[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

Mon Dec 3 05:00:13 CST 2007

Scripture Readings and Saints for Mon Dec 3 2007

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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2 Timothy 2:20-26
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver,
but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a
vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for
every good work.
22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love,
peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate
strife.
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all,
able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps
will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the
devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Scripture Reading 1 of 2

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Luke 20:27-44
27 Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection,
came to Him and asked Him,
28 saying: "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies,
having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take
his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
29 Now there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died
without children.
30 And the second took her as wife, and he died childless.
31 Then the third took her, and in like manner the seven also; and
they left no children, and died.
32 Last of all the woman died also.
33 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all
seven had her as wife.
34 Jesus answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and
are given in marriage.
35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;
36 nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are
sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
37 But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are
raised, when he called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.'
38 For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live
to Him.
39 Then some of the scribes answered and said, "Teacher, You have
spoken well."
40 But after that they dared not question Him anymore.
41 And He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son
of David?
42 Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: 'The LORD said to my
Lord, Sit at My right hand,
43 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." '
44 Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?
Scripture Reading 2 of 2

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Prophet Zephaniah
The Prophet Zephaniah (Sophonias) was a contemporary of the Prophet
Jeremiah and the Prophetess Oldama. He was from the tribe of Simeon,
and was the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.
The prophet lived at the royal court, where he preached repentance and
helped King Josiah eliminate idol-worship.
He prophesied about the calamities that were to come for the people of
Judea and the surrounding regions: Gaza, Ascalon, Crete, and against
the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Ninevites.
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Venerable Sava the Abbot of Zvenigorod the Disciple of the
Venerable Sergius of Radonezh
Saint Sava Storozhevsky of Zvenigorod left the world in his early
youth, and received the monastic tonsure from St Sergius of Radonezh,
whose disciple and fellow-ascetic he was.
St Sava loved solitude, and avoided conversing with people. He lived
in constant toil, lamenting the poverty of his soul, and trembling
before the judgment of God. He was a model of simplicity and humility,
and he attained to such a depth of spiritual wisdom that "in the
monastery of St Sergius he was a spiritual confessor to all the
brethren, a venerable and exceedingly learned Elder."
When Great Prince Demetrius of the Don built the monastery of the
Dormition of the Mother of God at the River Dubenka, in gratitude for
the victory over Mamai, Sava became its Igumen, with the blessing of
St Sergius. Preserving the simple manner of his ascetic lifestyle, he
ate plants, wore coarse clothing and slept on the ground.
In 1392 the brethren of the Sergiev Lavra, with the departure of its
Igumen Nikon into the wilderness, asked St Sava to be the igumen of
the monastery. Here he "shepherded well the flock entrusted to him to
the best of his ability, helped by the prayers of his spiritual
Father, St Sergius." According to Tradition, the great well outside
the Lavra walls was built when he was igumen.
Prince Yuri Dimitrievich Zvenigorodsky, a godson of St Sergius,
regarded St Sava with great love and esteem. He chose St Sava as his
spiritual Father and begged him to come and bestow his blessing upon
all his household. The saint had hoped to return to his monastery, but
the prince begged him to remain and establish a new monastery, "in his
fatherland, near Zvenigorod, at a place called Storozhi."
St Sava accepted the request of Prince Yuri Dimitrievich, and praying
with tears before an icon of the Mother of God, he entreated Her
protection for the wilderness place. On Storozhi Hill, he built a
