Nativity Fast, day 1
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Begin Nativity Fast
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Our Venerable Father Paisius Velichkovsky (1794)
Paisius Velichkovsky (1722–1794) was the Ukrainian-born, Athonite and Moldavian elder who, more than any other single figure, revived Orthodox hesychasm and the tradition of eldership (starchestvo) on the eve of the modern age. Born Peter Velichkovsky at Poltava and formed on Mount Athos and in the sketes of Moldavia and Wallachia, he gathered a great multilingual brotherhood at the monasteries of Dragomirna, Secu and Neamț, where he restored obedience to a spiritual father, unceasing practice of the Jesus Prayer, and the disciplined copying and correcting of the patristic texts of prayer. His crowning labour was the translation of the Greek Philokalia into Church Slavonic — the Dobrotolyubie, printed at Moscow in 1793 — whose diffusion through Russia seeded the Optina eldership and the whole nineteenth-century spiritual renewal.
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Gurias, Samonas and Abibus
Gurias, Samonas and Abibus are the three great martyr-confessors of Edessa in Syria (Mesopotamia), venerated together though they died sixteen years apart: the laymen Gurias and Samonas, preachers of the word, were tortured and beheaded about 306 in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, while Abibus, a deacon of the same city, was burned alive about 322 under Licinius. Buried in one tomb, they became the patrons of Edessa. The most famous of their posthumous wonders — the deliverance of the maiden Euphemia, betrayed by a Gothic soldier who had sworn faithfulness to her over their graves — made the three the guardians of oaths and the heavenly patrons of honourable marriage, under which title they are invoked to this day.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Machell, founder of the monastery of Llanfechell (7th C)
- St. Fintan, monk and hermit (879)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having received grace from on high, O all-praised and wise ones, ye stand by those who are in trials; wherefore ye delivered a maiden from a bitter death. For ye are in truth the glory of Edessa and the joy of the world.
Troparion — Tone 5
Having granted us the wonders of Thy holy Martyrs as an unassailable wall, O Christ God, by their entreaties scatter the counsels of the heathen and strengthen Thy holy Church, for Thou alone art good and the Lover of mankind.
Readings
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 1.6-10
6And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: 7So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. 8For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. 9For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Gospel
Luke 14.25-35
25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.