. What on the inside is daydreaming is on the
outside a multitude of words; but the latter is more
ruinous, for it is real and therefore makes a deeper
impression. Furthermore, it is closely connected with
self-opinion, impudence, and
self-wilfulness—those destroyers of inner harmony
which are like a tempest, leaving lack of feeling and
blindness in their wake. After all this, how can one
escape sin in the presence of a multitude of
words?!
[1]The
Slavonic for Prov. 10:19 reads: In the multitude of
words sin cannot be avoided.