Daily Readings:
Saints/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Fast of the Nativity
Martyr Barbara & John of Damaskos, Martyr Juliana
Barbara the Great Martyr Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian.
She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build a third window in addition to the two her Father had commanded. She also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the marble as if it had been done with an iron too. (When the Synaxarion of Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were worked there.) When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured Barbara inhumanely, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he beheaded her with his own hands, in the year 290.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Let us honor the holy Barbara for, with the aid of the Cross as her weapon, she crushed the snares of the enemy, and was rescued from them like a bird.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O noble Champion, following God who is reverently praised in Trinity, you abandoned the temples of idols. Struggling amid suffering, O Barbara, you were not overwhelmed by the threats of the tyrants, O brave One, even singing aloud, "I worship the Trinity, the one Godhead."
Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Icon courtesy of St. Isaac's Skete
John the Righteous of Damascus December 4
Reading:
Saint John was born in Damascus about the year 675, the son of wealthy and pious parents, of the family of Mansur. He was reared together with Saint Cosmas (see Oct. 14). who had been adopted by John's father Sergius, a man of high rank in the service of the Caliph of Damascus. Both of these young men were instructed by a certain monk, also named Cosmas, who had been taken captive in Italy by the Arabs and later ransomed by John's Father. Saint John became a great philosopher and enlightener of the age in which he lived, and was honoured by the Caliph with the dignity of counsellor.
When Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741) begin his war on the holy icons, John wrote epistles defending their veneration. Since the Saint, being under the Caliph of Damascus, was beyond Leo's power, the Iconoclast Emperor had a letter forged in John's handwriting which invited Leo to attack Damascus, saying the city guard was then weak; Leo then sent this letter to the Caliph, who in his fury punished John's supposed treason with the severing of his right hand. The Saint obtained the Caliph's Permission to have his severed hand again, and that night prayed fervently to the most holy Theotokos before her icon. She appeared to him in a dream and healed his hand, which, when he awoke, he found to be healed in truth. This Miracle convinced the Caliph of his innocence, and he restored John to his office as counsellor. The Saint, however, with many pleadings obtained his permission to withdraw from the world to become a monk. He assumed the monastic habit in the Monastery of Saint Sabbas. Then he had as elder a very simple and austere monk who commanded him neither to write to anyone, nor to speak of the worldly knowledge he had acquired, and John faithfully obeyed. A monk grieving over his brother's death, however, after insisting vehemently, prevailed upon John to write a funeral hymn to console him for his brother's death. When John's elder learned of his transgression of the rule he had given him, he cast him out of his cell, and would only accept him back after John had humbly, with much self-condemnation and without murmuring consented to clean all the latrines in the lavra. After his elder had received him back, our Lady appeared to the elder and sternly charged him not to hinder John any longer from his writings and composition of hymns.
In his writings he fought courageously against the Iconoclasts Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus. He was also the first to write a refutation of Islam. The time he had spent as a counsellor in the courts of the Moslems of Damascus had given him opportunity to learn their teachings at first hand, and he wrote against their errors with a sound understanding of their essence. Saint John was surnamed Chrysorroas ("Golden-stream") because of the eloquence of his rhetorical style and the great abundance of his writings; this name - Chrysorroas was also the name of the river that flows by Damascus. In his writings he set forth the Orthodox Faith with exactness and order. In his old age, after his foster-brother Cosmas had been made Bishop of Maiuma, John also was ordained presbyter by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Having lived eighty-four years, he reposed in peace in 760. In addition to his theological writings, he adorned the Church of Christ with metrical and prose hymns and composed many of the prosomia used as the models for the melodies of the Church's liturgical chant; he also composed many of the sacred hymns for the feasts of the Lord Saviour and the Theotokos. The life of Saint John of Damascus was written by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem. See also June 28.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise John, you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our souls.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Come, O ye faithful, let us praise the hymn-writer, the Church's luminary and wise instructor, the hallowed John, who cast down all her enemies; for since he took up the Cross of the Lord as a weapon, he drave off the heresies, with their every delusion. And as our fervent champion with God, he granteth all the forgiveness of trespasses.
Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Icon courtesy of St. Isaac's Skete
Juliana the Martyr of Heliopolis Scriptural Readings:
Isaiah 43:9-14 (12/4-12/17) First Vesperal Reading: Martyr Barbara & John of Damaskos
Witnesses: Isaiah 43:9-14 SAAS, especially vs. 10: “‘You are My witnesses, and I Am a witness,’ says the Lord God, ‘and My Servant whom I chose, that you may know and believe, and understand that I Am He. Before Me there was no other God, nor shall there be after Me.” It seems that Nativity scenes in parks and the word ‘Christmas’ in advertisements stir up lobbyists, civil actions, and protests. These contests are symptoms of a deeper social challenge: is the Lord of the Church the ultimate God and King of this world? The present passage discloses that this issue is many ages old, yet it is pertinent for countless decisions that you and I have to make every day as Christians. In the ‘courtroom’ of this world, Truth is on trial; and, as God declares in these verses, “You are My witnesses...” (vs. 12). Read the passage again and notice that this statement of the Lord is repeated twice directly to us: “You are my witnesses...” (vs. 10).
Are you, am I, open to being God’s witness? Consider the role of a witness - to verify a truth under examination. From personal observation or experience, a witness provides evidence for or against a claim (vs. 10). In this case, everyone is a witness for or against the view testified to by the Lord. Christ says it this way: “He who is not with Me is against Me” (Lk. 11:23). Thus, being Christian makes one a better or a worse witness. Also notice that God speaks to us as His Church - “You are My witnesses...”(the word ‘you’ is plural). However, He joins us among His witnesses: “I Am a witness...and My Servant whom I chose” (Is. 43:10).
How serious is the presence and the activity of God in this world versus whomever or whatever may compete for our allegiance, obedience and ‘solution’? “Before Me there was no other God, nor shall there be after Me. I am God...” (vss. 10,11). The God revealed in Jesus Christ gives no ground to competitors in His witness. Ranked in order, His testimony claims that allegiance to Him stands above all created powers, entities, and persons. Currently, truths are adjusted to coddle buyers, to pander to interest groups, or to curry favors of money or power. The effect ignores or qualifies God’s first-rank position. The Lord challenges such testimony: “Let them bring forth their witnesses, and be proven right; and let them speak the truth” (vs. 9).
In the mental health practice many panaceas and pills are offered for sleeplessness, anxiety, tension, nerves. Mostly these treat symptoms and not root causes. The pharmaceutical companies promote their wares on television. What is your witness to the Source of health? Do not discount the counsel, prescriptions, and therapies offered by doctors, yet evaluate your own behavior and choices as a witness of God, reviewing your prayer and daily habits.
National security in the face of ideological and religious claims made for ‘foreign gods’ (vs. 12) is not to be treated by habit. There are believers in gods-who-are-not-God, devotees frantic and fanatic to prove they are right. God challenges them to stand up to His testimony and to the witnesses from His ‘pool,’ the Church (vs. 9). Solutions are complex and elusive in this fallen world; but a Christian starts at the high end knowing that human solutions are ultimately limited. Can science, technology, warcraft, or political treaty ultimately “...deliver out of [God’s] hands...[or] reverse it?”(vs. 13). Not likely, for the Church is spread by martyric blood.
We serve the God Who offers a salvation that is not measured on a temporal scale but on the eternal one. The redemption (vs. 14), the salvation (vs. 12), that God brings is not of this world. The ‘Babylons’ from which He frees us (vs. 14) are sin, evil, Satan, and deaths; these stretch across time up to eternity. In the Lord, you are a witness to the Kingdom of God above all.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Galatians 3:23-29
Galatians 3:23-2923Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Mark 5:24-34
Mark 5:24-34
24So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32He looked all around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
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