St. Cyriacus the Hermit, of Palestine (556).
Martyrs Dada, Gabdelas, and Casdoe, of Persia (4th c.). St. Theophanes the Merciful, of Gaza. St. Cyprian, abbot, of Ustiug (Vologda) (1276). St. Onuphrius the Wonderworker, of Gareji, Georgia (1733). Uncovering of the relics of St. John (Maximovitch), archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (1993). Synaxis of the Saints of Poltava.
New Hieromartyr John (Pommer), archbishop of Riga (Latvia) (1934).
Holy Martyr Gudelia of Persia (4th c.). 80 Holy Martyrs of Byzantium (364- 378). St. Ludwin (Leudwinus), bishop of Trier (713). Martyrs Tryphon, Trophimus, and Dorymedon, and 150 Martyrs, in Palestine.
Repose of Blessed Anthony Alexeyevich, fool-for-Christ, of Zadonsk (1851), and Archimandrite Gerasim (Schmaltz) of Alaska (1969).
Tuesday. [Phil. 1:8-14; Luke 5:12-16]
The leper fell down before the Lord and
besought: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean. The Lord said: I will: be thou clean. And
immediately the leprosy departed from him. So does
every moral leprosy immediately depart as soon as one
falls down before the Lord with faith, repentance, and
confession—it truly departs and loses any power over
him. Why does the leprosy sometimes return again? For the
same reason that bodily diseases return. One who has
recovered is told, “do not eat that, do not drink
this, do not go there.” If he does not obey, the
disease again flares up. So it is in the spiritual life.
One must be sober, vigilant, and pray—then the
disease of sin will not return. If you are not attentive
toward yourself, if you allow yourself to see, hear, say,
and do everything indiscriminately, how can sin not flare
up and take power once again? The Lord charged the leper
to fulfil all according to the law. This means that upon
confession one must receive a penance and faithfully
fulfil it; within it is concealed great preventive
strength. But why do some say: this sinful habit has
overcome me, I cannot handle myself. Either because
repentance and confession were not complete, or because
after making precautionary changes he adheres only weakly
to them, or indulges himself. He wants to do everything
without toil and self-coercion, and is laughed at by the
enemy. Resolve to stand unto death and show [this resolve]
in deed, and you will see what power there is in this. It
is true that in every insurmountable passion that comes up
the enemy possesses the soul, but this is no
justification; for he immediately flees as soon as you
produce an inner change, with God’s help.
Friday. [Phil. 1:27-2:4; Luke 6:17-23]
The Lord blesses the poor, those who
hunger and weep, and the persecuted under the condition
that it is all for the sake of the Son of Man; this means
that He blesses a life which is surrounded by every kind
of need and deprivation. According to this saying,
pleasures, ease, honour are not something good; this is
the way it is indeed. But while a person rests in these
things, he does not realize this. Only when he frees
himself from their spell does he see that they are not the
good, but only phantoms. A soul cannot do without
consolations, but they are not of the senses; it cannot do
without treasures, but they are not in gold and silver,
not in luxurious houses and clothes, not in this external
fullness; it cannot get by without honor, but it lies not
in human servility. There are other pleasures, there is
other ease, other honour—spiritual, akin to the
soul. He who finds them does not want the external ones;
not only does he not want them, but he scorns and hates
them because they block off the spiritual, do not allow
one to see it, they keep a soul in darkness, drunkenness,
and phantoms. This is why such people prefer with all
their soul poverty, sorrow and obscurity, feeling good
within them, like behind some safe fence against the spell
of the deceptions of the world. What about those people
who have all these things without trying? They should
relate to all of these things, according to the word of
the holy Apostle, as one who possesses not (cf. 1Cor.
7:30).