• Holy Hieromartyr Theódotos of Ancyra,
Saint Paΐsios (Panagés) Basiás of Cephallenía
🕀 APOSTLES' FAST BEGINS
Saint Paΐsios (Panagés) Basiás of Cephallenía
🕀 APOSTLES' FAST BEGINS
No better words may express the importance of fasting in our life like the words of † Saint Isaac the Syrian, who says,
"... since fasting is a weapon established by God ... the human race knew no victory before fasting, and the devil was never defeated by our nature as it is: but this weapon has indeed deprived the devil of strength from the outset... As soon as the devil sees someone possessed of this weapon (fasting), fear straightway falls on this adversary and tormentor of ours, who remembers and thinks of his defeat by the Savior in the wilderness; his strength is at once destroyed and the sight of the weapon given us by our Supreme Leader burns him up. A man armed with the weapon of fasting is always afire with zeal. He who remains therein, keeps his mind steadfast and ready to meet and repel all violent passions."
The Holy Hieromartyr Theódotos of Christ was secretly a Christian and, as such, helped the Church and honorably buried the bodies of the holy martyrs. Thus, he buried the bodies of seven maidens who suffered for Christ. When the pagans found out about him, they subjected him to tortures and killed him.
Romans 2:28-3:18 King James Version
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
3 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
GRACED WITH SPIRITUAL INSIGHT
by Saint Dorotheos of Gaza
Discourses
I will relate to you something wondrous that I heard about a great elder graced with spiritual insight. Standing one day in church, as the brothers were beginning their psalmody, he saw someone leaving the sanctuary dressed in radiant garments and holding a small vessel full of holy oil and a small stone cylinder. And he dipped the stone in the vessel and went around to all of the brothers and put the seal on each of them. Some of the places which were vacant were signed and some were overlooked. Again they were about to be dismissed when he saw the same radiant figure leaving the sanctuary and repeating the same motions. Filled with amazement the holy father threw himself at the feet of this strange guest and entreated him to relate the meaning of his motions and who he was. And the radiant guest told him, "I am an angel of God and I was commanded to come to this company and to put this seal on those found in the church from the start of the psalmody and those who stayed until the end, because of their eagerness and zeal and by their own free and voluntary choice." And the elder asked, "And why did you sign the place of those who were not there?" And to this the holy angel answered, "All those who were zealous and had the good intention of being here but were absent by some grievous illness and with the abba's blessing or those who were fulfilling an order given to them under obedience, all these, even though absent, obtained the sign since by their good intentions they were there, but those who were able to be there and by their heedlessness were absent, I was ordered not to sign, because they had made themselves unworthy of it." There you go. You see what a great gift the waker receives for this brother by waking him up for the usual vigils. Take heed then, brothers, not be lacking the mark made by the holy angel. But if it should be that someone forgets and another reminds him, he should not be disturbed but, profiting by the good done him, give thanks to the one who reminds him, whoever he be.
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