Tuesday June 14/27 ns 2023 • Holy Prophet Eliséos; St. Methódios, Patriarch of Constantinople • Fish, wine and olive oil are permitted • St. James 5:10–20; St. Luke 4:22–30 • ON FASTING by Saint Philaret of New York

Holy Prophet Eliséos;

St. Methódios, Patriarch of Constantinople

Fish, wine and olive oil 

permitted today

Eliséos lived nine hundred years before Christ.
When the Lord willed to take the aged Prophet Elijah to Himself, He revealed to him that He had designated Eliséos, the son of Shaphat of the tribe of Reuben from the town of Abel-Meholah, as his successor in the prophetic service. Elijah informed Eliséos of God's will and draped him with his mantle and implored from God the two-fold grace of prophecy for him. Eliséos immediately departed his home and family and followed Elijah. When the Lord took Elijah in a fiery chariot, Eliséos remained to continue the prophetic service with yet a greater power than Elijah.

By his purity and zeal, Eliséos was equal to the greatest prophets and, by the miraculous power that was given to him by God, Eliséos exceeded them all. He parted the waters of the Jordan as Moses once parted the Red Sea; the bitter waters in Jericho he made drinkable; he brought forth water into the excavated trenches during the war with the Moabites; he multiplied the oil in the pots of the poor widow; he resurrected the dead son of the Shunammite woman; he fed a hundred people with twenty small loaves of bread; he healed Commander Naaman of leprosy; he invoked leprosy upon his servant Gehazi because of his greed; he blinded the entire Syrian army and also forced another army to flee; he foretold many events to the people as well as to individuals. Eliséos died at a very old age.

Saint James 5:10-20 KJV


10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.


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,

SERMON ON FASTING

SAINT PHILARET OF NEW YORK

I have known many people who had the bad habit of smoking tobacco. Many of them would stop when Great Lent started. They bravely endured those feelings of deprivation that a person experiences when he quits. The urge to smoke decreases, and eventually it becomes easier to abstain. And then when you ask them, “Well, if you are already used to not smoking, for it seems that it is not so hard for you now, why do you take it up again when it is Pascha and the fast is over?” They say, “We really don’t know...we don’t really feel like smoking, but do so anyway, out of weakness...”

We must remember that a person’s will is weak when he relies solely on himself. But when he relies on God’s help, and, realizing his weakness, asks the Lord for help, the result is completely different.