February 7translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.
The Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT PARTHENIUS, BISHOP OF LAMPSACUS
Parthenius was the son of a certain deacon from the city of Melitopolis. Even as a child he well remembered the words of the Gospel, and strove to fulfill them. He settled beside a lake where he caught fish, sold them and distributed the proceeds to the poor. By God's providence he was chosen as Bishop of Lampsacus. He cleansed the city from paganism, closed the idolatrous temples, built many churches and established piety. By prayer he healed every illness, and was especially powerful over evil spirits. Once when he wanted to cast out an evil spirit from a certain mad man, the evil spirit begged him not to cast it out. "I will give you another man, whom you can enter and in whom you can dwell," Parthenius said to him. The evil spirit asked: "Who is that man?" "I am that man," the saint answered him, "enter and dwell in me!" Hearing this, the evil spirit fled as if scorched by fire, crying: "How could I enter the house of God?!" Saint Parthenius lived long and showed in deed his abundant love toward God and people. He departed to the eternal rest of Christ in the fourth century.
2. VENERABLE LUKE OF HELLAS
Luke was a native of Kastoria. Even as a child he never wanted to taste meat, and always lived a life of purity and prayer. Once he went to the field with grain seed to sow. But along the way he distributed to the poor the greater part of the seed, and the lesser part, which remained to him, he sowed. God gave that from that little seed a greater harvest was gathered than earlier from all the seed. After this Luke fled from his widowed mother to a monastery. The grieving mother fervently prayed to God that He reveal to her the secret of where her son was. And God heard the mother's prayer. The abbot of that monastery dreamed for three nights in succession that some woman sharply attacked him for having taken her only son. Then the abbot ordered Luke to go immediately to his mother. Luke went, saw his mother, but again withdrew from her, now irrevocably. He lived ascetically on the so-called John's Mountain. By night he prayed to God, and by day he worked in the garden and in the field, not for himself, but for the poor and visitors. He himself fed only on barley bread. God endowed him with the gift of wonderworking. He reposed peacefully in the year 946. From his relics from time to time myrrh flowed.
3. VENERABLE MASTRIDIA
She lived in Jerusalem and practiced strict asceticism. A certain young man looked upon her and began to trouble her. In order to save both herself and that young man from sin, Mastridia took in a basket a little soaked beans and withdrew into the desert. In the desert she spent seventeen years, and for all that time, by God's power, neither did the beans run out nor did her garment wear out. She reposed peacefully around the year 580.
4. ONE THOUSAND AND THREE MARTYRS IN NICOMEDIA
They suffered in the time of Diocletian.
Hymn of Praise
The city of Nicomedia shone like a star, Like the morning star, an eastern capital. But one day, by the will of Duclijan, Four courtiers were beheaded, Eusebius, Vassa, Eutychius the bold And wondrous Basilides, unfaded in glory. They were beheaded for Christ's name And Nicomedia was darkened thereby. Those four heads were not the end of the terror Nor merely the first flowers of the mown grass: A thousand slaves, servants, attendants, Who faithfully served the four martyrs, A thousand as one, and three more besides, As if wine they drank, made an outcry, No, not drunk with wine, but drunk with truth, And blood, and the victory of God's Son. "We too are Christians, impious emperor, We too are Christians, do what you will! And we all wish to go there Where our glorious masters went." Oh wondrous boldness! Oh marvelous faithfulness! But this did not diminish the imperial savagery. And a thousand souls left the earth, Paradise gates opened wide for them.
Reflection
Saint Isidore of Pelusium thus interprets some words of Holy Scripture: Of the two grinding at the mill, one will be taken and the other left (Matthew 24:41) means: many dedicate themselves to the spiritual life but with different intentions: some sincerely and perseveringly, and others weakly and vainly. The former will be taken into God's kingdom, and the latter will be left.
What does the prayer about the Cup mean? And why did the Lord pray that the cup of suffering pass from Him (Matthew 26:42)? It means that no one should seek danger, but when danger comes, the Christian must receive it and endure it courageously.
About the five foolish virgins (Matthew 25) Saint Isidore says: they all indeed kept their virginity, but did not have the other virtues, especially mercy. And virginity alone is not sufficient for entrance into God's kingdom. Virginity does not help if the virgin is proud and selfish.
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus as sower, namely: 1. As sower, whose seed slowly but surely grows; 2. As sower of new teaching, new power and new order; 3. As sower of new spiritual food, by which the human race will be nourished until the end of time.
Homily
on the narrow-hearted, to whom crime is closer than God's love
Ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you (John 8:37)
Why could the word of Christ not find place in the Jewish elders? Because they were completely filled with malice so that in them there was no room for the divine seed, for the divine gospel. Everything that grew in their soul, that was a satanic, antichristian crop. Therefore they also sought to kill Christ. Through the grace-filled Psalmist the Lord says: Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). One must, therefore, first empty oneself of everything God-opposing, that is, of everything that prevents the light of knowledge of God from dwelling in us. When a man empties himself of this, then, and only then, can he understand that God is God. But as long as the human soul is filled with God-opposing thoughts, God-opposing feelings and God-opposing desires, so long can man in general not listen to or receive the word about God. Whoever does not have God in himself, he strives, by some hellish impulse, to uproot God from the soul of him who has Him. Ye seek to kill me. Why? Because not a single divine word of Christ could find shelter or reception in their godless hearts. Having nothing similar to Christ the Lord, the Jewish elders could have from the very beginning no friendly connection with Him.
O Lord Jesus, gentle Savior of ours, help us to empty ourselves of all sinful seed in us, that Thy holy word might dwell in us, and illumine, and strengthen, and resurrect us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.