Do you believe reading and following the writings of the saints
can serve to expedite life's objective,
your acquisition of the Holy Spirit?
your acquisition of the Holy Spirit?
O Mother of the Word, thou Ever-Virgin, from all ordeals and afflictions deliver me.
T H U R S D A Y
June 20 / July 4 ns 2025
H O L Y
A P O S T L E S'
F A S T
Today we honor
The Hodegétria Icon
of the Theotokos;
{"She who shows the Way"
is depicted with the Virgin's hand
pointing at Christ, Who is "The Way".}
is depicted with the Virgin's hand
pointing at Christ, Who is "The Way".}
and
The Hieromartyr Methódios,
Bishop of Patára;
St. Kállistos I, Patriarch of
Constantinople;
St. Nicholas Cabasilas
As a learned and eloquent hierarch, Methódios wrote against the heresy of Origen. His "God-inspired words shown throughout the entire world as lightning."
The pagans rose up against him, tortured him and beheaded him in Chalcis in Syria in the year 311 A.D.
Romans 11:13-24 KJV
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Saint Matthew 11:27-30 KJV
27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
TRANSGRESSION
by Saint Maximos the Confessor
As man I deliberately transgressed the divine commandment, when the devil, enticing me with the hope of divinity (cf. Gen. 3:5), dragged me down from my natural stability into the realm of sensual pleasure; and he was proud to have thus brought death into existence, for he delights in the corruption of human nature.
Because of this, God became perfect man, taking on everything that belongs to human nature except sin (cf. Heb. 4:15); and indeed sin is not part of human nature. In this way, by enticing the insatiable serpent with the bait of the His flesh, He provoked him to open his mouth and swallow it. This flesh proved poison to him, destroying him utterly by the power of the Divinity within it; but to human nature it proved a remedy restoring it to its original grace by that same power of the Divinity within it.
For just as the devil poured out his venom of sin on the tree of knowledge and corrupted human nature once it had tasted it, so when he wished to devour the flesh of the Master he was himself destroyed by the power of the Divinity within it.
We must become worthy!
The heart must belong entirely to Christ!
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