Orthodox Calendar

Nov. 17, 2045
Friday of the 25th week after Pentecost

Fast

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

2 Thessalonians 3.6-18 (Epistle)

6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion and not after the tradition which they received from us. 7For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you, 8neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you. 9This was not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us. 10For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: “If anyone is not willing to work, don’t let him eat.” 11For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don’t work at all, but are busybodies. 12Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.

13But you, brothers, don’t be weary in doing what is right. 14If any man doesn’t obey our word in this letter, note that man and have no company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed. 15Don’t count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

16Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.

17I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is the sign in every letter. This is how I write. 18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Luke 12.2-12 (Gospel)

2But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. 3Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

4“I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

6“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God. 7But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

8“I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God; 9but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of God’s angels. 10Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, don’t be anxious how or what you will answer or what you will say; 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say.”

Commemorations

Ven. Joannicus the Great

He was born in Bithynia of peasant stock. He worked as a swineherd, then became an officer in the Imperial army, where he served with such distinction in the war against the Bulgars that the Emperor Constantine VI wanted to take him into his personal service. “But the sight of massacres and horrors of war had brought home to him the vanity of this life. He asked leave of the Emperor to retire from the service, in order to wage unseen warfare in the ranks of the angelic army” (Synaxarion). In the coming years he traveled widely, sometimes living as a hermit, sometimes living in monasteries, more than once founding a monastic community. Wherever he went he lived in stillness, solitude and strict asceticism. He was famed for his spiritual counsel, his prophecies, his many miracles of healing ailments bodily and spiritual, and for his friendship with animals. Once a monk who doubted the Saint’s miracles was eating at table with him when a large bear burst in upon them. Joannicius called the bear and it came and lay at his feet; he then told it to lie at the feet of his frightened guest and said “At their creation, the animals looked with veneration on man, who is made in the image of God, and he had no fear of them. We are afraid of them now because we have transgressed God’s commandments. If we love the Lord Jesus and keep his commandments, no animal will be able to do us any harm.” The monk departed greatly edified.

In the last years of Joannicius’ life, when he was about ninety years old, the Emperor Theophilus sought his counsel on the veneration of icons. The Saint’s answer was pointed: “Whoever refuses due honor to the images of Christ, of the Mother of God and of the Saints, will not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven, even if he has lived an otherwise blameless life.”

Once Joannicius traveled to Constantinople to aid the Patriarch in some matters concerning the order of the Church. When he returned to his hermitage, he found that some jealous monks had set it on fire. Knowing who they were, he nevertheless addressed them kindly and invited them to share with him some food that he had managed to salvage from the fire. He did not attempt to rebuild his hermitage, but, taking the fire as a sign of his impending departure from this life, he traveled to the monastery of Antidion, where he had first entered into the monastic life and there, having predicted the day of his death, he reposed in peace. At the moment of his death, the monks of Mt Olympus saw a pillar of fire ascending from the earth to the sky.

The Saint’s relics have been the source of many miracles. His skull is kept and venerated at the Monastery of the Pantocrator on Mt Athos. The widely-used prayer “My hope is the Father; my refuge is the Son; my shelter is the Holy Spirit; O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee!” is attributed to St Joannicius.