Monday, 16 December 2024

Monday of the 26th week after Pentecost

225 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy prophet Haggai

The Holy Prophet Haggai was the tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets and a descendant of the tribe of Levi. He was born in Babylon during the captivity and prophesied during the reign of the Persian king Darius Hystaspes, around 500 BC. Returning with his fellow Jews to Jerusalem after the captivity, he urged the people, together with the prophet Zechariah, to take up the rebuilding of the Second Temple, which had been delayed by political opposition and by the people's preoccupation with their own houses. His brief book, preserved among the prophetic writings, contains four oracles delivered in the second year of Darius. He proclaimed that the glory of the Second Temple would surpass that of Solomon's, since the Messiah would appear within it in the latter days. Having seen the foundations of the Temple laid, he reposed in old age and was buried with honour near the priests' tombs in Jerusalem.

Saint Memnon, archbishop of Ephesus

Saint Memnon was metropolitan of Ephesus during the first half of the fifth century and is venerated for his defence of Orthodox christology at the Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus in 431. As metropolitan of the host city he commanded the loyalty of the local population and gathered some forty bishops in addition to twelve from Pamphylia in support of Saint Cyril of Alexandria against the Nestorian heresy. When the verdict of Rome against Nestorius reached the council, Memnon refused communion with him and closed the churches of Ephesus to him. He hosted the second session of the council in his episcopal palace. With Saint Cyril he was unjustly deposed by John of Antioch's separate gathering, but was restored when peace was made in the church. Almost nothing else is known of him outside the council. He reposed in peace some time before the year 440.

Saint Modestus, archbishop of Jerusalem

Saint Modestus was born around the year 537 into a Christian family at Sebasteia in Cappadocia. His parents died when he was five months old, but he was raised in the Christian faith and from an early age was drawn to monastic life. He was tonsured a monk, struggled in ascetic labours on Mount Sinai, and was later made abbot of the monastery of Saint Theodosius in Palestine. In 614 the Persian king Khosrow II captured Jerusalem, burning churches, slaughtering monks, and carrying off Patriarch Zacharias and the precious Cross of the Lord. During the patriarch's fourteen-year captivity, Modestus served as locum tenens and laboured to bury the slain monks of Saint Sabbas's monastery and to restore the Holy Sepulchre and the city's churches and monasteries, helped by Saint John the Merciful, patriarch of Alexandria. After the death of Patriarch Zacharias, Modestus was elected patriarch of Jerusalem, serving from 632 until his repose at the age of ninety-seven in 634. Some Greek calendars commemorate him on 16 December, while the Slavic and other traditions keep his feast on 18 December.

Saint Theophano the empress

Saint Theophano was the first wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise, who reigned from 886 to 911. Born into the noble Martinakios family of Constantinople, she was renowned among the chroniclers of her time for her evangelical life, almsgiving and exceptional piety. Early in her marriage she shared the sufferings of her husband when, falsely accused of plotting against his father, the emperor Basil I, Leo was imprisoned for three years. During this trial she remained constant in prayer. Even as empress she continued to live as an ascetic, wearing simple clothing beneath her imperial robes, fasting strictly and giving generous aid to the poor and to monasteries. She bore patiently the unfaithfulness and cruelty of her husband, returning all things with kindness. She reposed around the year 893 or 897, and her relics were enshrined in a church built in her honour by the emperor.

Holy Empress and Wonderworker Theophano

893

She was born to noble parents in Constantinople. Beautiful and pious, she was chosen by the Emperor Basil (867-886) to be the bride of his son Leo VI the Wise. When Leo ascended the throne, the Empress showed no attraction to the honors and pleasures of the royal life, but devoted her days to prayer and almsgiving. She fulfilled all the duties of her Imperial station while living a life of austerity whenever out of the world’s sight. Beneath her rich garments she wore coarse haircloth, and kept fasts and vigils as if she were living the monastic life. She was humble and respectful to all, and would address even her servants as ‘Master’ or ‘Mistress.’ At night, after her servants had left her alone, she would leave her fine bed and sleep on a mat on the floor, rising often during the night to pray. After her daughter Eudocia died in 892, she wished to leave the world and enter a monastery, but her spiritual father St Euthymius (August 5) would not give his blessing. Nonetheless, her time in the world was not long: only three years later she died, before she had reached the age of thirty. Immediately after her funeral in the Church of the Holy Apostles, her holy relics became the source of many miracles and healings, and are venerated to this day in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Timothy — 1 Timothy 1.1-7

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Saviour, and Christ Jesus our hope;

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; ²unto Timothy, my true child in faith: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ²Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

³As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine,

³As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, ⁴neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questionings, rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith; so do I now. ⁴Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. ⁵But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned: ⁵Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: ⁶from which things some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking; ⁶From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; ⁷desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm. ⁷Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 9.42-10.1

⁴²And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. ⁴²And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it were better for him if a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. ⁴³And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: ⁴³And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁴Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁴ ⁴⁵And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: ⁴⁵And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. ⁴⁶ ⁴⁶Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁷And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; ⁴⁷And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: ⁴⁸where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁸Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁹For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. ⁴⁹For every one shall be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. ⁵⁰Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another.

¹And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judæa by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

¹And he arose from thence, and cometh into the borders of Judæa and beyond the Jordan: and multitudes come together unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.