Keep Seeking
“So, you don’t want to suffer? Then don’t expect to ascend. Whoever does not endure sufferings should not expect Grace from Him. He removed Grace from you so that you may become wise. But it will come again, it does not abandon you. This is a law of God. But it will leave again. Yet once more it will come. As long as you don’t stop seeking it, it will keep coming and going until it renders you perfect.”
Saint Joseph the Hesychast
#suffering #orthodoxy #wisdom
Saturday February 8, 2025 / January 26, 2025
33rd Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.
St. Xenophon and his wife, St. Mary, and their two sons, Sts. Arcadius and John, of Constantinople (6th c.).
New Martyr Matushka Maria of Gatchina (1930).
New Hieromartyr Cyril, metropolitan of Kazan (1937).
New Hieromartyr Arcadius (1938).
Martyr John (1938).
Venerable Xenophon, abbot of Robeika (Novgorod) (1262).
Martyrs Ananias presbyter, Peter, and seven soldiers, in Phoenicia (295).
Venerable Symeon “the Ancient” of Mt. Sinai (ca. 390).
Translation of the relics of Venerable Theodore, abbot of the Studion (845).
St. Joseph, bishop of Thessalonica, brother of St. Theodore of the Studion (830).
St. David IV the Builder, king of Georgia and Abkhazeti (1125) (Georgia).
St. Ammon, of Egypt, disciple of St. Anthony the Great (350), and St. Gabriel, abbot at Jerusalem (490).
St. Conon, bishop and monastic founder on the Isle of Man (648) (Celtic & British).
Two Martyrs of Phrygia (Greek).
Venerable Clement of Mt. Sagmation (12tK c.) (Greek).
St. Paula of Palestine (404).
The Scripture Readings
11
This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
12
If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
13
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
14
Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16
But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.
17
And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort,
18
who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
19
Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
2
saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3
Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’
4
And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
5
‘yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”
6
Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.
7
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?
John 10:1-9 Matins Gospel
1
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5
Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
6
Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
7
Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8
All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
9
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
Hebrews 7:26-8:2 St. John
26
For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
27
who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
28
For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
1
Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
2
a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
John 10:9-16 St. John
9
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
12
But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
13
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
14
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
To this day is transferred the service from Sunday January 27 for the Translation of the relics of the Holy Hierarch John Chysostom.