Daily Bread
Friday, February 14, 2025
1 John 2:7-17 (Epistle)
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Mark 14:3-9 (Gospel)
3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.
4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.
7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.
8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.
9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Ven. Auxentius of Bithynia (ca. 470).
Saint Auxentius, by origin a Syrian, served at the court of the emperor Theodosius the Younger (418-450). He was known as a virtuous, learned and wise man, and he was, moreover, a friend of many of the pious men of his era.
Distressed by worldly vanity, Saint Auxentius was ordained to the holy priesthood, and then received monastic tonsure. After this he went to Bithynia and found a solitary place on Mount Oxia, not far from Chalcedon, and there he began the life of a hermit (this mountain was afterwards called Mt. Auxentius). The place of the saint’s efforts was discovered by shepherds seeking their lost sheep. They told others about him, and people began to come to him for healing. Saint Auxentius healed many of the sick and the infirm in the name of the Lord.
In the year 451 Saint Auxentius was invited to the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, where he denounced the Eutychian and Nestorian heresies. Familiar with Holy Scripture and learned in theology, Saint Auxentius easily bested those opponents who disputed with him. After the end of the Council, Saint Auxentius returned to his solitary cell on the mountain. With his spiritual sight he saw the repose of Saint Simeon the Stylite (459) from a great distance.
Saint Auxentius died about the year 470, leaving behind him disciples and many monasteries in the region of Bithynia. He was buried in the Monastery of Saint Hypatius at Rufiananas, Syria.
How to Overcome Pride?
Let’s talk about the main sin, which is pride. Saint John of the Ladder in his book “The Ladder” wrote: “Pride is the rejection of God… The beginning of pride is the root of vanity; the middle is the humiliation of one’s neighbor, shameless preaching of one’s labors, boasting in one’s heart, hatred of reproof, and the end is the rejection of God’s help, reliance on one’s diligence, and demonic disposition.”
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) in his work “Ascetic Works” said that a synonym for the word “pride” is “lie”. And who, as we know, is the father of lies? This is the devil. This is how our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called the fallen spirit: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44).
Here we see that the beginning of pride is always self-love and the desire for other people not only to love you, but also obey you, fulfill your will. Further, this conceited feeling forms a certain theory, a certain “religion” of its own, in which man himself takes the place of God. It is as if he pushes God aside in his heart and he himself sits on the throne of his inner spiritual temple. He becomes not an ontological antichrist, about whom St. John the Theologian wrote in the Revelation, but an antichrist in his spirit, which he cultivates in himself. In confirmation of this fact, the Holy Apostle Paul gives a very precise definition of pride: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess. 2:3-4). This is the path of the proud: inside himself, inside his heart’s temple, a person tries to push God from the throne, take the Divine throne and become a “god”.
To do this he usually forms a whole ideology, a whole myth-making, which is designed, on the one hand, to hide the true goal of this ideology (to put other people and the world around him at his service) and, on the other hand, to achieve this goal, that is, to crush the world under his own theory and force other people to serve him, to sacrifice them to his own pride and thereby obtain dark pleasure for himself.
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 2/10: Matins 8:30 am; Stewards Meeting 6:30 pm
Tuesday 2/11: no services or events
Wednesday 2/12: no services or events
Thursday 2/13: Matins 8:30 am
Friday 2/14: Matins 8:30 am
Saturday 2/15: Catechumen Class 4:30 pm; Choir Practice 5 pm; Great Vespers 6 pm
Sunday 2/16: Divine Liturgy 9:15am
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Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is located in Southbury, Connecticut, and is part of the New England Diocese of the Orthodox Church of America.
Mailing address: Christ the Savior Church, 1070 Roxbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488
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Fr. Moses Locke can be reached at frmoseslocke@gmail.com