Saturday May 10 / 23 ns 2026 • Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot, of the Twelve; St. Comgall of Bangor ~ Apostle: I Cor. 4:9-16; St. Luke 6:12-19 ~THE PIOUS CHANTER RADIATES THE GRACE OF GOD

Love is sweeter than life.

Sweeter still, sweeter than

honey and the honeycomb,

is the awareness of God

whence love is born.

S a t u r d a y 

May 10 / 23 ns

2026 

Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot,
of the Twelve;
St. Comgall of Bangor

Simon was one of the Twelve Great Apostles. He was born in Cana of Galilee. The Lord Jesus, with His mother and His disciples, came to his marriage feast. When the wine ran out, the Lord changed water into wine (St. John 2: 1-11). 

Witnessing this miracle, Simon the groom left his home, parents and bride and followed after Christ. Simon was called the Zealot because of his great and fiery zeal for the Savior and His Gospel. After receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, Simon went to preach the Gospel in Mauritania in Africa. Because he succeeded to convert many to the Faith of Christ, Simon was tortured and finally crucified, as was his Lord, Who prepared for him a wreath of glory in the immortal kingdom.

1 Corinthians 4:9-16 KJV

9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

Saint Luke 6:12-19 KJV

12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

14 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.

17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;

18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.

19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

THE PIOUS CHANTER RADIATES

THE GRACE OF GOD

by St. Porphyrios

 

"Byzantine ecclesiastical music is a teaching...it softens the soul of man, and slowly lifts him up to other spiritual worlds with his voice, which sows [spiritual] pleasure and rejoicing and thanksgiving, traveling to another, spiritual world. This is how it is in reality, my children. Do not look where you are hearing this and what they are doing. When you do this slowly, you enter in with such a spiritual form, and thus sense what to do.

You can be an egotistical chanter, be pleased with yourself and be hollow. You might have the voice that can move others, but he who is truly holy when he chants has something else. He does not have his voice alone. Together with his voice, which radiates with sound waves, he radiates grace with other mystical waves, which reaches the souls of men and moves them even more deeply.

"The hollow “musician” (let us call him), the egotist, has [pride] and is pleased [with this]. The holy musician sends forth waves together with his voice. This is a very great mystery. As a result, if you go to the Holy Mountain, and hear the monks chanting, even if you have a frozen and stony heart, when you hear them, [you say]: “There it is. This musician can [truly move someone]...”

Friday May 9 / 22 ns 2026 • Holy Prophet Isaiah, Holy Martyr Christopher, Holy Martyr Nicholas of Bounena ~ Wine and olive oil are permitted ~ Prophet: I Thess. 2:14-20; St. Luke 4:22-30 ~ THE DEVIL IS BOTH GOD'S ENEMY AND HIS AVENGER

Friday 

May 9 / 22 ns

2026 

~ Wine and olive oil are permitted ~

Holy Prophet Isaiah,

Holy Martyr Christopher,

Holy Martyr Nicholas of Bounena

The great prophet Isaiah, of royal lineage, was born in Jerusalem of his father Amoz, who was the brother of Amaziah the king of Judah. By the great grace of God that was in him, Isaiah was made worthy to see the Lord of Sabaoth on the throne in heaven surrounded by six-winged seraphim who continuously sing: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth [Hosts] (Isaiah 6:3).

Isaiah prophesied many things to individual men as well as to the people. On one occasion, he walked naked through the streets of Jerusalem for three days, prophesying the imminent fall of Jerusalem to the Assyrian King Sennacherib, and reminding the king and the leaders of the people not to hope in assistance from the Egyptians or Ethiopians, because they too would be subjugated to the same Sennacherib, but rather to trust in help from God the Most High. This prophesy, as well as other prophecies, was literally fulfilled.

Isaiah's most important prophecies are the ones concerning the Incarnation of God, His conception by the All-holy Virgin, John the Forerunner, and many events in the life of Christ. [Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14). For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3).]

This prophet, because of the purity of his heart and his zealousness toward God, also received the gift of working miracles. Thus, when the besieged Jerusalem suffered from drought, Isaiah prayed to God and water flowed from beneath Mount Zion. This water was called Siloam, which means "sent." Later, the Lord directed the man who was blind from birth to bathe in this water to gain his sight. During the reign of King Manassas, when Isaiah thundered against the pagan customs of the king and the leaders, comparing that generation with Sodom and Gomorrah, the anger of the leaders and the people was aroused against this great prophet. He was captured and led out of Jerusalem, and was sawn in half.
Isaiah lived and prophesied about seven hundred years before Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-20 KJV

14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

17 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.

18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

20 For ye are our glory and joy.

Saint Luke 4:22-30 KJV

22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

THE DEVIL IS BOTH GOD'S ENEMY

AND HIS AVENGER

{seeks vengeance}

(cf. Ps. 8:2). 

by St. Maximos the Confessor

Satan is God’s enemy when he seems in his hatred for God somehow to have acquired a destructive love from men (actually not "love" but a "tool" to wound God), persuading us by means of sensual pleasure to assent to the passions within our control, and to value what is transitory more than what is eternal. In this way he seduces all our soul’s desire, separating us utterly from divine love and making us willing enemies of Him who made us.

