St. Ephraim the Syrian (373-379). St. Theodosius, founder of Totma Monastery (Vologda) (1568).
St. Palladius the Hermit, of Antioch (4th c.). St. Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nineveh (6th c.-7th c.). St. Ephraim, founder of the Sts. Boris and Gleb Monastery (Novotorzhok) (1053). St. Ephraim of the Kiev Caves, bishop of Pereyaslavl (ca. 1098).
New Hieromartyr Ignatius (Sadkovsky), bishop of Skopin (1938). New Hieromartyrs Vladimir Pishchulin, priest, at Simferopol, and Bartholomew (Ratnykh), hieromonk, at Feodosia (Crimea) (1938). New Hiero-confessor Archimandrite Leontius (Stasevich) of Jablechna (Poland), who reposed at Mikhailovsk (Ivanovo) (Russia) (1972). New Hiero-confessor Arsenius (Stadnitsky), metropolitan of Tashkent and Turkestan (1936).
St. James the Ascetic, of Porphyreon in Palestine. St. Valerius, bishop of Saragossa (315). St. John of Reomans (Gaul) (544).
Thursday. [I Pet. 4:12–5:5; Mark 12:38–44]
The widow placed in the treasury (the church
collection box) two mites (a half-kopeck piece,
approximately); but the Lord said that she cast in more
than anyone, although the others were casting in rubles
and tens of rubles. What gave extra weight to her mite? It
is the disposition with which the offering was made. Do
you see the difference between the doing of good without
soul, by habit, and the doing of good with soul and heart?
It is not the external aspects of a deed which give it
value, but the inner disposition. It may happen that a
deed which is outstanding in every regard has no value
whatsoever before God, yet a deed which is insignificant
in appearance is valued greatly. What follows from this is
evident in and of itself. But do not take it into your
head to be careless about external things, intending to
limit yourself only to inner things. That widow would not
have received approval if she had said to herself,
“I too have the desire to put in money—but
what should I do? I only have two mites. If I give them
away, I myself will be left with nothing. She had the
desire and acted upon it as well, committing her life into
the hands of God. Nobody would have condemned her If she
had put in nothing—neither people, nor God. But then
she would not have revealed such a disposition, which
singled her out from the ranks of others and made her
renowned throughout the entire Christian world.