Orthodox Calendar

Tuesday, February 10, 2032
Tuesday of the 37th week after Pentecost

No Fast

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

James 3.1-10 (Epistle)

1Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 2For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also. 3Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 4Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 5So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. 7For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; 8but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God. 10Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

2 Timothy 2.1-10 (Epistle, St. Haralambos)

1You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. 5Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he isn’t crowned unless he has competed by the rules. 6The farmer who labors must be the first to get a share of the crops. 7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News, 9in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained. 10Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Mark 11.11-23 (Gospel)

11Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

12The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. 13Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14Jesus told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” and his disciples heard it.

15They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. 16He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple. 17He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers!”

18The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.

19When evening came, he went out of the city. 20As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. 21Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.”

22Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says.

John 15.17-16.2 (Gospel, St. Haralambos)

17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another. 18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me, hates my Father also. 24If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. 25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. 27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

1“I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Commemorations

Hieromartyr Haralambos

“This great saint was bishop in Magnesia, and suffered for Christ at the age of 113. When a violent persecution broke out under the Emperor Septimus Severus, the aged Charalampus did not hide from his persecutors, but freely and openly preached the Christian faith. He endured all tortures as though not in the body, and when they flayed the living flesh from him, the godly saint said to the Emperor’s soldiers: ‘Thank you, my brethren, for scraping off the old body and renewing my soul for new and eternal life.’ He performed many wonders and brought many to the Faith. Even the Emperor’s daughter, Gallina, repudiated the paganism of her father and became a Christian. Condemned to death and led to the place of execution, St Charalampus raised his arms to heaven and prayed for all men, that God would give them bodily health and salvation of soul, and that He would grant them the fruits of the earth in abundance: ‘Lord, Thou knowest that men are flesh and blood; forgive them their sins and pour out Thy blessing on all.’ After praying thus, the saintly elder gave his soul to God before the executioner had laid his sword to his neck. He suffered in 202. Gallina took his body and buried it.” (Prologue)

The Great Horologion puts his age at 103.

St Scholastica of Italy, sister of St Benedict (543)

She was the twin sister of St Benedict, patriarch of monasticism in the West (March 14), and his constant fellow-laborer in the vineyard of Christ. They lived in neighboring monasteries; though they loved one another dearly, they met only once a year, spending the day in prayer and spiritual conversation, then parting after sharing a simple meal. At their meeting in 543, she prevailed on her brother (and the monk who accompanied him) to break his own monastic rule and stay with her in vigil through the night. Three days later, as Benedict looked out his cell window, he saw his sister’s soul in the form of a dove ascending to heaven.

Recommended: The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica, a beautifully illustrated children’s book about the two Saints; by Kathleen Norris, illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

Our Venerable Father Prochorus of the Kiev Caves (1107)

“A wonder-worker of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, he was named the Orach-eater because the whole time he lived in the monastery, he never tasted bread but fed himself on orach [a kind of wild spinach] prepared according to his own particular method as a sort of bread. When he gave someone some of this bread with his blessing, it was as sweet as honey, but if someone stole some, it was as bitter as wormwood.

“At one time, when there was a dearth of salt in Russia, Prochorus distributed ashes to the people for salt. The ashes that he distributed with his blessing became salt; ashes, however, that anyone took for himself remained ordinary ashes. Prince Svyatopolk ordered that all the ashes from Prochorus’ cell be brought to the court without his permission, let alone his blessing. When the ashes were brought there, it was obvious to everyone that they were ashes and not salt. Then Prochorus told all the people who came to him for salt to go to the prince’s court, and, when the prince threw the ashes away, to take them and use them as salt. This they did, and the ashes again became salt. The prince himself, learning of this, was filled with a deep respect and love for him and, when Prochorus died in 1107, placed him with his own hands in a grave near the great Russian saints, Antony and Theodosius.” (Prologue).