From antiochan.org, dynamispublications.org, rongolini.com and biblegateway.com:
Daily and Festal Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: Feast of the Venerable Euthymios the Great
Scriptural Readings:
Saint Mark 9:10-16 (1/20-2/2) Gospel for Thursday of the Thirtieth Week after Pentecost
New Ground: Saint Mark 9:10-16, especially vs. 10: “So they kept [His] word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.” Being a Christian, you and I are placed in the learning curve called ‘discipleship,’ which is illustrated in this passage from Saint Mark. All through the Lord Jesus’ time with His first Disciples, He introduced amazing, new revelations for them to absorb, digest, and apply concerning Himself - all for the good of all men. Those disciples were led into the heart of the ineffable Mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4) - the True Faith.
The Lord firmly established the basics of the True Faith for all men in the hearts of His future Apostles, a Gospel He was and is accomplishing. Only God could achieve what the Lord Jesus did in the three brief years with those ‘most wise fishermen.’ We now know that the fulfillment of His work was carried on through the Twelve, and, in turn, through those who were formed around them and by them, by the working the Holy Spirit to break new spiritual ground.
Subsequently, the Fathers of the Church refined the statement of the Apostles’ message with greater and finer precision, but with no substantial change to the basic Apostolic Message, defeating a series of substantive threats against the Truth Faith. Assaults came not merely from false thinking, but worse, from heretics obsessed by delusions and wrong practices.
The flow of the Gospel of Mark, from its beginning through Saint Peter’s confession (vss. 1:1-8:29) reached a divide created by the introduction of a dominating, new theme - the Passion of the Lord Jesus. Actually, the new theme from the divide at Mk. 8:31 includes the message of Resurrection as well. The Disciples received not just a new, strenuous Gospel, but the full, ineffable, triumphant, and hope-filled word of ‘rising from the dead.’
Like the rest of the Lord’s teachings, Resurrection provides a substantial, new and powerful ground for living faith in Christ. The introduction of Resurrection completed the Lord’s three-pronged revelation of Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, the wonder of the Gospel of the glorious “...mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men...” (Eph. 3:4-5). Do not simply read what the disciples learned. Indeed, enter into ‘the learning curve’ of Apostolic faith, above all applying the Gospel truths in all of life.
First, celebrate the Incarnation that infuses the Passion of the Lord Jesus in the flesh and of His bodily Resurrection with saving power for mankind. Precisely because Christ took every aspect of humanity on Himself, you and I have a firm ground for hoping that our entire nature will be restored, body, soul, and spirit. The Fathers upheld the Apostolic truth that God the Word became Man, so that men could become by grace all that God is by nature.
Therefore, as the Lord Jesus prompted the first Disciples to question the meaning of ‘rising from the dead,’ He likewise is urging us to consider all that may be accomplished in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. As He gave the Apostles a mandate to become deified, be sure that His mandate extends to us as well. It under girds our daily struggle toward theosis.
The Resurrection and Incarnation also connect us to the saving message of the Cross and Passion. As Saint Paul said, “...we preach Christ crucified...to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23,24). The message that God “...made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21), not only affirms our suffering, but also, more importantly, empowers our faith to “...walk in newness of life.’ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:4,5).
...Death hath been spoiled. Christ God is risen, granting the world Great Mercy.
Saint Luke 6:17-23 (1/20-2/2) Gospel for the Feast of the Venerable Euthymios the Great
The Disciple Mindset: Saint Luke 6:17-23 NKJ, especially vs.17, 19, 20: “And He [Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people....And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: Blessed are you....” Although there was a large crowd on hand that came to hear the Lord, to be healed by Him, and possibly to follow Him, He specifically “...lifted up His eyes toward His disciples” (Lk. 6:20) and publicly outlined how we who are united to Him may attain the blessedness of discipleship (vss. 6:20-23). He outlines a blessed mindset toward material goods, the physical appetites, a relationship with God, and status in society. He states this mindset as four Blessed attitudes or ‘Beatitudes.’ As a disciple, compare these four beatitudes to your mindset.
