September 18, 2023. + Orthodox Calendar

Orthodox Calendar 2023

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Old Style

September 18

Sunday

New Style

October 1

17th Sunday after Pentecost. Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross. Tone 8.

No fast.

Afterfeast of the Exaltation of the Cross. St. Eumenius, bishop of Gortyna on Crete (7th c.). St. Hilarion, elder, of Optina Monastery (1873).

Martyr Ariadne of Phrygia (2nd c.). Martyrs Sophia and Irene, of Egypt (3rd c.). Martyr Castor of Alexandria. St. Arcadius, bishop of Novgorod (1162). Martyrs Bidzina, Elizbar, and Shalva, princes of Ksani, Georgia (1660).

New Hieromartyrs Amphilochius (Skvortsov), bishop of Krasnoyarsk, John Vasiliev, archpriest, of Talozhnya (Tver), and Constantine Tverdislov, archpriest, of Vyazniki (Vladimir) (1937). Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Vladimir.

The Icon of the Mother of God known as "the Healer" (18th c.).

St. Romilus the Sinaite, of Ravanica (1375).

Repose of Blessed Irene of Zelenogorsk Monastery (18th c.).

Articles

St. Hilarion of Optina (1805-1873)

Olga Rozhneva

St. Hilarion was a skilled spiritual physician. He taught people who were suffering to go over their whole previous life from the age of seven, to recall forgotten unrepented sins, in which were often hidden the reason for a spiritual illness.

God Gives Prayer to Him Who Prays: Selected Sayings of St. Hilarion of Optina

St. Hilarion of Optina

In the pure writings of the Holy Fathers, we see that he who desires to cleanse his heart of the passions must call on the Lord for help—this is so. We cannot say the Jesus Prayer without our thoughts being plundered. With beginners, God does not demand undistracted prayer: it is acquired with much time and labor. As the writings of the Holy Fathers say: "God gives prayer to him who prays,” thus we must nevertheless continue to pray, orally, and with the mind.

The Icon of the Mother of God known as "the Healer"

This was his Guardian Angel. Looking with compassion upon the ailing one, the angel called to the Most Holy Theotokos, raising up a prayer of healing. Suddenly the Theotokos Herself appeared and sent a sign of Her ineffable mercy.