Thursday of the Fourth Week
The commemoration of the holy Apostle Jude, the brother of the Lord, and Paisius the Great, and our holy father among the saints, John Maximovich the Wonder-worker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco.
Fast day, but Fish, Wine and Oil Allowed.
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 106]. Brethren:
11 13I speak to you, the nations. Inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of the nations, I glorify my ministry, 14if by any means I might provoke to jealousy my flesh and might save some of them. 15For if the casting away of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be if not life from the dead? 16Now if the firstfruits be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18cease boasting against the branches. But if thou boast against them, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19Thou wilt say then, "The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20Well; by unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Cease being high-minded, but be afraid. 21For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest perchance He should not spare thee either. 22Behold then the kindness and severity of God: upon those that fell, severity; but upon thee, kindness, if thou continue in the kindness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23And they also, if they continue not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. 24For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild according to nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:
11 27"All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. 28"Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. 29"Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. 30"For My yoke is good and My burden is light."
For the Apostle:
The Reading is from the General Epistle of Saint Jude [§ 77].
For Gk. usage, see Jude 1-25; for Sl. usage, see Jude 1-10.
1Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of Iakovos, to those called in God the Father, who have been sanctified and kept for Jesus Christ: 2Mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3Beloved, when I myself made every effort to write to you concerning the common salvation, I had need to write to you, exhorting you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4For certain men slipped in secretly, who of old were proscribed to this judgment, ungodly ones, transposing the grace of our God into licentiousness, and denying the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5But I wish to remind you, though ye know this once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who believed not. 6And those angels who kept not their first place, but deserted their own habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness until the judgment of the great day; 7as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in like manner to these, having committed fornication and gone away after other flesh, are set forth for an example, undergoing the punishment of everlasting fire. 8Yet in like manner also these dreamers indeed defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and blaspheme dignities. 9Now Michael the archangel, when he took issue with the devil and was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to lay upon him a judgment of blasphemy, but said, "May the Lord rebuke thee [cf. Zach. 3:3]." 10But these blaspheme indeed whatever things they do not know; and whatever things they understand naturally, as the irrational animals, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and were poured out in the error of Balaam for a reward, and destroyed themselves in the gainsaying of Kore.
12In your love feasts these are hidden rocks in the sea, when they feast with you, shepherding themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds being carried about by winds; fruitless autumnal trees which twice died and were uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shameful things; wandering stars, to whom hath been kept the blackness of darkness forever. 14And to these also, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came amidst myriads of His saints, 15"to do judgment against all, and to convict all the impious among them for all their works of impiety which they did impiously, and for all the hard things which impious sinners spoke against Him." 16These are murmurers, complainers, walking according to their desires; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, showing respect to persons for the sake of advantage. 17But ye, beloved, be reminded of the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18that they were saying to you, that in the last time there shall be mockers walking according to their own desires of impieties. 19These are they who cause divisions by separating themselves, material-minded ones, not having the Spirit. 20But ye, beloved, building up yourselves by your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal. 22And to some, on the one hand, be showing mercy, who are in doubt; 23but to some, on the other hand, be saving in fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment which hath been stained by the flesh.
24Now to Him Who is able to guard you from stumbling, and to make you stand before the presence of His glory blameless in exceeding joy, 25to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, might and authority, both now and to all the ages. Amen.
For the Hierarch:
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 335]. Brethren:
13 17Be obedient to those who lead you, and keep on submitting, for they are watchful for your souls, as those about to render an account, that they may do this with joy, and not groaning; for this would be unprofitable for you. 18Keep on praying for us; for we trust that we have a good conscience, in all things wishing to conduct ourselves well. 19But I beseech you more abundantly to do this, that I might be restored more quickly to you.
20Now the God of peace Who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of the sheep, the great One, in the blood of an everlasting covenant, 21may He render you perfect in every good work, in order to do His will, doing in you that which is well-pleasing before His face, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ mid 48]. The Lord said to His disciples:
14 21"The one who hath My commandments and keepeth them, that one is the one who loveth Me. And the one who loveth Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." 22Judas, not the Iscariote, saith to Him, "Lord, then what hath come to pass that thou art about to manifest Thyself to us, and not to the world?" 23Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him. 24"The one who loveth Me not keepeth not My words; and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but of the Father Who sent Me."
