Romans 5.17-6.2 (Epistle)

17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, 21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

Matthew 9.14-17 (Gospel)

14Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”

15Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made. 17Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Ven. David of Thessalonica

For years he lived the ascetic life in a crude tree- house he had fashioned in the branches of an almond tree. Then he moved to Thessaly, where he continued his life of fasting, prayer and vigil, cleansing his soul and being made worthy to perform many miracles. Once, when the Emperor Justinian visited him, he took a live coal in his bare hand and censed the Emperor. The Emperor, seeing this, bowed to the ground before David. He reposed in peace.

Tikhvin Icon

This icon was once kept in the Church of Blachernae in Constantinople. In 1383, it suddenly appeared in the sky over Lake Ladoga, then travelled through the air to the city of Tikhvin, where it alit by the River Tikhvina. A monastery was built there to house it. In the twentieth century it was brought to America. Innumerable miracles have been worked through this wonderworking icon, especially healings of children.

On this day is also commemorated the Hodigritia Icon of the Mother of God. According to many accounts, this icon and the Tikhvin Icon are one and the same, so we list them together. Hodigritia is translated “Directress” or more literally “She who shows the way.” It was painted by Luke the Evangelist himself, who knew the Mother of God in the flesh. Over the years the icon was taken from Antioch to Jerusalem, then to Constantinople where it was enshrined in the Church of Blachernae. When Constantinople was attacked at the same time by the Persians and the Scythians, Patriarch Sergius carried the holy icon around the ramparts, and the city was miraculously delivered from its pagan enemies. During the iconoclast period, the icon was hidden in a wall in the monastery of the Pantocrator.