Wednesday, August 19 / August 6 (Church Calendar)

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!
Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord

Saints of the Day

August 6 / 19. THE HOLY TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. St. Theoctistus, Bishop of Chernigov. St. Job the Gorge-dweller on the Mezen River (Solovki). New-Martyrs Dimitry, Archbishop of Gdov (1938) and Priest Nicholas (Prozorov) (1930). Repose of Hieroschemamonk Nikon the Cave-dweller of Valaam (1822) and Righteous Priest Basil (Shoustin), disciple of Optina (1968); Martyr Priest Maxim Sandovich of Carpatho-Russia, by the Latins

Photo of the Day

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Thought of the Day:

“Labor conscientiously, pray, and ask God for patience. Tribulations are a good sign, they show that we are on the narrow way. Humble yourself more and reproach yourself.”

Elder Joseph of Optina “Letters” 

Scripture Readings for the Day

2 Corinthians 3:4-11

The Spirit, Not the Letter

⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit;^[a] for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. ¹⁰ For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. ¹¹ For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

Matthew 23:29-39

²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
³¹ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. ³³ Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ³⁴ Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus Laments over Jerusalem

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ See! Your house is left to you desolate; ³⁹ for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’“