He is God’s avenger when - now that we have become subject to him through sin - he lays bare his hatred for us and demands our punishment. For nothing pleases the devil more than punishing us. When he has been given leave to carry this out, he contrives successive attacks of passions inflicted against our will, and like a tempest he pitilessly assails us over whom, by God’s permission, he has acquired authority. He does this not with the intention of fulfilling God’s command, but out of the desire to feed his own passion of hatred towards us, so that the soul, sinking down enervated by the weight of such painful calamities, may cut itself off from the power of divine hope, regarding the onslaught of these calamities not as a divine admonition but as a cause for disbelief in God.

Thursday May 8 / 21 ns 2026 † THE ASCENSION OF OUR SAVIOR † St. John the Theologian and Evangelist, St. Arsénios the Great ~ Gospel at Matins: St. Mark 16:9-20 Apostle: I St. John 1:1-7; Feast: St. Luke 24:36-53 ~ From Saint John Chrysostomos on the Ascension of our Lord

 Thursday 

May 8 / 21 ns

2026 

THE ASCENSION

OF OUR

SAVIOR

† St. John the Theologian and Evangelist

St. Arsénios the Great

If we love God with all of our heart and nothing but God, then He will attach that love to everything we experience!  Do you believe it?

On this day, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thou didst sit at the right hand of the Father,
O Word, Granting unto Thine initiates a most steadfast faith.

When Christ was with the Disciples before His Passion, He promised them the coming of the All-Holy Spirit, saying: “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” And again: “When He is come, He will teach you all the truth.” For this reason, after His Arising from the dead, being seen of them for forty days, not always eating and drinking with them, but at intervals, He gave them firmer proof of His Resurrection. Finally, after making many promises concerning the Kingdom of God, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but await there the coming of the All-Holy Spirit, since they were to be baptized through Him. He commanded them to remain in Jerusalem, so that in that place the preaching of the Gospel might be first confirmed, lest in going to foreign parts they should become easy prey for slander, and because it was necessary for them to be equipped, like soldiers, with the weapons of the Spirit, and go thus into battle against the enemies of Christ.

When the time for the Ascension was at hand, He led them forth to the Mount of Olives, and conversed with them about His proclamation to the ends of the earth, and also about His perpetual Kingdom to come. When He saw that they were going to ask Him what they should do, and since His immaculate Mother was also present there, He drew their attention to the Angels, who indicated His ascent to Heaven. And while they beheld, He was taken up from their midst, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Being thus escorted by the Angels, who exhorted each other to lift up the heavenly gates and were astonished that His flesh was reddened with blood, He ascended and sat at the right hand of the Father, deifying the flesh, and—I make bold to say—putting it on a level with God. For through the flesh we were reconciled to God and the ancient enmity was destroyed. The Angels stood before the Apostles in the form of men, saying: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye in amazement, gazing up into Heaven? This Jesus, Whom ye saw as God in the flesh, will come again thus, that is, in the flesh; save not as before, in poverty and gentleness, but with great glory, as ye behold Him now escorted by Angels.”

Then the Apostles, wearied by their gazing, returned from the Mount of Olives. This is very close to Jerusalem, by a distance of two thousand and forty paces. This is the Way of the Sabbath. Thus was it enjoined on Moses to walk so many paces on the Sabbath, because this was the distance from the Tabernacle of witness to the camp of the Jews. It was permitted for worshippers to go out there on the Sabbath, but not to extend their journey any further. For this reason it was called the Way of the Sabbath.

Hence, it seems to some that the Ascension of Christ took place on the Sabbath, but this is rather improbable. When they returned, the Apostles went up to the upper room, in which they remained, together with the Myrrh-Bearing Women and the Mother of the Word, occupying themselves in fasting, prayer, and supplications and awaiting the advent of the All-Holy Spirit, according to the promise.
O Christ our God, Who didst ascend in glory, have mercy on us. Amen.

Orthros Saint Mark 16:9-20 KJV

9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

10 And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.

11 And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

13 And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.

14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

1 Saint John 1:1-7 KJV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Saint Luke 24:36-53 KJV

36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:

53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

From Saint John Chrysostomos on the Ascension of our Lord

"WE"

We who proved ourselves unworthy of the earth have today been raised up to heaven; we... have ascended to the kingdom on high, surpassed the heavens, and assumed the royal throne.

Now the angels have received that for which they have long waited, the archangels see that for which they have long thirsted. They have seen our nature shining on the King's throne, glistening with glory and eternal beauty.... Man appearing in heaven.

For it is this that the angels long yearned for; it is this that the archangels long desired. And even though the honor exceeded their own, they still rejoiced in our blessings. For, indeed, when we were punished, they were grieved; and even as the Cherubim were guarding Paradise they nevertheless felt sorrow. And just as a servant who has taken a fellow slave into custody watches over him due to the master’s command but is still distraught by the fact due to his compassion for his fellow slave, so likewise the Cherubim assumed the guardianship of Paradise but grieved at having to do so.

Now, that you may learn that they were grieving, I will make this clear from a human example. Whenever you see humans feeling such compassion for their fellow servants, no longer have any doubt regarding the Cherubim, for these angelic powers are far more compassionate than human beings.