Thursday of the Fifteenth Week
The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Dormition, and the holy Prophet Samuel.
No Fasting.
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§§ 208, 209]. Brethren:
3 23Before faith came, we were being guarded under the law, having been closed up to the faith about to be revealed. 24Therefore the law hath become our tutor until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many as were baptized into Christ, ye put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise.
4 1Now I say, as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; 2but he is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time of the father. 3So we also, when we were infants, were enslaved under the elements of the world. 4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5in order that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive what is our due, the adoption as sons.
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 25]. At that time:
6 30The apostles were gathered together to Jesus, and related to Him all things, both as much as they did and as much as they taught. 31And He said to them, "Come ye yourselves privately to a desolate place, and rest yourselves a little." For those coming and those going were many, and they did not even have an opportunity to eat. 32And they went away by the ship privately to a desolate place. 33And the crowds saw them going, and many recognized Him, and ran together there on foot from all the cities, and went before them, and came together to Him. 34And Jesus, after He came out, saw a great crowd and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. 35And much time already having elapsed, His disciples came to Him and said, "The place is desolate, and already it is a late hour. 36"Dismiss them in order that they might go away into the fields and villages round about, and buy bread for themselves; for they have not what they might eat." 37But He answered and said to them, "Give ye them to eat." And they say to Him, "Shall we go away and buy bread worth two hundred denarii and give them to eat?" 38But He saith to them, "How many loaves have ye? Go and see." And having known, they say, "Five, and two fish." 39And He enjoined them to make all recline by companies upon the green grass. 40And they laid back in rows, like beds in a garden, up to a hundred and up to fifty. 41And having taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to the heaven and blessed and broke the loaves, and kept on giving them to His disciples that they might set them before them; and the two fish He divided to all. 42And all ate and were filled. 43And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments, and from the fish. 44And they who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
45And straightway He constrained His disciples to embark into the ship, and to go before to the other side toward Bethsaida, until He should dismiss the crowd.
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 156].
14 20Brethren, cease becoming children in your minds, but be ye infants in malice; and keep on becoming mature in your minds. 21In the law it hath been written: "By other tongues and by other lips will I speak to this people; and not even thus will they hear Me [cf. Is. 28:11, 12]," saith the Lord. 22Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to the unbelievers; and prophecy is not for the unbelievers, but to those who believe. 23If therefore the whole church should come together in the same place, and all be speaking with tongues, and those who are unlearned or unbelievers should come in, will they not say that ye are mad? 24But if all be prophesying, and some unbeliever or one unlearned should come in, he is reproved by all, he is examined by all. 25And thus are the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so falling upon his face, he will make obeisance to God, reporting that God is verily among you.
No reading given.
September 2nd – Civil Calendar August 20th - Church Calendar
1. The Holy Prophet Samuel.
The fifteenth and last of the Judges of Israel, he lived eleven hundred years before Christ. He was of the tribe of Levi, born of Elkanah and Hannah in a place called Ramatha or Arimathea, where noble Joseph was later born. The barren Hannah besought Samuel of the Lord with tears, and dedicated him to God when he was three years old. Living in Shiloh near the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel, at the age of twelve, had a true revelation from God of the punishment which would come upon the house of the High Priest, Eli, because of the worthlessness of his sons Hophni and Phineas. This revelation was swiftly fulfilled: the Philistines routed the Israelites, slew both of Eli's sons and captured the Ark of the Covenant. When the messenger brought these bad tidings to Eli, he fell dead on the ground, breathing his last at the age of ninety-eight, and the same thing happened to his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas. Israel was under the Philistine yoke after this for twenty years. When this time had elapsed, God sent Samuel to the people to preach repentance to them as the one means of their salvation from their enemies. The people repented and cast out the foreign idols which they had served, accepting Samuel as prophet, priest and judge. Then Samuel set out with the army against the Philistines and, with God's help, put them to confusion and slew them, freeing the land and the people. After that, Samuel judged the people in peace to old age. Seeing him growing old, the people asked him to give them a king in his place. In vain, Samuel urged the people against this, saying that God was their only king, but the people remained adamant in their desire. Although this desire was not pleasing to God, He commanded Samuel to anoint Saul the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, as king. Saul reigned a short time, and God rejected him for impudence and disobedience, and then commanded Samuel to anoint David the son of Jesse as king in Saul's place. At the time of his death, Samuel gathered all the people together and took leave of them, and when he died all Israel wept for him and buried him solemnly in his house at Ramah.
2. The Hieromartyr Philip, Bishop of Heraklion, with the Priest Severus and the Deacon Hermes.
It is almost certain that they were Slavs. They served God in Thrace, and were there first put to torture for Christ. When the pagans were running to set fire to a Christian church, Philip courageously said to their leaders: 'Do you think that God is shut within walls? He lives in men's hearts.' The church was gutted, all the books burned and the clergy taken to Jedrene, where, after imprisonment and torture, they were thrown half-burned into the river Maritsa. Thirty-eight other Christians died a martyr's death with them. It is thought that they suffered in the time of Diocletian.
FOR CONSIDERATION
Repent before death closes the door of your life and opens the door of the Judgement. Repent before death, and, because you do not know the hour of your death, repent today, this instant, and stop repeating your sin. St Ephraim the Syrian prayed thus to God:
'Before the wheel of time comes to a stop in my life, have mercy on me! Before the wind of death blows, and sickness, the herald of death, appears in my body, have mercy on me! Before the majestic sun in the heavens becomes darkened for me, have mercy on me; and may Thy light shine for me from the heavens and drive out the fearful darkness of my mind. Before the earth returns to earth and becomes corruption, and before the destruction of all the features of its beauty, have mercy! Before my sins are revealed at the Judgement to my shame before the Judge, O most gracious Lord, have mercy on me! Before the armies come forth, escorting the King's Son, to gather our miserable race together before the Judge's throne, have mercy! Before the sound of the voice of the trumpet heralds Thy coming, spare Thy servant and have mercy, O our Lord Jesus! Before Thou shuttest Thy door to me, and before I become food for the unquenchable fires of Gehenna, have mercy on me!'
Archbishop Gregory P.O. Box 3177 Buena Vista, CO 81211-3177 USA Email: ABGregory@GOCAmerica.netCopyright 2005.
Copyright 2005.
