Thursday, May 7 / April 24 (Church Calendar)

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Saints of the Day

April 24 / May 7. Martyr Sabbas Stratelites (the General) of Rome, and 70 soldiers with him. Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus, and others at Nicomedia. Martyrs Pasicrates and Valentine in Moesia (Bulgaria). St. Thomas the Fool of Syria. St. Elizabeth the Wonderworker of Constantinople. Saints Sabbas and Alexius the hermit of the Kiev Caves. New-Martyr Luke. New-Martyr Nicholas of Magnesia. Martyr Alexander of Lyons. St. Iorest and St. Sava Brancovici, Metropolitan of Ardeal, confessors against the Calvinists. Repose of Schemamonk Nicholas of Valaam (1947).

Photo of the Day

Preparation for the Offering.

Quote of the Day

“How can they [Christians] cleanse their mind, brighten their intellect, and beautify all the powers of the soul, if they do not partake of the Body and Blood of our Lord, which is the true purification, the true beauty, the true illumination, and the true nobility of the soul, as the divine Chrysostom says?

St. Macarius of Corinth

Scripture Readings for the Day

Acts 8:26-39

Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. ²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
³³ In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.”

³⁴ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
³⁷ Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.

John 6:40-44

⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Rejected by His Own

⁴¹ The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” ⁴² And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
⁴³ Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.