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Old Style
October 23
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Tuesday |
New Style
November 5
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20th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 2.
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No fast.
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Holy Apostle James, the Brother of the Lord (63) (ca. 63). Translation of the relics of Blessed James of Borovichi (Novgorod) (1544).
St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople (877-878). St. Elisha of Lavrishevo, Belorussia (1250).
New Hieromartyrs Eusebius (Rozhdestvensky), archbishop of Shadrinsk, Nicholas Agafonikov, archpriest, of Yerino (Moscow), Nicholas Arkhangelsky, archpriest, of Troitsa-Chizhi (Moscow), and Vladimir Ambartsumov, priest, of Moscow (1937). New Martyr Euphrosynia (Timofeyeva), novice, of Moscow (1942).
St. Petronius of Egypt, disciple of St. Pachomius the Great (346). St. Oda of Amay, foundress of churches (Neth.) (723). St. Nicephorus of Charsianos, Constantinople. St. Macarius the Roman, of Mesopotamia.
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Monday. [I Thess. 1:1-5; Luke 10:22-24]
No man knoweth…who the Father is, but the Son,
and he to whom the Son will reveal him. The Son was on
the earth and revealed everything necessary for us Himself
and through the Holy Spirit which acted in the apostles.
Consequently, what you find in the Gospels and the
apostolic writings is all you will and can know about the
Father and Godly things. Do not seek more than this, and
do not think to find apart from this anywhere else the
truth about God and God’s plans. What a great
treasure we possess!… Everything has been said
already. Do not rack your brains, just accept with faith
what has been revealed. It has been revealed that God is
one in essence and triune in persons—the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit; accept this with faith and uphold it. It
has been revealed that the thrice-hypostatical God created
all through the word, preserves all in His right hand, and
is providential toward everything; accept this with faith
and uphold it. It has been revealed that we were in a
blessed state and fell, and that for our restoration and
redemption the Son of God, the second person of the Most
Holy Trinity, was incarnate, suffered, died on the cross,
was resurrected and ascended into heaven—accept this
with faith and uphold it. It has been revealed that one
who desires to be saved must believe in the Lord, and
accepting divine grace in the holy mysteries, live, with
its help, according to the Lord’s commandments,
struggling with the passions and lusts, by means of
corresponding spiritual endeavours—accept this with
faith and do it. It has been revealed that whosoever lives
according to God’s direction enters after their
death into bright dwelling places, the pre-beginning of
eternal bliss; while whosoever does not live thus, upon
death will pre-begin to experience the torments of
hell—accept this [revelation] with faith and thus
give yourself understanding, and inspire yourself for good
and spiritual endeavours. Thus accept all with faith and
keep it faithfully. There is no need to rack your brains
over your own invented things. Do not listen to those who
show off their intelligence—they do not know where
they are going.
Tuesday. [I Thess. 1:6-10; Luke 11:1-10]
The Lord gave a common prayer for
everyone, combining in it all of our needs, spiritual and
bodily, inner and outer, eternal and temporal. But since
it is impossible to include everything which one has to
pray to God about in life in only one prayer, a rule is
given after the common prayer for private requests about
something: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. So
it is done in the Church of God: Christians pray in common
about common needs, but each privately sets his own needs
and requirements before the Lord. We pray in common in
churches according to established rites, which are nothing
other than the Lord’s Prayer which has been
explained and presented in various ways; while privately,
at home, everyone asks the Lord about his own things in
whatever way he can. Even in church one can pray about
one’s own concerns, and at home one can pray with a
common prayer. We must concern ourselves about only one
thing: that when we stand at prayer, at home or in church,
we have true prayer in our soul, true turning and lifting
up of our mind and heart to God. Let everyone do this as
he is able. Do not stand like a statue, and do not mutter
the prayers like a street organ wound up, playing songs.
As long as you stand like that, and as long as you mumble
the prayers, you are without prayer, the mind wandering
and the heart full of vain feelings. If you already stand
in prayer and are adjusted to it, is it difficult for you
to draw your mind and heart there as well? Draw them
there, even if they have become unyielding. Then true
prayer will form and will attract God’s mercy, and
God’s promise to prayer: ask and it will be given,
it will be fulfilled. Often it is not given because there
is no petition, but only a posture of petitioning.
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