Luke 24.12-35 (5th Matins Gospel)

12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

13Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. 14They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. 15While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. 16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”

18One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”

19He said to them, “What things?” They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; 20and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; 23and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24Some of us went to the tomb and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

25He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” 27Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

28They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.

29They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.” He went in to stay with them. 30When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. 31Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight. 32They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” 33They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, 34saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Romans 10.1-10 (Epistle)

1Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. 2For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” 6But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); 7or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” 8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach: 9that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation.

Matthew 8.28-9.1 (Gospel)

28When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way. 29Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them. 31The demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs.”

32He said to them, “Go!” They came out and went into the herd of pigs; and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water. 33Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons. 34Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.

1He entered into a boat and crossed over, and came into his own city.

Greatmartyr Euphemia

St Euphemia is commemorated on September 16; today we commemorate the miracle wrought by her relics during the Fourth Ecumenical Council. After much debate and no progress among the defenders of Orthodoxy and the proponents of the Monophysite heresy, the two parties agreed each to write their different definitions of the Faith in two separate books, and to ask God to show them the truth. They placed the two books in the case containing St Euphemia’s relics, sealed the case, and departed. After three days of constant vigil and supplication, they opened the reliquary in the presence of the Emperor, and found the Monophysite book under the feet of the Saint, and the Orthodox book in her right hand.

Blessed Princess Olga

“Saint Olga, renowned for her wisdom and sobriety, in her youth became the wife of Igor, Great Prince of Kiev, who ruled during the tenth century. After her husband’s death, she herself ruled capably, and was finally moved to accept the Faith of Christ. She travelled to Constantinople to receive Holy Baptism. The Emperor, seeing her outward beauty and inward greatness, asked her to marry him. She said she could not do this before she was baptized; she furthermore asked him to be her Godfather at the font, which he agreed to do. After she was baptized (receiving the name of Helen), the Emperor repeated his proposal of marriage. She answered that now he was her father, through Holy Baptism, and that not even among the heathen was it heard of a man marrying his daughter. Gracefully accepting to be outwitted by her, he sent her back to her land with priests and sacred texts and holy icons. Although her son Svyatoslav remained a pagan, she planted the seed of faith in her grandson Vladimir (see July 15). She reposed in peace in 969.” (Great Horologion)

New Martyrs Nikodemos (1722) and Nektarios (1820)

These two martyrs were unrelated, but their stories are similar. Both were Christians who embraced Islam at an early age under the Turks. Both later repented and, after doing penance, resolved to return to the place of their apostasy and accept martyrdom. Both presented themselves to the Turks, proclaimed their Christian faith, and were beheaded according to Islamic law.

Saint Nikodemos not only embraced Islam, but forced his family to do the same. One of his sons fled to the Holy Mountain and became a monk. The father pursued him there, but was moved to repentance by the holiness of the place and became a monk himself. After three years of penance, he resolved to return home to Albania and embrace his martyrdom.

Saint Nektarios converted to Islam (the Prologue says under duress) at the age of seventeen. When his mother saw him dressed as a Turk, she cried “Get away from me! I do not know you. I bore you as a Christian, not a Turk!” Repenting of his deed he went to the Holy Mountain and became a monk. Like St Nikodemos, he determined after a few years to return home and accept martyrdom for Christ.

St Sophrony of Essex (1993) (June 28 OC)

He was born in Russia in 1896. As a young man, he lived an artist’s life, trying to succeed as a painter while engaging in a wide-ranging spiritual search which included study of the Eastern religions. He fled to Paris during the Russian Revolution. There he rediscovered the Orthodoxy of his childhood and gave his life wholly to repentance and prayer, often spending hours at a time prostrated and weeping on the floor of his Paris apartment. In 1925 he moved to Mt Athos, where he lived as a monk for more than twenty years. On the Holy Mountain he became the spiritual child of the holy elder Silouan. After St Silouan’s repose, his own health badly damaged by living in a damp cave, he was granted permission by his monastery to leave the Holy Mountain and write a life of St Silouan. This is St Silouan of Mt Athos, a great spiritual treasure which includes the writings of the Saint as well as Fr Sophrony’s profound reflections on his life. (It was largely through Fr Sophrony’s work that St Silouan, who lived an almost completely hidden life, was glorified by the Church).

In 1959 Fr Sophrony founded the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, England, where he lived until his repose. He was a spiritual father to Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpakthos, one of present-day Orthodoxy’s most profound spiritual writers, who has said this about him: “I ascertained from almost the first meeting… that Father Sophrony was a Theologian of our Church, a God-seer. I realized, that is, that the Elder had seen the Uncreated Light… I had discerned that he was truly a God-seer, because otherwise his whole life, his whole demeanor, the words he said, the counsels, and in any case his whole personality, could not be justified. He was literally altered by the uncreated Grace of God.” At Essex, he was known as spiritual father to many and (little publicized) as a wonderworker and intercessor. He reposed in peace in 1993. In 2019 He was formally glorified as a Saint of the Church by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Any who wish to drink from the deep well of his teaching can read (in addition to St Silouan) his books On Prayer and We Shall See Him As He Is.

“Any and every dogmatic error will inevitably reflect on one’s spiritual life.” — Elder Sophrony