From antiochan.org, dynamispublications.org, rongolini.com and biblegateway.com:
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, Sixth Day of the Feast of the Encounter of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, Memory of our venerable Father Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsacus (Fourth century), The Venerable Luke of Stirion, in Greece (896-953)
Scriptural Readings:
Saint Mark 12:13-17 (2/7-2/20) Monday of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
God: Comprehensible or Incomprehensible? Saint Mark 12:13-17, especially vss. 14, 15: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” This is the first in a series of reports of the efforts of the Lord Jesus’ enemies to destroy Him (see Mk. 11:18; 12:12-13). His opponents greatly hated Him and formed an unlikely political alliance between the Pharisees (members of a sect of devout Jews) and the Herodians (King Herod and his worldly courtiers). They sought to lure Jesus into treasonous, blasphemous or libelous remarks, indict Him, and get Him executed. They slyly deferred to the sovereignty of God and observed that the Lord did “...not regard the person of men, but [taught] the way of God in truth” (vs. 14). Hence, they asked if God’s people should or should not pay taxes to the idolatrous Roman government.
The question of the Pharisees and Herodians appears to be about Caesar and taxes, but actually it ‘set up’ the Lord Jesus to pit loyalty to God against obedience to government. Christ exposed the deep error of ever making God an alternative to Caesar. Comparing the infinite God to a human ruler is gross over-simplification that distorts the theology of God into manageable concepts - an impossible effort. As Vladimir Lossky learned from Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “...every concept relative to God is a simulacrum, a false likeness, an idol.”
The Pharisees and Herodians were engaging in ‘reductionism’- any attempt to minimize complex reality only obscures or distorts it. As rational creatures, we are incapable of speaking definitively about the essence of God except in negative or superlative statements - uncontainable, incomprehensible, all-wise, almighty. As Saint Gregory the Theologian says, “...to define Him in words is impossible.” God is not some ‘thing’ to be compared to other things, such as governments, because He exists beyond all our thought categories.
We may learn what to return to God only as God reveals Himself and His will. Without His help, God and His will are incomprehensible. On the other hand, it is quite possible to comprehend what a Caesar expects. Emperors mint coins with their own images. They issue decrees “...that all the world should be registered” for taxation (Lk. 2:1). They tax.
The motive behind theological reductionism is the vain attempt to manage God. If one could reduce God to ideas and principles comprehensible by humans, then the essential unknowability of God would be eliminated. Simplistic thinking has ‘god’ conveniently in hand, and uses ‘god’ however it will. The Saints who know the Lord never brook such theology. Isaiah records well God’s response to all men: “But as heaven is distant from earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind” (Is. 55:9).
In his Gospel, Saint Mark discloses the Lord Jesus’ answer to reductionism - a celebration of the incomprehensible majesty of God. Stand with the Prophet Jeremiah and reject the self-serving theologies of those who say: “...These things are not so. Evil will not come upon us...” (Jer. 5:12). True faith always says, “Though the Mighty One should lay hand upon me, and already He has begun, I will speak, and reason before Him” (Job 13:15).
In teaching hope in God, Solomon says: “Gladness continues for the righteous, but the hope of the ungodly perishes” (Pr. 10:29). The wicked do not expect God to interfere, but He frustrates their ways. The Prophet Malachi is frank, “You weary the Lord with your words, yet you say, ‘In what way have we wearied Him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Mal. 2:17). Our ways are not hid from God, “...His understanding is unsearchable” (Is. 40:28).
Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine Only-begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit. Glory to Thee!
1 Peter 2:21-3:9
1 Peter 3:10-22 (King James Version)
10For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
11Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
13And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
14But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
16Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
17For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
The Synaxarion:
February 7
Sixth Day of the Feast of the Encounter of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ
Memory of our venerable Father Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsacus (Fourth century)
The Venerable Luke of Stirion, in Greece (896-953)
Saint Parthenios lived under Emperor Constantine the Great. He was the son of Christodulus, a deacon of the Church of Melitopolis. A simple fisherman berift of all instruction, he was extremely ardent in the practice of virtue. Having acquired some training, he was ordained a priest and periodeuta or visitor by Philetus, the Bishop of Melitopolis. Then, he was consecrated Bishop of Lampsacus by Ascholios, the Metropolitan of Cyzicus. He converted his episcopal city to the Christian faith. He died on February 7, of a year which cannot be exactly determined.
Regarding Saint Luke, he was born and raised in Greece. His grandparents, Stephan and Euphrosina, were natives of the island of Egina. Not wishing to suffer the Arabic incursions any longer, they emigrated to Greece where Saint Luke was born about the summer of 896. "Two monks, returning from Rome, came to the market town where our Saint was born and were received by his mother. Upon seeing them, the desire of leading their kind of life was immediately born in the child's soul. The germ of this sacred passion grew in his heart as in well-prepared ground. As if to accompany his mother's prayers, he withdrew to a mountain in the vicinity named Joannitza where there was a temple of the two holy brothers, Cosmas and Damian. There, he practiced the exercises of ascetic life. He received the Great Habit of monasticism from the hands of two very old monks to whom he had charitably offered hospitality. The two monks proceeded to Rome, apparently charged with a mission in 910. After having spent seven years in the desert of Joannitza, the invasions into Greece of Simeon, the King of the Bulgars, forced him to take refuge in the Peloponnese until the peace settlement between the Byzantines and the Bulgars in 927. He then went to Stirion on Phocida and founded the monastery of Saint Luke, which still exists. After having spent seven years there, he knew the hour of his death and announced it to all. He died in peace on February 7, 953.
