John 10.1-9 (Matins Gospel, St Tikhon)

1“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

7Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door. 8All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture.

Isaiah 65.8-16 (6th Hour)

8Thus says the Lord, As a grape-stone shall be found in the cluster, and they shall say, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for the sake of him that serves me, for his sake I will not destroy them all. 9And I will lead forth the seed that came of Jacob and of Juda, and they shall inherit my holy mountain: and my elect and my servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there. 10And there shall be in the forest folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor shall be for a resting-place of herds for my people, who have sought me. 11But you⌃ are they that have left me, and forget my holy mountain, and prepare a table for the devil, and fill up the drink-offering to Fortune. 12I will deliver you up to the sword, you⌃ shall all fall by slaughter: for I called you, and you⌃ listened not; I spoke, and you⌃ refused to hear; and you⌃ did evil in my sight, and chose the things wherein I delighted not. 13Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you⌃ shall hunger: behold, my servants shall drink, but you⌃ shall thirst: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you⌃ shall be ashamed: 14behold, my servants shall exult with joy, but you⌃ shall cry for the sorrow of your heart, and shall howl for the vexation of your spirit. 15For you⌃ shall leave your name for a loathing to my chosen, and the Lord shall destroy you: but my servants shall be called by a new name, 16which shall be blessed on the earth; for they shall bless the true God: and they that swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God; for they shall forget the former affliction, it shall not come into their mind.

Genesis 46.1-7 (Vespers)

1And Israel departed, he and all that he had, and came to the well of the oath; and he offered sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac. 2And God spoke to Israel in a night vision, saying, Jacob, Jacob; and he said, What is it? 3And he says to him, I am the God of your fathers; fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will make you there a great nation. 4And I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will bring you up at the end; and Joseph shall put his hands on your eyes. 5And Jacob rose up from the well of the oath; and the sons of Israel took up their father, and the baggage, and their wives on the wagons, which Joseph sent to take them. 6And they took up their goods, and all their property, which they had gotten in the land of Chanaan; they came into the land of Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him. 7The sons, and the sons of his sons with him; his daughters, and the daughters of his daughters; and he brought all his seed into Egypt.

Proverbs 23.15-24.5 (Vespers)

15Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart; 16and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right. 17Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day. 18For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed. 19Hear, my son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart. 20Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh: 21for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments. 22Listen, my son, to your father which begot you, and despise not your mother because she is grown old. 24A righteous father brings up his children well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son. 25Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad. 26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. 27For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow. 28For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off. 29Who has woe? who trouble? who has quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who has bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid? 30Are not those of them that stay long at wine? are not those of them that haunt the places where banquets are? Be not drunk with wine; but converse with just men, and converse with them openly. 31For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle. 32But at last such a one stretches himself out as one struck by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent. 33Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things. 34And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm. 35And you shall say, They struck me, and I was not pained; and they mocked me, and I knew it not: when will it be morning, that I may go and seek those with whom I may go in company?

1My son, envy not bad men, nor desire to be with them. 2For their heart meditates falsehoods, and their lips speak mischiefs. 3A house is built by wisdom, and is set up by understanding. 4By discretion the chambers are filled with all precious and excellent wealth. 5A wise man is better than a strong man; and a man who has prudence than a large estate.

Hebrews 7.26-8.2 (Epistle, St Tikhon)

26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.

John 10.9-16 (Gospel, St Tikhon)

9I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture. 10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

Holy Martyr Calliopius, with his mother Theoclea (304)

Calliopius was the only son of a senator from Pamphylia and his wife Theoclea, who had long prayed to God for a child. The devout Theoclea reared her son in purity of life and love for God from infancy. When persecution of Christians broke out under Maximian, Theoclea put Calliopius aboard a ship bound for Pompeiopolis to save him from the persecutors. But Calliopius, as soon as he disembarked, encountered a pagan festival, where he was arrested when he refused to make sacrifice to the idols. Brought before the governor Maximus, he freely confessed that he was a Christian. For this he was cruelly tortured and thrown into prison. His mother, hearing of his torments, sold her goods and hurried to comfort him and encourage him in his martyrdom.

Calliopius was sentenced to death by crucifixion, as it happened on Holy Thursday; but the holy Theoclea bribed the officials to postpone the execution by one day, so that her son might imitate the Lord’s Crucifixion on the day that He endured it; she also prevailed upon the torturers to crucify Calliopius upside-down (like St Peter) in humility toward the Lord. When her son’s lifeless body was taken down from the cross, Theoclea cast herself upon it and died.

St George the Confessor, bishop of Mitylene (ca. 820)

The righteous George was Metropolitan of Mitylene. In his old age, a persecution was unleashed against the Church by the iconoclast Emperor Leo V (the Armenian). To further his plans, the Emperor summoned a Council of bishops which he expected to support his iconoclasm. At the Council, George and some other faithful bishops refused to follow the Emperor’s wishes, and openly stood in defense of the icons. For his stance, George was publicly humiliated, then sent into exile at Cherson on the Black Sea. There, after many years of extreme privation, the holy bishop died. By his prayers many were healed, both during his life and after his repose.

St Nilus (Nil Sorsky), abbot of Sora (1508)

St Nilus established the monastic skete (a community of monks living separately like hermits, but sharing some common life) in Russia. He took one side of a religious controversy that troubled the Russian Church’s life for many years. St Nilus and his disciples claimed that prayer and ascetic struggle are the whole purpose of monastic life, and opposed monastic ownership of property, or involvement in works such as almshouses, hospitals, and orphanages. Joseph, abbot of Volokalamsk, took up the argument on the other side, insisting that the Church and its monks should be involved in good works (and have the means to do those works) as well as in prayer. The two groups became known as the “Possessors” (Joseph’s side) and the “Non-Possessors” (Nilus’ side). Each group had reason to be troubled by the other’s extremes: Monasteries owned huge amounts of land, kept serfs, and were subject to corruption by involvement in finance; at the same time, the Church formed most of the ‘welfare’ system of Russia, and the Non-possessors did not suggest how the poor were to be tended, or orphans cared for, without the monasteries’ charity. Many of the Non-possessors tended toward a non-Russian and almost un-Orthodox puritanism, condemning beautiful churches and icons as diversions from true spirituality.

The Possessors (not surprisingly) were favored by the Tsarist government, and eventually won out. The artificial division of the Church into mystical and practical ‘parties,’ and the victory of one of the parties, led to a period of stagnation in the Russian church that was only corrected two hundred years later, when a great renewal of religious life, characterized by such holy Fathers as St Paisios Velichkovsky and St Seraphim of Sarov, restored the fullness and balance of Orthodox life to the Russian church.

An indication of the fullness of Orthodoxy: the Church has glorified not only St Nilus but his opponent St Joseph of Volokalamsk, who is commemorated on Sept. 9.