[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

Thu Feb 7 05:00:14 CST 2008

Scripture Readings and Saints for Thu Feb 7 2008

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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James 4:7-5:9  (Epistle)
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning
and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you
up.
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a
brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the
law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a
judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are
you to judge another?
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and
such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your
life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then
vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do
this or that."
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him
it is sin.
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming
upon you!
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a
witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped
up treasure in the last days.
4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you
kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have
fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist
you.
7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See
how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting
patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the
Lord is at hand.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.
Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
Scripture Reading 1 of 2

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Mark 11:27-33  (Gospel)
27 Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the
temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.
28 And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these
things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?"
29 But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one
question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do
these things:
30 The baptism of John-was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.
31 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From
heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
32 But if we say, 'From men' -they feared the people, for all counted
John to have been a prophet indeed.
33 So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know." And Jesus
answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority
I do these things."
Scripture Reading 2 of 2

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------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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Afterfeast of the Meeting of our Lord in the Temple
The fifth day of the Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord falls on
February 7.
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St Parthenius the Bishop of Lampsacus on the Hellespont
Saint Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus, was a native of the city of
Melitoupolis (in northwestern Asia Minor), where his father
Christopher served as deacon. The youth did not receive adequate
schooling, but he learned the Holy Scripture by attending church
services. He had a good heart, and distributed to the poor the money
he earned working as a fisherman.
Filled with the grace of God, St Parthenius from age eighteen healed
the sick in the name of Christ, cast out demons and worked other
miracles. Learning of the young man's virtuous life, Bishop Philetus
of Melitoupolis educated him and ordained him presbyter.
In 325, during the reign of Constantine the Great, Archbishop Achilles
of Cyzicus made him bishop of the city of Lampsacus (Asia Minor). In
the city were many pagans, and the saint fervently began to spread the
faith in Christ, confirming it by through many miracles and by healing
the sick.
The people began to turn from their pagan beliefs, and the saint went
to the emperor Constantine the Great seeking permission to tear down
the pagan temple and build a Christian church in its place. The
emperor received the saint with honor, gave him a decree authorizing
the destruction of the pagan temple, and provided him with the means
to build a church. Returning to Lampsacus, St Parthenius had the pagan
temple torn down, and built a beautiful church of God in the city.
In one of the razed temples, he found a large marble slab which he
thought would be very suitable as an altar. The saint ordered work to
begin on the stone, and to move it to the church. Through the malice
of the devil, who became enraged at the removal of the stone from the
pagan temple, the cart overturned and killed the driver Eutychian. St
Parthenius restored him to life by his prayer and shamed the devil,
who wanted to frustrate the work of God.
The saint was so kind that he refused healing to no one who came to
him, or who chanced to meet him by the wayside, whether he suffered
from bodily illnesses or was tormented by unclean spirits. People even
stopped going to physicians, since St Parthenius healed all the sick
for free. With the great power of the name of Christ, the saint
banished a host of demons from people, from their homes, and from the
waters of the sea.
Once, the saint prepared to cast out a devil from a certain man, who
had been possessed by it since childhood. The demon began to implore
the saint not to do so. St Parthenius promised to give the evil spirit
another man in whom he could dwell. The demon asked, "Who is that
man?" The saint replied, "You may dwell in me, if you wish."
The demon fled as if stung by fire, crying out, "If the mere sight of
you is a torment to me, how can I dare to enter into you?"
An unclean spirit, cast out of the house where the imperial purple dye
was prepared, said that a divine fire was pursuing him with the fire
of Gehenna.
Having shown people the great power of faith in Christ, the saint
converted a multitude of idol-worshippers to the true God.
St Parthenius died peacefully and was solemnly buried beside the
cathedral church of Lampsacus, which he built
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Venerable Luke of Hellas
Saint Luke of Hellas was a native of the Greek village of Kastorion.
The son of poor farmers, the saint from childhood had toiled much,
working in the fields and shepherding the sheep. He was very obedient
to his parents and very temperate in eating. He often gave his own
food and clothing to the poor, for which he suffered reproach from his
parents. He once gave away almost all the seed which was needed for
planting in the fields. The Lord rewarded him for his charity, and the
harvest gathered was greater than ever before.
As a child, he prayed fervently and often. His mother saw him more
than once standing not on the ground, but in the air while he prayed.
After the death of his father, he left his mother and went to Athens,
where he entered a monastery. But through the prayers of his mother,
who was very concerned about him, the Lord returned him to his
parental home in a miraculous manner. He spent four months there, then
with his mother's blessing he went to a solitary place on a mountain
called Ioannou (or Ioannitsa). Here there was a church dedicated to
the holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, where he lived an ascetical
life in constant prayer and fasting. He was tonsured there by some
Elders who were on pilgrimage. After this, St Luke redoubled his
ascetic efforts, for which the Lord granted him the gift of foresight.
After a seven years on Ioannou, the saint moved to Corinth because of
an invasion of the Bulgarian armies. Hearing about the exploits of a
certain stylite at Patras, he went to see him, and remained for ten
years to serve the ascetic with humility and obedience. Afterwards,
the saint returned again to his native land and again began to pursue
asceticism on Mount Ioannou.
The throngs of people flocking there disturbed his quietude, so with
the blessing of his Elder Theophylactus, St Luke went with his
disciple to a still more remote place at Kalamion. After three years,
he settled on the desolate and arid island of Ampelon because of an
invasion of the Turks. Steiris was another place of his ascetic
efforts. Here brethren gathered to the monk, and a small monastery
grew up, the church of which was dedicated to the Great Martyr
Barbara. Dwelling in the monastery, the saint performed many miracles,
healing sicknesses of soul and of body.
Foreseeing his end, the saint confined himself in a cell and for three
months prepared for his departure. When asked where he was to be
buried, the monk replied, "Throw my body into a ravine to be eaten by
wild beasts." When the brethren begged him to change these
instructions, he commanded them to bury his body on the spot where he
lay. Raising his eyes to heaven, he said, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I
commend my spirit!"
St Luke fell asleep in the Lord on February 7, 946. Later, a church
was built over his tomb. Myrrh flowed from his holy relics, and many
healings occurred.
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1,003 Martyrs of Nicomedia
1003 Martyrs at Nicomedia, were servants of the four dignitaries
Bassos, Eusebius, Eutychius and Basilides, who suffered for Christ
with their wives (January 5) in the year 303 during the reign of the
emperor Diocletian (284-305).
After the martyric death of their masters, the servants decided to
follow their example, and they also confessed themselves Christians
before Diocletian. Swayed neither by persuasion nor promises nor
rewards, 1003 men, women, and small children were cut down by soldiers
who formed a tight circle around them so that none of them remained
alive.
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Martyr Aule
Saint Aule suffered martyrdom in London during Diocletian's
persecution of Christians.
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