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| Old Style
August 18
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Wednesday |
New Style
August 31
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12th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 2.
Fast Day. |
 Wine and oil allowed.
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Martyrs Florus and Laurus, of Illyria (2nd c.).
Martyrs Hermes, Serapion, and Polyaenus, of Rome (2nd c.). Hieromartyr Emilian, bishop of Trebia in Umbria, and Martyrs Hilarion, Dionysius, Hermippus, and others (about 1,000), in Italy (ca. 300). Sts. John (674) and George (683), patriarchs of Constantinople. St. Macarius, abbot of the Pelecete Monastery (Bithynia) (840). Repose of St. John, founder of Rila Monastery (Bulgaria) (946).
New Hieromartyrs Augustine, archimandrite, of Orans Monastery, and Nicholas, archpriest, of Nizhni- Novgorod, and 15 people with them (1918).
St. Christodulus the Philosopher, called “the Ossetian,” of Georgia (12th c.). St. Barnabas and his nephew St. Sophronius, monks, of Mt. Mela near Trebizond (13th c.). St. Christopher, abbot, of Mt. Mela Monastery (1694). St. Sophronius of St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos (18th c.). Martyr Juliana, near Strobilus. Martyr Leo, drowned near Myra in Lycia.
Repose of Schemamonk Nicholas “the Turk,” of Optina Skete (1893).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Wednesday. [II Cor. 6:11-16; Mark 1:23-28]
The demon praised the Saviour, but the Saviour said to him: Hold thy peace, and come out of him. Demons never say anything or do anything with a good purpose—they always have something evil in mind. So it was here. The Lord, not exposing their crafty designs, decided it with a word: hold thy peace and come out. He did not want to converse long with an evil spirit. Here is a lesson for us. A person manages to do very little of something good before a demon sits nearby and begins to trumpet in his ears: “You are this and that.” Do not listen and do not enter into conversation with this flatterer, but immediately say point blank: “Hold thy peace and come out,” and erase his tracks with sighs and self-reproach, then incense that place where he was with contrite prayer. He wants to give rise to self-opinion and self esteem, and to fan self-praise and vainglory from them—all of those thoughts and feelings are the spiritual life the same as thieves in everyday life. Like thieves that enter a house to rob its goods, so these demons, taking root in a soul, destroy all that is good in that soul and cast it away, so that nothing remains for the Lord to praise later.
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