8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
2And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
3This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
4One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
5But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him:
6he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
Mark 13.31-14.2 (Gospel)
31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32“But of that day or that hour no one knows—not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
33Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.
34“It is like a man traveling to another country, having left his house and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch.
35Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming—whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;
36lest, coming suddenly, he might find you sleeping.
37What I tell you, I tell all: Watch!”
1It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might seize him by deception and kill him.
2For they said, “Not during the feast, because there might be a riot among the people.”
Commemorations
Unmercenaries Cyrus and John
They are counted among the Unmercenary Physicians. Cyrus was a physician living in Alexandria. A pious Christian, he healed not only bodies but souls, bringing many to Christ, and often healing through prayer rather than the use of his medicines. He often said to his patients, ‘If you want to keep clear of illness, take care not to sin, because more often than not illness is a result of sin.’ When Diocletian’s persecution broke out, Cyrus was denounced to the pagan governor and fled to Arabia, where he became a monk. He gained great renown there by healing many ailments using only the sign of the Cross.
John was a soldier from Edessa who heard of Cyrus’ deeds and, leaving the army, sought him out. They met in Egypt, where John became a monk and Cyrus’ disciple, joining him in the practice of the virtues and in healing illnesses by prayer.
They heard of the arrest of a Christian lady named Athanasia and her daughters Theoctista and Eudoxia. Concerned that the tender maidens might renounce Christ under torture, the two monks sought them out to encourage them in their confession of the Faith. They themselves were captured, and the governor decided to have them tortured in front of the women, assuming that this would break their spirit. Instead, Cyrus and John bore their sufferings so patiently and boldly that the women were only strengthened in their resolve. Seeing that he had failed, the governor had all five of them beheaded. Their bodies were placed in the Church of St Mark in Alexandria.
In the fifth century the relics of Sts Cyrus and John were enshrined in a church at Aboukir near Alexandria by St Cyril (June 9). There they were the source of abundant healings and miracles, and the shrine became one of the greatest places of pilgrimage in the Christian world.
Venerable Nicetas, hermit of the Kiev Caves and Bishop of Novgorod (1108)
His is a remarkable story of spiritual delusion (prelest in Russian) and repentance of delusion. Nicetas was a young and zealous monk of the Lavra of the Kiev Caves who, against the advice of his abbot St Nikon (March 25), retired alone to a cave and walled himself in. Some time later, the young monk experienced a delightful scent filling his cave. Believing himself to be receiving a divine revelation, he cried out ‘Lord, show Thyself to me, that I might worship Thee face to face!’ A voice answered, ‘I am sending you an angel: do whatever he tells you.’ The Devil soon appeared to him as an ‘angel of light’ and Nicetas, completely taken in, prostrated before him. The Devil ordered him to stop praying and to devote all his time to reading and memorizing the Old Testament. Nicetas obeyed without question. After awhile, the Devil began to reveal to him things that were happening in the outside world, so that the young monk acquired a reputation for prophecy among visitors to his cave. When the Elders of the Caves realized that Nicetas never spoke to his visitors or anyone else of the New Testament, they decided that he was beguiled by the Devil. Breaking down the door of his cave, they drove out the deceiver by their prayers and forcibly took the young hermit back to the monastery.
As soon as the evil angel had been driven off, Nicetas became like a young child: he instantly forgot the entire Old Testament (which he had virtually memorized) and even lost the ability to read, so that he had to be sent to school again. Slowly he returned to himself, realized his former delusion and repented in tears. Thereafter he devoted himself to humility and obedience in the monastic community. Such was his repentance and progress in the virtues that he was later made Bishop of Novgorod. He reposed in peace in 1108 and became known for working many miracles, especially healing of blindness.
Marcella of Rome (410)
The daughter of a prominent Roman family, she was given in marriage despite her reluctance, but was widowed after less than a year. Following the example of the prophetess Anna, she dedicated her widowhood to God and turned her fine house in Rome into a monastery, living there in strict asceticism.
“When the Church was riven by controversies about the doctrines of Origen, Saint Marcella kept silent for a while but, deciding at length to take up the cause of Orthodoxy, and maintaining a sweet and gentle manner in the exchanges, she succeeded in confounding the arguments of the heretics.” (Ormylia Synaxarion)
When the Goths invaded and pillaged Rome in 410 they broke into her house. Marcella received them calmly, but when they demanded money she answered that no one as poorly clothed as she was could be expected to have any money. At this the invaders beat her mercilessly despite her great age. She bore their blows without complaint, asking only that they spare her spiritual daughter Principia. Struck to the heart by her response, the barbarians took her and her disciple to the Church of St Paul, where she reposed two days later.