(Church Calendar)
Saints of the Day
July 21 / August 3. St. Symeon of Emesa, fool-for-Christ, and his fellow faster St. John. Prophet Ezekiel. St. Onuphrius the Silent of the Kiev Caves. St. Onesimus, recluse of the Kiev Caves. Opening of the Relics of St. Anna of Kashin. Martyr Victor of Marseilles. St. Anna, mother of St. Sava the Serbian. (Greek Calendar: Martyrs Justus, Mathias, Eugene, Theodore, and George. Martyr Acacius of Constantinople. St. Eleutherius of Dry Hill. St. Parthenius of Radovizlios, Bishop) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos Armatia.
Photo of the Day
Looking from the northeast, into the Monastery’s courtyard.
Quote of the Day
“Faith in Christ is… a good and patient disposition of the soul in enduring all temptations, whether griefs, sorrows or unpleasant happenings, until God’s favour looks down upon us; thus we would imitate David who says: ‘I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry’ (Ps. 40:1).”
St. Simeon the New Theologian
Scripture Readings for the Day
2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
2 Corinthians 3
Christ’s Epistle
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Matthew 23:23-28
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.