small wooden church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and a
small cell for himself nearby. Here in the year 1399 the monk
established a monastery, lovingly accepting all who came seeking a
life of silence and seclusion.
St Sava toiled much at the building up of his monastery. He dug a well
at the foot of the hill, from which he carried water on his own
shoulders; he encircled the monastery with a wooden palisade, and in a
hollow above it, he dug out a cell where he could dwell in solitude.
In 1399 St Sava blessed his spiritual son, Prince Yuri, to go on a
military campaign, and he predicted victory over the enemy. Through
the prayers of the holy Elder, the forces of the prince won a speedy
victory. Through the efforts of St Sava, a stone church of the
Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was also built to replace the
wooden one.
St Sava died at an advanced age on December 3, 1406. He appointed his
disciple, also named Sava, to succeed him.
Veneration of the God-pleaser by the local people began immediately
after his death. The miraculous curative power issuing from the grave
of the monk, and his numerous appearances, convinced everyone that
Igumen Sava "is truly an unsetting sun of divine light, illumining all
with its miraculous rays." In a letter of 1539 St Sava is called a
wonderworker. Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich had a special veneration for
him, repeatedly going to the monastery of St Sava on foot. Tradition
has preserved for us a remarkable account of how St Sava once saved
him from a ferocious bear.
The Life of St Sava, compiled in the sixteenth century, relates how at
the end of the fifteenth century (1480-1490), the saint appeared to
Dionysius, the fourth igumen of the St Sava monastery and said to him:
"Dionysius! Wake up and paint my icon." When Dionysius asked who he
was, he replied, "I am Sava, the founder of this place."
Now Dionysius had not known the saint personally, so he summoned Elder
Habakkuk, who had known St Sava in his youth, hoping to convince
himself of the truth of the dream. He described the outward appearance
of the saint, and Habakkuk assured him that the saint looked exactly
as the igumen had seen him in his dream. Then Dionysius fulfilled the
command and painted the icon of St Sava.
The feastday of St Sava was established at the Moscow Council of 1547.
The incorrupt relics of the saint were uncovered on January 19, 1652.
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St Theodoulus the Eparch of Constantinople
Saint Theodoulus was an eparch during the reign of Theodosius the
Great. He resigned his position because he did not want to be
distracted by vain worldly cares.
After his wife's death, St Theodoulus gave his wealth away to the poor
and became a monk. He traveled to Edessa and lived on top of a pillar
for thirty years, eating only once a week.
St Theodoulus the Stylite departed to the Lord around 440.
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St John the Silent of St Sabbas Monastery
Saint John the Silent was born around 454 in the city of Nicopolis,
Armenia into the family of a military commander named Enkratius and
his wife Euphemia. The boy began to study Holy Scripture, and he loved
solitude and prayer with all his heart.
With the inheritance his parents left him, John built a church
dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. At eighteen years of age John
became a monk, living an ascetic life of fasting, prayer and
temperance with ten other monks at the church he had founded.
At the request of the citizens of Colonia, the Metropolitan of Sebaste
consecrated the twenty-eight-year-old John as Bishop of Colonia.
Having assumed the episcopal throne, the saint did not alter his
strict ascetic manner of life. Under the influence of the saint his
relatives, his brother Pergamios (an associate of the emperors Zeno
and Anastasius) and his nephew Theodore (an associate of the emperor
Justinian), also lived in a Christian manner.
In John's tenth year as bishop, the governorship of Armenia was
assumed by Pazinikos, the husband of the saint's sister, Maria. The
new governor began to interfere in spiritual and ecclesiastical
matters, and there was unrest in the Church. St John then went to
Constantinople, and through Archbishop Euthymius, he entreated the
emperor Zeno to defend the Armenian Church from the evil Governor.
Overwhelmed by worldly quarrels, John secretly left his diocese and
sailed to Jerusalem. With tears he besought God to show him a place
where he might live and find salvation. A bright star appeared, which
led St John to the Lavra of St Sava.
John, concealing his episcopal rank, was accepted in the community as
a simple novice. Under the guidance of the igumen St Sava (December
5), Bishop John toiled obediently for more than four years at every
task he was assigned. When a guesthouse was built at the Lavra, St
John served the workers, serving their food and assisting in the
construction of the building. When a cenobitic monastery for novices
was being built, John was once again assigned to help the workers.
