Veneration of the Precious Chains of the Holy and All-glorious Apostle Peter.
Blessed Maximus, priest of Totma (Vologda), fool-for-Christ (1650).
Martyrs Speusippus and his brothers Eleusippus and Meleusippus, their grandmother Leonilla, and with them Neon, Turbo, and Jonilla (Jovilla), in Cappadocia (161-180). Martyr Danax the Reader, in Macedonia (2nd c.). St. Honoratus, archbishop of Arles and founder of Lerins Monastery (429).
St. James of Tarentaise (429). St. Fursey, Irish missionary monk of Burgh Castle (East Anglia), Lagny, and Peronne (Gaul) (650). St. Romilus the Sinaite, of Ravanica Monastery (Serbia) (1375). St. Gerasimus II, patriarch of Alexandria (1714). New Hieromartyr Damascene of Gabrovo, hieromonk of Hilandar, at Svishtovo (1771). New Hieromartyr Nicholas, priest, of Mytilene (1777).
Repose of Elder Theodore of Irkutsk (1923) and Priest Demetrius Gagastathis of Platanos, Trikala (1975).
Wednesday. [Eph. 3:8-21; Mark 11:23-26]
If you do not forgive others’
trespasses against you, then your heavenly Father will not
forgive you your trespasses, said the Lord. Who does not
forgive others? A righteous person, or one who considers
himself righteous. To such a person nothing remains other
than to judge, pronounce sentences, and demand execution
of the guilty. Does a man who feels guilty have any time
for others? Would his tongue dare to judge another and
demand gratification from him, when his own conscience
unceasingly convicts and unceasingly threatens him with
God’s righteous judgment? So, is it better to sin
than to be self-righteous? No, in every way be zealous for
righteousness; but with all of your righteousness,
recognize that you are an unworthy slave, and recognize
this with undivided thought—that is, not that the
thought of your unworthiness is in the foreground, while
the feeling of righteousness hides in the background, but
preserve a full awareness and feeling of yourself as
unworthy. When you attain this, (and you must work for
this, for it is not acquired suddenly), then no matter how
your brother trespasses against you, you will not call him
to account, because your conscience will be repeating:
“and you do not deserve this only, it is not enough
for you.” Then you will forgive him; and having
forgiven, you yourself will be made worthy of forgiveness.
So for your whole life let there be forgiveness after
forgiveness, and at the judgment all will be forgiven
you.