Fifth Class Feast.
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, Sixth Day of the Feast of the Encounter of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, Memory of our venerable Father Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsacus (Fourth century), The Venerable Luke of Stirion, in Greece (896-953)
Scriptural Readings:
Saint Mark 12:13-17 (2/7-2/20) Monday of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee
God: Comprehensible or Incomprehensible? Saint Mark 12:13-17, especially vss. 14, 15: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” This is the first in a series of reports of the efforts of the Lord Jesus’ enemies to destroy Him (see Mk. 11:18; 12:12-13). His opponents greatly hated Him and formed an unlikely political alliance between the Pharisees (members of a sect of devout Jews) and the Herodians (King Herod and his worldly courtiers). They sought to lure Jesus into treasonous, blasphemous or libelous remarks, indict Him, and get Him executed. They slyly deferred to the sovereignty of God and observed that the Lord did “...not regard the person of men, but [taught] the way of God in truth” (vs. 14). Hence, they asked if God’s people should or should not pay taxes to the idolatrous Roman government.
The question of the Pharisees and Herodians appears to be about Caesar and taxes, but actually it ‘set up’ the Lord Jesus to pit loyalty to God against obedience to government. Christ exposed the deep error of ever making God an alternative to Caesar. Comparing the infinite God to a human ruler is gross over-simplification that distorts the theology of God into manageable concepts - an impossible effort. As Vladimir Lossky learned from Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “...every concept relative to God is a simulacrum, a false likeness, an idol.”
The Pharisees and Herodians were engaging in ‘reductionism’- any attempt to minimize complex reality only obscures or distorts it. As rational creatures, we are incapable of speaking definitively about the essence of God except in negative or superlative statements - uncontainable, incomprehensible, all-wise, almighty. As Saint Gregory the Theologian says, “...to define Him in words is impossible.” God is not some ‘thing’ to be compared to other things, such as governments, because He exists beyond all our thought categories.
We may learn what to return to God only as God reveals Himself and His will. Without His help, God and His will are incomprehensible. On the other hand, it is quite possible to comprehend what a Caesar expects. Emperors mint coins with their own images. They issue decrees “...that all the world should be registered” for taxation (Lk. 2:1). They tax.
The motive behind theological reductionism is the vain attempt to manage God. If one could reduce God to ideas and principles comprehensible by humans, then the essential unknowability of God would be eliminated. Simplistic thinking has ‘god’ conveniently in hand, and uses ‘god’ however it will. The Saints who know the Lord never brook such theology. Isaiah records well God’s response to all men: “But as heaven is distant from earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind” (Is. 55:9).
In his Gospel, Saint Mark discloses the Lord Jesus’ answer to reductionism - a celebration of the incomprehensible majesty of God. Stand with the Prophet Jeremiah and reject the self-serving theologies of those who say: “...These things are not so. Evil will not come upon us...” (Jer. 5:12). True faith always says, “Though the Mighty One should lay hand upon me, and already He has begun, I will speak, and reason before Him” (Job 13:15).
In teaching hope in God, Solomon says: “Gladness continues for the righteous, but the hope of the ungodly perishes” (Pr. 10:29). The wicked do not expect God to interfere, but He frustrates their ways. The Prophet Malachi is frank, “You weary the Lord with your words, yet you say, ‘In what way have we wearied Him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Mal. 2:17). Our ways are not hid from God, “...His understanding is unsearchable” (Is. 40:28).
Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine Only-begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit. Glory to Thee!
1 Peter 2:21-3:9
1 Peter 3:10-22 (King James Version)
10For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
11Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
13And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
14But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
16Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
17For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
The Synaxarion:
February 7
Sixth Day of the Feast of the Encounter of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ
Memory of our venerable Father Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsacus (Fourth century)
The Venerable Luke of Stirion, in Greece (896-953)
Saint Parthenios lived under Emperor Constantine the Great. He was the son of Christodulus, a deacon of the Church of Melitopolis. A simple fisherman berift of all instruction, he was extremely ardent in the practice of virtue. Having acquired some training, he was ordained a priest and periodeuta or visitor by Philetus, the Bishop of Melitopolis. Then, he was consecrated Bishop of Lampsacus by Ascholios, the Metropolitan of Cyzicus. He converted his episcopal city to the Christian faith. He died on February 7, of a year which cannot be exactly determined.
Regarding Saint Luke, he was born and raised in Greece. His grandparents, Stephan and Euphrosina, were natives of the island of Egina. Not wishing to suffer the Arabic incursions any longer, they emigrated to Greece where Saint Luke was born about the summer of 896. "Two monks, returning from Rome, came to the market town where our Saint was born and were received by his mother. Upon seeing them, the desire of leading their kind of life was immediately born in the child's soul. The germ of this sacred passion grew in his heart as in well-prepared ground. As if to accompany his mother's prayers, he withdrew to a mountain in the vicinity named Joannitza where there was a temple of the two holy brothers, Cosmas and Damian. There, he practiced the exercises of ascetic life. He received the Great Habit of monasticism from the hands of two very old monks to whom he had charitably offered hospitality. The two monks proceeded to Rome, apparently charged with a mission in 910. After having spent seven years in the desert of Joannitza, the invasions into Greece of Simeon, the King of the Bulgars, forced him to take refuge in the Peloponnese until the peace settlement between the Byzantines and the Bulgars in 927. He then went to Stirion on Phocida and founded the monastery of Saint Luke, which still exists. After having spent seven years there, he knew the hour of his death and announced it to all. He died in peace on February 7, 953.
Fifth Class Feast.
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