A P O S T L E S' F A S T
Fish, wine and olive oil permitted today
•Holy Prophet Amos;
St. Jerome of Stridonium;
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo;
St. Glicherie of Romania, the Confessor; St. Lazar of Serbia
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Amos was born in the village of Thecua near Bethlehem. He was of simple origin and life. Amos was a swine herdsman for a wealthy man of Jerusalem. But God Who does not look at who is who by his outward appearances but rather by the purity of his heart, and Who took both Moses and David from their sheep, and appointed them as leaders of the people, chose this Amos as one of His prophets.
Amos rebuked King Uzziah and his pagan priests for idolatry and dissuaded the people from worshipping the golden calves in Bethel, teaching them to worship the One Living God. When the chief pagan priest persecuted Amos, he prophesied that the Assyrians will conquer Israel, that they will slay the king and the sons of Amaziah and that the Assyrian soldiers will defile Amaziah's wife before his eyes because he led the people into adultery with idols. All of this materialized. The son of a pagan priest struck the prophet on the forehead with his staff so forcefully that Amos fell. Barely alive, Amos was brought to his village of Thecua where he surrendered his holy soul to God. Amos lived in the eighth century before Christ.
Romans 7:14-8:2 KJV
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Saint Matthew 10:9-15 KJV
9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12 And when ye come into an house, salute it.
13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.
From Fifty Spiritual Homilies of
Saint Macarius the Egyptian
I desire to say a word that is deep and subtle, to the best of my ability; listen to me, therefore, with intelligence. The infinite, inaccessible, uncreated God, through His infinite and inconceivable kindness, embodied Himself, and, if I may say so, diminished Himself from His inaccessible glory, to make it possible for Him to be united with His visible creatures, such as the souls of saints and angels, that they might be enabled to partake of the life of Godhead. For each of these, after its kind, is a body, be it angel, or soul, or devil. Subtle though they are, still in substance, character, and image according to the subtilty of their respective natures they are subtle bodies, even as this body of ours is in substance a gross body. The soul, moreover, which is so subtle, has gathered to itself the eye to see with, the ear to hear with; likewise the tongue to speak with, the hand, in fact the whole body and its members the soul has gathered to it and is blended with the same, and accomplishes by means of it all the offices of life. 10. In the same way, the infinite and inconceivable God in His kindness diminished Himself, and put on the members of this body, and gathered Himself in from the inaccessible glory; and through His clemency and love of man transforms and embodies Himself, and mixes with and assumes holy, well-pleasing, faithful souls, and becomes one Spirit with them, according to the saying of Paul, soul in soul, if I may put it so, substance in substance, that the soul may be enabled to live in newness, and to feel immortal life, and may become partaker of glory incorruptible—that is, if it be worthy and well-pleasing. If out of things that were not He hath made the visible creature to be, with such abundant diversity and variety, and before it came into existence it was not—if He willed, and easily made, of things that were not, substances solid and hard, like earth, mountains, trees—you see what hardness of nature is—and again waters intermediate, and commanded that birds should be produced from them—and again more subtle objects, fire, and winds, and things too subtle to be seen by the bodily eye; how could the infinite and inexpressible skill of the manifold wisdom of God create, out of things that were not, grosser, subtler, and still finer bodies, each in its own substance, by His will; and how much more cannot He, who is as He will and what He will, through His unspeakable kindness and inconceivable goodness change and diminish and assimilate Himself, embodying Himself according to their capacity in holy and worthy faithful souls, that He, the invisible, might be seen by them, He, the impalpable, be felt, after the subtilty of the soul’s nature—and that they might feel His sweetness, and enjoy in real experience the goodness of the light of that ineffable enjoyment? When He pleases, he becomes fire, which burns up every base passion that has been introduced into the soul; for our God is a consuming fire. When He pleases, He is rest unspeakable, unutterable, that the soul may rest in the Godhead’s own rest; when He pleases, He is joy and peace, cherishing it and making much of it.
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