The first is “Blessed are the poor” (the literal translation of vs. 20). Most translators note that the Lord Jesus aimed His teaching “...toward His disciples...” (vs. 20). Therefore, they render the line, “Blessed are you poor” (vs. 20 NKJ, RSV, KJV). Still, poverty, in itself, is not God’s intention for His People (Dt. 8:7-9). Our attitude toward material goods is what is blessed or cursed - our mindset toward wealth, poverty, portfolios, empty pockets, possessions and their lack. Disciples who are blessed, as Saint Cyril of Alexandria states, are “...such as care not for wealth, and are superior to covetousness, and despisers of base gifts, and of a disposition free from the love of money, and who set no value upon the ostentatious display of riches.” Both the materially poor and wealthy may or may not have the disciple mindset of God’s Kingdom.
Second, the Lord Jesus teaches, “Blessed are you who hunger now” (vs. 21). Follow Saint Cyril and ask, “Who will God bless for restraining bodily indulgence?” The Apostles teach us to fast “...for those who persecute you....abstain from fleshly and bodily desires. If someone hits you on your right cheek turn the other to him also.” Nikitas Stithatos says, if your mind hungers for what is Divine, your desire becomes “...a weapon of righteousness wielded solely against the hissing serpent that would persuade [you] to indulge in fleshly pleasure.”
A third aspect of the Disciple mindset is to ‘weep now’ (vs. 21). In what sense? Saint Cyril notes that weeping is “...common to all without exception, whether believers or unbelievers. The Lord calls us, as Disciples, to a special sort of weeping which Saint Ambrose also encourages: “Purify yourself with your tears. Wash yourself with mourning....One who is a sinner weeps for himself and rebukes himself, that he may become righteous, for just people accuse themselves of sin.” The unique mindset of the Disciple, in the words of Saint John of Sinai, is to know “...that He Who has called us, has called us here to mourn for ourselves.”
The fourth dimension of the Disciple mindset is to commit the heart to Christ as King and God and thus, “...rejoice...and leap for joy” (vs. 23) “...when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake” (vs. 22). Sin is rampant in the world, so that being hated, excluded, reviled and thought of as evil comes effortlessly. Let us be sure that we labor “...for the Son of Man’s sake” (vs. 22), and not for anything else. Let us not be hated because we deserve it for our misdeeds. Answer Saint Isaac of Syria: “Do you now wish to follow in the footsteps of the saints? Do you want to travel by some special path of your own, one that does not involve suffering? For this path of God has been trodden from all the ages and through all generations by means of the cross and death.”
O Christ Savior, grant that I may have that mind which Thou didst reveal, when Thou humbledst Thyself and wast poor and hungry and wept and wast hated and excluded as evil.
Hebrews 13:17-21
Hebrews 13:17-21 (King James Version)
17Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
18Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
19But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 6:17-23
Luke 6:17-23 (King James Version)
17And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
18And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.
19And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
21Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
The Synaxarion:
January 20
Memory of our venerable Father Euthymius the Great (377-473)
Saint Euthymius was born in 377, in Melitene, Armenia, under Emperor Gratian (367-383). Baptized when three years old, he was ordained a lector by Eutroius, Bishop of Melitene. He was ordained to the priesthood when he was nineteen years old, in 395, and was named Exarch of the monasteries. He went to Jerusalem in 405-406. In 411, he withdrew to the grotto of Saint Theoktistos. By his virtue, he contended so nobly with the Saracens that, day by day, he disposed them to adhere to Christ and to be baptized with their families, in 420-421. He fought the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the Manicheans. In 455-456, he brought back to the true faith, Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius the Younger, who had fallen into the Monophysite heresy. He performed numerous miracles. One day while celebrating the Divine Liturgy he appeared as a column of fire. He died at the grand old age of ninety-seven, during the reign of Emperor Leo the Great, on January 20, 473.