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 24]. At that time:
6 17 Jesus stood upon a level place. And there was a crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of the people from all of Judæa and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases- 18even those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were cured. 19And all the crowd was seeking to touch Him, for power was coming forth from Him and healing all. 20And He lifted up His eyes to His disciples, and began to say: "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21"Blessed are ye who hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh. 22"Blessed are ye whenever men hate you, and whenever they separate you, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. 23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in the heavens."
July 2nd – Civil Calendar June 19th - Church Calendar
1. The Holy Apostle Jude.
One of the Twelve Apostles, he was the son of Joseph and Salome (not the Salome from Bethlehem, but another), and brother to James the Lord's Brother. Joseph the Carpenter had four sons by Salome: James, Hosea, Simon and Jude. Jude is often called 'Jude the brother of James', to note his relationship with his brother (Lk. 6:16; Acts 1:13). St Jude begins his Epistle: 'Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James'. Although he could call himself the Lord's brother, just as James did, he did not do so. This was out of humility and out of shame, because he did not believe in Christ the Lord at the very beginning. When the aged Joseph desired to give Jesus His portion of the property before his death, just as he was doing for his other children, all of them were against it, including Jude, and only James voluntarily shared out his portion and laid some aside for Jesus. Jude is also called Levi and Thaddeus. There is another Thaddeus, or Jude, one of the Seventy (see August 21st), but this Thaddeus or Jude was one of the Great Apostles. He preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Idumea, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Armenia. At Edessa, the city of Abgar, he continued and developed the preaching of the other Thaddeus. While he was preaching in the region around Ararat, he was seized by the pagans, crucified and shot through with arrows, that he might reign forever in the Kingdom of Christ.
2. Our Holy Father Paisius the Great.
He was an Egyptian by birth and by language. After a vision in a dream, his mother dedicated him to the service of God, and he went to St Pambo while still a youth. Pambo accepted him as a disciple, and he was a fellow disciple there of St John the Dwarf, who wrote St Paisius' life. To the joy of his spiritual father, Paisius piled labour upon labour one ascetic feat upon another. The Prophet Jeremiah, whom he especially revered and read frequently, appeared to him often, and also the Lord Christ. 'Peace be to thee, My beloved in whom I am well-pleased!', the Lord said to him. By God's great grace, Paisius had the particular gift of being able to abstain completely from food. He went for forty years without tasting a thing. He waged a tremendous war against evil spirits that sometimes appeared to him in their own form and sometimes as angels of light. But God's servant, filled with grace, never once let himself be deceived and led astray. He was a clairvoyant and a wonderworker famed throughout the whole of Egypt. He went to the Lord in the year 400. Isidore of Pelusium took his relics to his own monastery and buried them there.
3. The Holy Martyr Zossima.
A Roman soldier at the time of the Emperor Trajan, he courageously confessed his faith in Christ the Lord and endured many bitter torments. In the midst of his torture, a voice was heard from heaven: 'Be of good cheer, Zossima, and sign yourself with the Cross. I am with you.' Angels of God appeared to him in the prison. After manifold sufferings, he was beheaded with an axe in the year 116.
4. Our Holy Father John the Solitary.
He lived the ascetic life near Jerusalem in the sixth century. His asceticism brought him to a high degree of purity and spiritual power, so that the wild beasts were obedient to him. He entered into rest in the Lord in 586, at a great age.
FOR CONSIDERATION
The monks once asked Paisius the Great: 'Speak to us, Father, a word for salvation, and tell us how we must live to please God.' The elder replied: 'Go and keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the tradition of the Fathers.' The tradition of the Fathers is the experience of the Saints in the spiritual sphere, an experience grown immense in nearly two thousand years, the experience of thousand upon thousand of holy men and women–an incredibly rich storehouse of wisdom and an immense heap of proofs of every truth of Holy Scripture. And all this good, all this wisdom, all these proofs and all this experience have been cast aside by the Protestants! Oh, what unspeakable stupidity! Oh, what an extreme of poverty!
Archbishop Gregory P.O. Box 3177 Buena Vista, CO 81211-3177 USA Email: ArchbishopGregory@starband.netCopyright 2005.
Copyright 2005.
