Sunday, April 26 / April 13 (Church Calendar)
Thomas Sunday
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
Photo of the Day:
Interior view of Holy Protection Monastery Church.
Saints of the Day
April 13 / 26. Hieromartyr Artemon, prebyter of Laodicea in Syria. Martyr Crescens of Myra in Lycia. Woman Martyr Thomais of Alexandria. Martyr Eleutherius of Persia. Martyr Zoilus of Rome. New-Martyr Demetrius of the Peloponnesus who suffered at Tripoli. St. Martius, abbot of Clermon (Gaul). New Hieromartyr Stephen (1933). (Greek Calendar: Martyr Theodosius.)
Quote of the Day
“The second [stage of contemplation] is knowledge of our own faults and of God’s bounty…’I begin to see that my soul is being destroyed, and yet I make no effort to embark on a godly life. Why, O my soul, are you so indifferent about yourself? Why, when you sin, are you not as ashamed before God and His angels as you are before men…Before a man I… do all I can to appear to be acting righteously; yet standing before God I think evil thoughts and often am not ashamed to speak of them. What madness!…Who, even if he had the intellect of an angel, could grasp all the countless blessings I have been given? Yet because I do not change my ways I shall lose them all.’ By meditating in this way, a man gradually advances to the third stage of contemplation.”
St. Peter of Damascus.
Scripture Readings for the Day
Acts 5:12-20
Continuing Power in the Church
12 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. 13 Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. 14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. 16 Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Imprisoned Apostles Freed
17 Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, 18 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. 19 But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”
John 20:19-31
The Apostles Commissioned
19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Seeing and Believing
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
That You May Believe
30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.