Third Class Feast, follow the general order of a Third Class Feast.
Daily and Festal Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: Feast of the Venerable Euthymios the Great
Scriptural Readings:
Saint Mark 9:10-16 (1/20-2/2) Gospel for Thursday of the Thirtieth Week after Pentecost
New Ground: Saint Mark 9:10-16, especially vs. 10: “So they kept [His] word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.” Being a Christian, you and I are placed in the learning curve called ‘discipleship,’ which is illustrated in this passage from Saint Mark. All through the Lord Jesus’ time with His first Disciples, He introduced amazing, new revelations for them to absorb, digest, and apply concerning Himself - all for the good of all men. Those disciples were led into the heart of the ineffable Mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4) - the True Faith.
The Lord firmly established the basics of the True Faith for all men in the hearts of His future Apostles, a Gospel He was and is accomplishing. Only God could achieve what the Lord Jesus did in the three brief years with those ‘most wise fishermen.’ We now know that the fulfillment of His work was carried on through the Twelve, and, in turn, through those who were formed around them and by them, by the working the Holy Spirit to break new spiritual ground.
Subsequently, the Fathers of the Church refined the statement of the Apostles’ message with greater and finer precision, but with no substantial change to the basic Apostolic Message, defeating a series of substantive threats against the Truth Faith. Assaults came not merely from false thinking, but worse, from heretics obsessed by delusions and wrong practices.
The flow of the Gospel of Mark, from its beginning through Saint Peter’s confession (vss. 1:1-8:29) reached a divide created by the introduction of a dominating, new theme - the Passion of the Lord Jesus. Actually, the new theme from the divide at Mk. 8:31 includes the message of Resurrection as well. The Disciples received not just a new, strenuous Gospel, but the full, ineffable, triumphant, and hope-filled word of ‘rising from the dead.’
Like the rest of the Lord’s teachings, Resurrection provides a substantial, new and powerful ground for living faith in Christ. The introduction of Resurrection completed the Lord’s three-pronged revelation of Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, the wonder of the Gospel of the glorious “...mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men...” (Eph. 3:4-5). Do not simply read what the disciples learned. Indeed, enter into ‘the learning curve’ of Apostolic faith, above all applying the Gospel truths in all of life.
First, celebrate the Incarnation that infuses the Passion of the Lord Jesus in the flesh and of His bodily Resurrection with saving power for mankind. Precisely because Christ took every aspect of humanity on Himself, you and I have a firm ground for hoping that our entire nature will be restored, body, soul, and spirit. The Fathers upheld the Apostolic truth that God the Word became Man, so that men could become by grace all that God is by nature.
Therefore, as the Lord Jesus prompted the first Disciples to question the meaning of ‘rising from the dead,’ He likewise is urging us to consider all that may be accomplished in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. As He gave the Apostles a mandate to become deified, be sure that His mandate extends to us as well. It under girds our daily struggle toward theosis.
The Resurrection and Incarnation also connect us to the saving message of the Cross and Passion. As Saint Paul said, “...we preach Christ crucified...to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23,24). The message that God “...made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21), not only affirms our suffering, but also, more importantly, empowers our faith to “...walk in newness of life.’ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:4,5).
...Death hath been spoiled. Christ God is risen, granting the world Great Mercy.
Saint Luke 6:17-23 (1/20-2/2) Gospel for the Feast of the Venerable Euthymios the Great
The Disciple Mindset: Saint Luke 6:17-23 NKJ, especially vs.17, 19, 20: “And He [Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people....And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: Blessed are you....” Although there was a large crowd on hand that came to hear the Lord, to be healed by Him, and possibly to follow Him, He specifically “...lifted up His eyes toward His disciples” (Lk. 6:20) and publicly outlined how we who are united to Him may attain the blessedness of discipleship (vss. 6:20-23). He outlines a blessed mindset toward material goods, the physical appetites, a relationship with God, and status in society. He states this mindset as four Blessed attitudes or ‘Beatitudes.’ As a disciple, compare these four beatitudes to your mindset.
