Wednesday November 2 / 15 ns 2023 ~ Holy Martyrs Akíndynos, Elpidephóros, Anempódistos, Pegásios, and Aphthónios of Persia ~ Fast day

GREAT ART THOU O LORD AND MARVELLOUS ARE THY WORKS; AND WORDS CANNOT SUFFICE TO SING THE PRAISES OF THY WONDERS

  

HARKEN O DAUGHTER AND INCLINE THINE EAR AND FORSAKE THINE OWN PEOPLE AND THY FATHER'S HOUSE AND THE KING SHALL GREATLY DESIRE THY BEAUTY

Never forget, we are experiencing someone else's love that He shares with us.

~ Fast day ~

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The holy martyrs Akíndynos, Elpidephóros, Anempódistos, Pegásios, and Aphthónios were all Christians from Persia and suffered during the reign of King Sapor in the year 355. The first three were servants at the court of this same king but secretly served Christ their Lord. When they were accused and brought to trial before the king, he asked them where they came from. To this they replied: "Our fatherland and our life is the Most-holy Trinity, one in Essence and undivided, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God.'' The king subjected them to cruel tortures but they endured all heroically, with psalmody and prayer on their lips. During the time of their torture and imprisonment angels of God appeared to them many times, and one time the Lord Christ Himself appeared to them as a man "with a face radiant as the sun.'' When one of the torturers, Aphthónios, beheld a miracle, when boiling lead did no harm to the martyrs, he believed in Christ and cried out: "Great is the Christian God!'' For this, he was immediately beheaded, and many others saw and believed. Then the king ordered that Akíndynos, Pegásios and Anempódistos be sewn into animal skins and cast into the sea. But St. Aphthónios appeared from the other world with three shining angels, and led the holy martyrs to dry land and set them free. Elpidephóros was one of the king's nobles. When he revealed that he was a Christian and denounced the king for his slaughter of innocent Christians, the king condemned him to death and Elpidephóros was beheaded along with seven thousand other Christians. Then those first three martyrs [Akíndynos, Pegásios and Anempódistos] were finally thrown into a burning furnace along with twenty-eight soldiers and the king's mother, since they also believed in Christ-and thus, in the flames, they gave up their righteous souls into the hands of the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 KJV

4 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Saint Luke 11:42-46 KJV

42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.

44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

45 Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.

46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

THE CONSCIENCE

THE PHILOKALIA

St. Makarios of Corinth

Let us stand firm in the fear of God, rigorously practicing the virtues and not giving our conscience cause to stumble. In the fear of God let us keep our attention fixed within ourselves, until our conscience achieves its freedom. Then there will be a union between it and us, and thereafter it will be our guardian, showing us each thing that we must uproot. But if we do not obey our conscience, it will abandon us and we shall fall into the hands of our enemies, who will never let us go. This is what our Lord taught us when He said: 'Come to an agreement with your adversary quickly while you are with him in the road, lest he hand you over to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer and you are cast into prison (St. Matt. 5:25). The conscience is called an 'adversary' because it opposes us when we wish to carry out the desires of our flesh; and if we do not listen to our conscience, it delivers us into the hands of our enemies.