Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Wednesday of the 23rd week after Pentecost

206 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr James the Persian

421

Saint James the Persian, called in Latin Intercisus and in Syriac Pasqo, that is, the cut up, was born in the city of Bythlaba (Beth Lapat) in Persia in the late fourth century, of pious Christian parents. By his nobility of birth and brilliance of mind he rose to a high position at the court of the Persian king Yazdegerd I (399 to 420), and continued under his son Bahram V (421 to 438), becoming the most honoured friend of the king. Allured by the king's favour and flattery, James little by little forgot the faith of his fathers and joined the king in offering sacrifice to fire and to the sun.

When his mother and his wife heard of this they wrote him a letter declaring that they would have nothing more to do with him, since he had preferred a glory that is temporal to the love of Christ. Pierced through the heart by these words and coming to himself, James wept bitter tears, repudiated the worship of the idols, and openly returned to Christ. The king, enraged, condemned him to a most cruel death. The executioners cut off his fingers and his toes one by one, then his hands and his feet, his arms, and his legs, joint by joint. At each cutting the saint praised God, and finally, when only the trunk of his body remained, he was beheaded, in the year 421. His holy relics were carried first to Persia and then dispersed across the Christian world, and the Church honours him as one of her great martyrs and as a model of repentance.

Venerable Pinuphrius of Egypt

Saint Pinuphrius was abbot of a great monastery near the city of Panephysis in Lower Egypt during the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Although he was a wonder of holiness and a beloved father to many monks, he found the praise of men unbearable for one who sought only to please God. To escape the honours that began to be paid to him, he secretly fled his monastery and travelled in disguise to a remote community at Tabennesi, where he presented himself as an old layman desiring to enter the monastic life. He was received as a novice and assigned to the lowliest tasks in the garden, which he undertook with such humility and obedience that the brethren were astonished. After some time a monk who had come from his old monastery recognised him, and the secret of his identity was made known. He was returned to his community against his will, and remained their abbot, but later he fled a second time, sailing across the sea to Palestine, where again he sought to be unknown and again was discovered. Saint John Cassian, who met him there, has preserved his teachings on repentance, on the renunciation of the world, and on the eight chief vices in the Conferences and the Institutes. After many years Saint Pinuphrius reposed in peace, leaving to the Church a luminous example of humility wedded to wisdom.

Venerable Romanus the Wonderworker of Antioch

Saint Romanus was born in the city of Rosus in Cilicia in the fifth century. From his early youth he loved the things of God and longed to imitate the angelic life of the desert fathers. Renouncing the world, he settled in a small cave near the city of Antioch, where he lived as an anchorite for many years in extreme poverty and rigorous self-denial. He wore only one garment, slept on the bare ground, and contented himself with bread and water, and not even of these in any abundance. By patient endurance and continual prayer he attained great purity of heart. Because of his holy life God granted him the grace of working miracles. Reports of his sanctity drew crowds of the faithful to his cave, and he healed many of grave illnesses, freed those who were possessed by demons, and obtained for barren women the gift of children. Yet he remained always a man of deep humility, attributing nothing to himself and giving all the glory to God. He continued his ascesis to a great age and reposed in peace in the fifth century, leaving behind the memory of one of the most beloved hermits of the Antiochene region.

Repose of Archimandrite Lazarus

1992

Though he has not been glorified by the Church, Fr Lazarus was a pioneer and exemplar of Orthodoxy in the West. He was born in England in 1902. In his early manhood he moved to western Canada, where he worked as a farm laborer for several years. While working in Alberta, he sensed a call to become a missionary and went to an English missionary college for five years. Sad to say, our sources are unclear about how he came to the Orthodox faith from this unlikely beginning. But in 1934 he spent seven weeks on Mt Athos, then lived as a monk in Yugoslavia. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Theophan (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), then sent to Palestine to serve the Russian Mission in Jerusalem. In 1948, the new State of Israel gave the Mission’s property to the Soviet Union and the mission was left dispossessed. Fr Lazarus served as priest to the Russian Convent in Aïn Karim and Transjordan, then was sent to India in 1952, where he helped in Orthodox missionary work for twenty years. Several of his books and translations, such as his biography/study of St Seraphim of Sarov, were written while he lived in India. While there, he met Mother Gavrilia of Greece, whose beautiful biography Ascetic of Love includes good descriptions of him during his life in India. Though very strict in his Orthodoxy, he was flexible in externals: in India he wore a white rather than a black cassock, because black clothing had offensive connotations to the Indian people. In 1972 Fr Lazarus was called to Greece, then in 1974 to Australia, where he served for nine years. In 1983 he moved to California in answer to call from Fr Peter Gillquist to assist members of the former ‘Evangelical Orthodox Church’ in their move to Orthodoxy. In 1989 he moved to Alaska, where he continued this work. He reposed in Eagle River, Alaska in 1992. Following is an excerpt from an account of his last days by members of his community in Eagle River: “Father always signed his name with TWA, “Traveling With Angels”. A few days before his death, after battling cancer many years, faithfully using the Jesus Prayer as the medicine for his affliction, the Archangel Michael appeared to help him. His final journey homeward had begun, TWA… ‘the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ (2 Timothy 4: 6-8).”

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Thessalonians — 1 Thessalonians 2.1-8

¹For yourselves, brethren, know our entering in unto you, that it hath not been found vain:

¹For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: ²but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we waxed bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict. ²But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. ³For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: ³For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: ⁴but even as we have been approved of God to be intrusted with the gospel, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts. ⁴But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. ⁵For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness; ⁵For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: ⁶nor seeking glory of men, neither from you nor from others, when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. ⁶Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. ⁷But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: ⁷But we were gentle in the midst of you, as when a nurse cherisheth her own children: ⁸even so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were become very dear to us. ⁸So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 20.1-8

¹And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,

¹And it came to pass, on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the gospel, there came upon him the chief priests and the scribes with the elders; ²And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? ²and they spake, saying unto him, Tell us: By what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? ³And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: ³And he answered and said unto them, I also will ask you a question; and tell me: ⁴The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? ⁴The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? ⁵And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? ⁵And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why did ye not believe him? ⁶But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. ⁶But if we shall say, From men; all the people will stone us: for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. ⁷And they answered, that they knew not whence it was. ⁷And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. ⁸And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. ⁸And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.