Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Of Smolensk” (1047).
Holy Apostles of the Seventy and Deacons: Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, and Parmenas (1st c.).
St. Pitirim, bishop of Tambov (1698).
Synaxis of the Saints of Tambov.
Martyr Julian of Dalmatia (ca. 138-161). Martyr Eustathius the Soldier, of Ancyra (ca. 316). Martyr Acacius of Apamea (ca. 321). St. Paul of Xeropotamou, Mt. Athos (996). St. Moses, wonderworker, of the Kiev Caves (13th c.-14th c.). St. Anthony, bishop of Rostov, Yaroslavl, and Belozersk (1336). St. Joseph, founder of Holy Trinity-Kozlov Monastery (Michurinsk) (1660-1661). St. Daria, abbess, of Sezenovo (1858).
New Hieromartyr Basil (Erekaev), hieromonk of Sarov Monastery (1937).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Umileniye” (“Of Tender Feeling”) of Diveyevo, before which St. Seraphim reposed (1885). Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Of the Lavra in Suprasl” (Poland) (16th c) and “Seven Lakes” (17th c.).
Sts. Ursus and Leobatius (Leubais), abbots, of Gaul (ca. 500). St. Samson, bishop of Dol, in Brittany (ca. 565). St. Irene Chrysovolantou of Cappadocia (912). St. George the Builder, of Iveron, Mt. Athos (1029). New Martyr David of Aleppo (1660). New Hieromartyr Ignatius of Jablechna (Chelm and Podlasie, Poland) (1942).
Thursday. [II Cor. 1:1-7; Matt. 21:43-46]
The chief priests and Pharisees
perceived that the Lord was telling parables on their
account, that He was opening their eyes so that they would
see the truth. But what did they do with this? They
thought about how to kill the Lord. If their common sense
had not been distorted by their prejudice, then even if
they could not believe, as the obviousness of the
instruction required, they should at least have thought
over carefully whether what the Savior was saying is true.
Their prejudice pushed them onto a crooked path, and they
then proved to be God-killers. It always has been this
way, and it is this way now. The Germans, and our people
who have followed after them and become Germanized in
their thought, immediately cry out whenever they come
across a miracle in the Gospels, “Not true, not
true; this didn’t happen and couldn’t happen,
this needs to be crossed out.” Is not this the same
as killing? Look through all the books of these clever
men; in none of them will you find any indication as to
why they think this way. Not one of them can say anything
against what the Gospel truth proves, and not one cares to
comprehend the arguments which soberminded people use to
convict their falseness; they only continue insisting that
[what is written] could not be, and that is why they do
not believe the Gospels. And you cannot do anything with
them—they are ready to go against God
Himself.