The first is “Blessed are the poor” (the literal translation of vs. 20). Most translators note that the Lord Jesus aimed His teaching “...toward His disciples...” (vs. 20). Therefore, they render the line, “Blessed are you poor” (vs. 20 NKJ, RSV, KJV). Still, poverty, in itself, is not God’s intention for His People (Dt. 8:7-9). Our attitude toward material goods is what is blessed or cursed - our mindset toward wealth, poverty, portfolios, empty pockets, possessions and their lack. Disciples who are blessed, as Saint Cyril of Alexandria states, are “...such as care not for wealth, and are superior to covetousness, and despisers of base gifts, and of a disposition free from the love of money, and who set no value upon the ostentatious display of riches.” Both the materially poor and wealthy may or may not have the disciple mindset of God’s Kingdom.
Second, the Lord Jesus teaches, “Blessed are you who hunger now” (vs. 21). Follow Saint Cyril and ask, “Who will God bless for restraining bodily indulgence?” The Apostles teach us to fast “...for those who persecute you....abstain from fleshly and bodily desires. If someone hits you on your right cheek turn the other to him also.” Nikitas Stithatos says, if your mind hungers for what is Divine, your desire becomes “...a weapon of righteousness wielded solely against the hissing serpent that would persuade [you] to indulge in fleshly pleasure.”
A third aspect of the Disciple mindset is to ‘weep now’ (vs. 21). In what sense? Saint Cyril notes that weeping is “...common to all without exception, whether believers or unbelievers. The Lord calls us, as Disciples, to a special sort of weeping which Saint Ambrose also encourages: “Purify yourself with your tears. Wash yourself with mourning....One who is a sinner weeps for himself and rebukes himself, that he may become righteous, for just people accuse themselves of sin.” The unique mindset of the Disciple, in the words of Saint John of Sinai, is to know “...that He Who has called us, has called us here to mourn for ourselves.”
The fourth dimension of the Disciple mindset is to commit the heart to Christ as King and God and thus, “...rejoice...and leap for joy” (vs. 23) “...when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake” (vs. 22). Sin is rampant in the world, so that being hated, excluded, reviled and thought of as evil comes effortlessly. Let us be sure that we labor “...for the Son of Man’s sake” (vs. 22), and not for anything else. Let us not be hated because we deserve it for our misdeeds. Answer Saint Isaac of Syria: “Do you now wish to follow in the footsteps of the saints? Do you want to travel by some special path of your own, one that does not involve suffering? For this path of God has been trodden from all the ages and through all generations by means of the cross and death.”
O Christ Savior, grant that I may have that mind which Thou didst reveal, when Thou humbledst Thyself and wast poor and hungry and wept and wast hated and excluded as evil.
Hebrews 13:17-21
Hebrews 13:17-21 (King James Version)
17Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
18Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
19But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 6:17-23
Luke 6:17-23 (King James Version)
17And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
18And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.
19And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
21Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
The Synaxarion:
January 20
Memory of our venerable Father Euthymius the Great (377-473)
Saint Euthymius was born in 377, in Melitene, Armenia, under Emperor Gratian (367-383). Baptized when three years old, he was ordained a lector by Eutroius, Bishop of Melitene. He was ordained to the priesthood when he was nineteen years old, in 395, and was named Exarch of the monasteries. He went to Jerusalem in 405-406. In 411, he withdrew to the grotto of Saint Theoktistos. By his virtue, he contended so nobly with the Saracens that, day by day, he disposed them to adhere to Christ and to be baptized with their families, in 420-421. He fought the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the Manicheans. In 455-456, he brought back to the true faith, Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius the Younger, who had fallen into the Monophysite heresy. He performed numerous miracles. One day while celebrating the Divine Liturgy he appeared as a column of fire. He died at the grand old age of ninety-seven, during the reign of Emperor Leo the Great, on January 20, 473.
Third Class Feast, follow the general order of a Third Class Feast.
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