'Daily Bread'
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
"God is perfect, He is faultless. And so, when Divine love becomes manifest in us in the fullness of Grace, we radiate this love --- not only on the earth, but throughout the entire universe as well. So God is in us, and He is present everywhere. It is God’s all-encompassing love that manifests itself in us. When this happens, we see no difference between people: everyone is good, everyone is our brother, and we consider ourselves to be the worst of men --- servants of every created thing."
Elder Thaddeus(+2003)
Daily Scripture Reading
Galatians 5:11-21 (Epistle)
Brethren, if I, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves! For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Luke 8:1-3 (Gospel)
At that time Jesus went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
Venerable Pelagia the Penitent
Saint Pelagia the Penitent was converted to Christianity by Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa (Saturday of Cheesefare Week). Before her acceptance of Christianity through Baptism, Pelagia was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, living a life of frivolity and prostitution.
One day Pelagia, elegantly dressed, was making her way past a church where Saint Nonnus was preaching a sermon. Believers turned their faces away from the sinner, but the bishop glanced after her. Struck by the outer beauty of Pelagia and having foreseen the spiritual greatness within her, the saint prayed in his cell for a long time to the Lord for the sinner. He told his fellow bishops that the prostitute put them all to shame. He explained that she took great care to adorn her body in order to appear beautiful in the eyes of men. “We... take no thought for the adornment of our wretched souls,” he said.
On the following day, when Saint Nonnus was teaching in the church about the dread Last Judgment and its consequences, Pelagia came. The teaching made a tremendous impression upon her. With the fear of God and weeping tears of repentance, she asked the saint for Baptism. Seeing her sincere and full repentance, Bishop Nonnus baptized her.
By night the devil appeared to Pelagia, urging her to return to her former life. The saint prayed, signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, and the devil vanished.
Three days after her baptism, Saint Pelagia gathered up her valuables and took them to Bishop Nonnus. The bishop ordered that they be distributed among the poor saying, “Let this be wisely dispersed, so that these riches gained by sin may become a wealth of righteousness.” After this Saint Pelagia journeyed to Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. She lived there in a cell, disguised as the monk Pelagius, living in ascetic seclusion, and attaining great spiritual gifts. When she died, she was buried in her cell.
The saint perceived that it was the Lord Himself summoning him to this deed. From that time Andrew began to go about the streets in rags, as though his mind had become muddled. For many years the saint endured mockery and insults. With indifference he underwent beatings, hunger and thirst, cold and heat, begging alms and giving them away to the poor. For his great forebearance and humility the saint received from the Lord the gift of prophecy and wisdom, saving many from spiritual perils, and he unmasked the impiety of many.
While praying at the Blachernae church, Saint Andrew beheld the Most Holy Mother of God, holding her veil over those praying under her Protection (October 1). Blessed Andrew died in the year 936.
Don’t expect the world to get any better
Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis
The consistency of the pattern in Christ’s life is a challenge for the rational thinking of people in the world and a reversal of everything they hold to be a constant. Why? Because, having expunged God from their life, they seek comfort, complete acceptance by others, the power of wealth, and domination, all of which constitute sin itself and subjugation to the Evil One.
What’s worse is that this sinful state is expanding without let or hindrance, because, according to Saint Paul, ‘wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ [2 Tim. 3, 13]. No Messianism- as the expectation of any improvement in the state of the world- is acceptable to us. The world is bad and it’s getting worse.
So Christians are living in a world subject to its ruler, the devil, and it’s a world in which they seem to have no place. But this is where things are turned upside down. The world of sin wishes to annihilate Christians, but it can’t manage to do so. He who determines the finest details of the universe is the Lord, our Almighty God: ‘He who is, was, and is coming’. Speaking of his personal experience, Saint Paul says: ‘What persecutions I endured; yet the Lord rescued me from all of them’. So here we have the reality of the depth of our faith: when it seems that we Christians are being defeated and are losing to the forces of darkness, that’s precisely when the light of God’s almighty power arises- our participation in Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection. Did Christ not seem weak and defeated on the Cross? But that’s where his almighty power was made manifest: he rose on the third day. ‘Our faith is the triumph which overcomes the world’.
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 10/7: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 10/8: no services or events
Wednesday 10/9: no services or events
Thursday 10/10: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Friday 10/11: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 10/12: Catechumen Class 4:30 pm; Great Vespers 6 pm
Sunday 10/13: Divine Liturgy 9: 15 a.m.
