Saturday, March 21 / March 8 (Church Calendar)
~Great and Holy Lent~
Photo of the Day
The grave of the Ever Memorable Archimandrite Dimitry of Santa Rosa, my late spiritual father. I always visit his grave in Healdsburg, California, located just north of Santa Rosa, when traveling up Highway 101, on my return trip to the monastery.
Saints of the Day
March 8 / 21. St. Theophylactus, Bishop of Nicomedia. St. Dometius, monk. Hieromartyr Theodoretus of Antioch. Apostle Hermas of the Seventy. Saints Lazarus and Athanasius, monks of Murmansk. (Greek Calendar: St. Paul of Plusias, confessor. Martyr Dio.)
Quote of the Day
“If you pray with your lips but your mind wanders, how do you benefit? ‘When one builds and another tears down, what do they gain but toil?’ (Eccles. 34:23). As you labour with your body, so you must labour with your intellect, lest you appear righteous in the body while your heart is filled with every form of injustice and impurity.”
St. Gregory of Sinai
Scripture Readings for the Day
Hebrews 10:32-38
32 But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33 partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; 34 for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. 35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 “For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
Mark 2:14-17
14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”