Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Wednesday of the 2nd Sunday of Pascha

10 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Venerable Pachomius the Great, founder of cenobitic monasticism

348

His name in his native Coptic, Pachom, means “eagle.” He was an Egyptian pagan who entered the Roman army at a young age. While quartered at Thebes, he was amazed at the kindness of the local Christians, who brought food and drink to the soldiers. Learning who they were, he believed in Christ and vowed, once released from the army, to serve him for the rest of his life. At the end of his military service, he was baptised and became the disciple of the hermit Palamon, with whom he lived for ten years.

At a place called Tabennisis an angel appeared to him dressed in the robes of a monk and gave him a tablet on which was written a rule for a cenobitic monastery — one in which the brethren live communally rather than as hermits, something that had not been seen before among Christians. The angel commanded him to found such a monastery. Pachomius set to work, building many cells though there was no one to live there but himself and his brother John. When John questioned the unnecessary building, Pachomius only said that he was following God’s command, without saying who would live there or when.

But soon men began to assemble there, and in time so many came to be his disciples that he eventually founded nine monasteries housing thousands of monks. The rule that he gave (or had been given) for these monasteries became the model for all communal Christian monasticism thereafter. St Pachomius reposed in 346, before his great Egyptian fellow-strugglers St Anthony the Great and St Athanasius the Great.

Entertaining angels unawares: Christian believers’ simple acts of kindness toward their pagan oppressors may have seemed foolish to many, but it was such acts that opened the eyes of Pachomius to the light of Christ, and which bore incalculably great fruit: the founding of the monastic life which is still the backbone of Christ’s Church.

Saint Achilles, bishop of Larissa

Saint Achilles lived in the fourth century during the reign of the holy emperor Constantine the Great. Renowned for his holy life and his learning, he was elevated to the see of Larissa in Thessaly, where he laboured to root out paganism, demolished idolatrous temples and built and adorned many churches in their place. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, where he stood with the fathers in defence of the Orthodox faith and boldly denounced the heretic Arius. Tradition recounts that, to confound the Arians, he picked up a stone and challenged them, if Christ were merely a creature, to make oil flow from it; when they could not, the saint commanded oil to spring from the stone in witness to the equal divinity of the Son with the Father. He returned to his diocese and reposed in peace in Larissa about the year 330. When Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria later conquered Thessaly, the relics of Saint Achilles were translated to an island in Lake Prespa, which thereafter bore the saint's name.

Saint Isaiah the Wonderworker, bishop of Rostov

Saint Isaiah was born in the region of Kiev in the eleventh century to pious parents who raised him in the Orthodox faith. While still young he renounced the world and entered the Kiev Caves Monastery, where he was tonsured by Saint Theodosius. After a long ascetic struggle in the caves he was appointed abbot of the monastery of Saint Demetrius in Kiev by Prince Iziaslav, and there he laboured for the salvation of his brethren by word and example. In 1077 he was consecrated bishop of Rostov, a region still largely pagan. Travelling tirelessly through his vast diocese, the saint preached the Gospel to the unbelievers, baptising whole villages, building churches and confirming the newly converted in the faith. He is numbered among those holy hierarchs by whose labours the Russian land was won for Christ. According to tradition, in 1089 Saint Isaiah was miraculously borne on a cloud, after the manner of the Apostles, to Kiev, that he might be present at the consecration of the great church of the Dormition at the Caves Monastery. After thirteen years as bishop he reposed on 15 May 1090. His incorrupt relics were uncovered in 1164 and rest in the cathedral of the Dormition at Rostov.

Venerable Euphrosynus of Pskov

Saint Euphrosynus, in the world Eleazar, was born about 1386 in the village of Videlebye near Pskov to pious peasant parents. From his childhood he loved the church and the reading of the holy books. Refusing the marriage his parents had arranged, he secretly left his home and entered the Snetnaia Mountain Monastery near Pskov, where he was tonsured under the name of Euphrosynus. Seeking still greater silence, he withdrew to the banks of the river Tolba about twenty-five versts from Pskov and there built a small chapel and a cell. Disciples gathered around him, and so was founded the Eleazarov monastery of the Three Hierarchs. The saint himself drew up the first known monastic rule of northern Russia, ordering the common life of his brethren in poverty, silence and obedience. He took a leading part in the famous controversy of his day over the singing of the Alleluia, defending the practice received from Constantinople. Refusing all honours, he remained until his death a simple monk and left the office of abbot to one of his disciples. He reposed at the great age of ninety-five on 15 May 1481. His relics are honoured at the monastery he founded.

Venerable Isaiah, wonderworker of the Kiev Near Caves

Saint Isaiah of the Kiev Caves is to be distinguished from his namesake Saint Isaiah, bishop of Rostov, with whom he shares the day of commemoration. He laboured in the Kiev Caves Monastery in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, devoting himself to silence, fasting and unceasing prayer. Living in the cells hewn out of the cliffs above the Dnieper, he received from God the gift of working miracles even during his earthly life, healing the sick who came to him and consoling the sorrowful. He reposed in peace on 15 May 1115, and his relics rest incorrupt in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony at the Kiev Caves Lavra, where he is numbered among the synaxis of the venerable fathers of those caves. The faithful continue to seek his intercession for healing of body and soul.

Our Father among the Saints Achillius, Bishop of Larissa

330

He was born in Cappadocia, and was one of the 318 God-bearing Fathers who attended the First Ecumenical Council. At the council, Achillius took up a stone and said to the Arians, ‘If Christ is a creature of God, as you say, tell oil to flow from this stone.’ When the heretics kept silent, Achilleus went on, ‘And if the Son of God is equal to the Father, as we believe, let oil flow from this stone,’ at which oil flowed out. Returning to Larissa, the holy bishop cast down many pagan temples, built many churches, cast out many demons, and reposed in peace.

Also commemorated: Slain Crown Prince Dimitry of Moscow

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 4.13-22

¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

¹³Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. ¹⁴And seeing the man that was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. ¹⁵But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, ¹⁵But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, ¹⁶Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. ¹⁶saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been wrought through them, is manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷But that it spread no further among the people, let us threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. ¹⁷But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. ¹⁸And they called them, and charged them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. ¹⁸And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye: ¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. ²⁰For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. ²⁰for we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard. ²¹So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. ²¹And they, when they had further threatened them, let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people; for all men glorified God for that which was done. ²²For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed. ²²For the man was more than forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was wrought.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 5.17-24

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. ¹⁸Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. ¹⁸For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. ¹⁹Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

¹⁹Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. ²⁰For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. ²⁰For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel. ²¹For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. ²¹For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. ²²For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: ²²For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son; ²³that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him. ²³That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. ²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. ²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.