Orthodox Calendar

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Wednesday of the 2nd week after Pentecost

Apostles Fast — Abstain from meat, fish, dairy, eggs, wine, and oil

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

Romans 4.13-25 (Epistle)

13For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

16For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. 17As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 18Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” 19Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” 23Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

Matthew 7.21-23 (Gospel)

21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ 23Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

Commemorations

Ven. Simeon the Stylite

He was born in Antioch in 522. His father, John, died in an earthquake, leaving him to be raised by his mother Martha. From his earliest childhood he lived a very ascetic life and was under special protection and guidance of St John the Baptist, who often appeared to him. He became a monk as a young man and, after a vision of the Lord, who appeared to him as a handsome youth and filled his heart to overflowing with love for Christ, he ascended onto a pillar, where he stayed for eighteen years, praying and singing psalms. He then went to the mountain called ‘Wonderful’, where he lived alone in a barren place for ten years; he then ascended another pillar, where he remained in extreme hardship for forty-five years. During this time he became known as a wonder-worker and visionary: the Prologue says ‘The measure of his love for God was such that rare grace was given him, by the help of which he was able to heal every sort of illness, tame wild beasts and perceive the most distant regions of the earth and the hearts of men. He was taken out of the body and saw the heavens, conversed with angels, harried the demons, prophesied, spent thirty days at a time without sleep and even longer without food, receiving nourishment at the hands of angels.’ He reposed at the age of 85; seventy-nine years of his life had been spent in asceticism.

Ven. Nikita the Stylite

As a youth, he was heedless and corrupt; but one day he entered a church and heard the words of Isaiah, ‘Wash you, make you clean’ (Is. 1:16). His life changed completely: he left his family and property to enter a monastery near Pereyaslavl, where he took on a life of severe asceticism. He wore chains and (in the words of the Prologue) ‘shut himself up in a pillar’, for which he was called the Stylite. He was granted the gift of healing and by his prayers restored many who came to him, including Michael, Prince of Chernigov, whom he healed of palsy. Some thieves, seeing his chains and thinking that they were made of silver, killed him one night and made off with the chains. Soon afterward, Saint Nikita appeared to an elder named Simeon and told him to put the chains with him in his grave when they were found.

St Vincent of Lerins (445)

He was born in Toul in Gaul (modern-day France); he was the brother of St Lupus, Bishop of Troyes. He served as a soldier, but eventually became a monk at the monastery of Lerins. There he lived out the remainder of his life, and wrote his Commonitorium, an exposition of the true Orthodox faith; it contains the well-know statement that Christians must hold to the Faith that has been believed “everywhere, always, and by all.” He reposed in peace.