Seeing St John's humility and love of labor, St Sava deemed him worthy
of ordination to presbyter. St John was forced to reveal his rank to
Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem (494-517), who told St Sava that John
could not be ordained. Moreover, he said that John was to live in
silence, and that no one should trouble him. Soon the Lord also
revealed St John's secret to St Sava. St John spent four years in his
cell, receiving no one and not going out even for church.
Desiring ever greater solitude and increased abstinence, St John quit
the Lavra and withdrew into the desert, where he spent more than nine
years, eating plants and grass. He survived a devastating incursion of
the Saracens and did not perish, only because the Lord sent him a
defender: a ferocious lion. When the enemy tried to harm the saint,
the lion attacked them and they scattered in fright. Tradition speaks
of many miracles St John performed during this time in the desert.
When St Sava returned after an extended stay in Scythopolis, he
persuaded St John to forsake the wilderness and to live at the
monastery. After this, the Lord, in a miraculous way, revealed to
everyone at the Lavra that the monk John was actually a bishop.
When St John reached age seventy, his holy and God-bearing spiritual
Father St Sava died. The saint grieved deeply over this, since he was
not present at the time. St Sava appeared to him in a vision, and
having consoled him, he foretold that there would be much toil ahead
in the struggle against heresy. St John even had to leave his solitude
to strengthen the brethren in the struggle with the Origenists.
St John the Silent spent sixty-six years at the Lavra of St Sava the
Sanctified. Through his constant ascetic efforts, by his untiring
prayer and humble wisdom, St John acquired the grace of the Holy
Spirit. At his prayers, many miracles took place, and he was able to
discern the secret thoughts of people. He healed the sick and those
possessed by demons. Even during his lifetime he saved those who
invoked his name from certain destruction. Once, he scattered fig
seeds on barren rock, and a beautiful and fruitful tree sprang up. In
time, the tree grew so much that it overshadowed the saint's cell.
St John the Silent departed to the Lord in peace at the age of 104.
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Hieromartyr Theodore the Archbishop of Alexandria
The Hieromartyr Theodore, Bishop of Alexandria, was born in Egypt in
the city of Alexandria. This city was famous for its many martyrs and
confessors: from the holy Evangelist Mark, Protomartyr of Alexandria
(April 25), to St Athanasius the Great (January 18 and May 2), a
pillar and confessor of Orthodoxy.
Regrettably, historical records do not give us precise details of St
Theodore's life and deeds, but the Church of Christ has preserved the
name of the hieromartyr in its diptychs for all time.
A fiery preacher, powerful of word and church activity, Bishop
Theodore evoked an angry hatred in the boisterous pagans of
Alexandria, who did not like his preaching. During one of his sermons
they surrounded and seized the saint. They beat him and jeered at him,
but he did not offer resistance. They placed a crown of thorns on his
head, and led him through the city.
Then they led him to the seacoast and threw him from a cliff into the
sea, but the wind and the waves carried him back to dry land. The
astonished pagans brought St Theodore to the prefect of the city, who
commanded that he be subjected to harsh tortures. Not a word did the
torturers hear from the tortured confessor, except his prayer to the
Lord. Then the holy martyr was handed over to Roman soldiers and
executed in the manner of the Apostle Paul, he was beheaded with a
sword.
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Monkmartyr Cosmas of St Anne Skete, Mt Athos
Saint Cosmas was a monk of St Anne's Skete on Mount Athos. He was
executed in Constantinople on December 3, 1760 when he refused to
convert to Islam. The specific details of his martyrdom are not known.
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St George of Cernica and Caldarushani
Saint George was born in 1730, and became a monk on Mount Athos when
he was a young man. He was a disciple of St Paisius Velichkovsky
(November 15) who was then the igumen of Vatopedi Monastery.
Since the skete at Cernica had been deserted for almost thirty years,
Metropolitan Gregory II of Wallachia asked Elder George to revive
monastic life there according to the Athonite Typikon.
St George's efforts at Cernica were so successful that Metropolitan
Philaret II also entrusted him with leading the Caldarushani
Monastery, which he guided until his death. Life at both monasteries
followed the Athonite-Paisian hesychastic tradition.
St George was glorified by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 2005. His
holy relics are in the Cernica Monastery, where they are venerated by
the faithful.
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New Martyr Angelos of Chios
No information available at this time.
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