Sunday

Matthew 12 32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set[j] a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

Comment from St. Jerome…  “That none should say, I am poor and therefore cannot be hospitable, He takes away even this plea by the instance of a cup of cold water, given with good will. He says cold water, because in hot, poverty and lack of fuel might be pleaded. And whosoever shall give to drink to one of the least of these a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.”

Monday

**Commentary from St. Nicholai’s ‘Prologue’

This the Apostle Paul said. He is that same apostle who said about the Lord Jesus that He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1: 15), and in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2: 9). This is the Lord according to His Essence and according to His internal Nature, but He was made in the likeness of men. Men, whose hearts are hardened like stone and whose minds are darkened, recognize objects around themselves only through their eyes. Such men, in those days, looked with their eyes and saw Jesus as a man. It was not given to them to know anything more about Him than that which their physical eyes saw. Physical man saw Jesus and beheld only the body, but saw neither God nor a perfect and sinless man in that body. Even today, whosoever judges only by that which he sees, denies to Jesus all that he cannot see in other men. No one who judges the Lord with only his eyes can speak the truth about Him. That which the eyes can see of Him is but a small veil, behind which is hidden the eternal mysteries of heaven and the greatest mysteries of time and earth. In order to see that which is hidden in Him, behind the physical veil, one must have spiritual vision. That is the Spirit of God in one’s heart, the Spirit Who draws back the veil and reveals the mysteries.

Tuesday

Conceal your spiritual treasures and do not reveal them unnecessarily. Behold how men conceal and hide their material wealth, and how, when forced to reveal how much they have, they always conceal the greater amount and only reveal the lesser. Very few are they who wish to reveal all that they possess, and fewer still are those who would declare that they have more than they actually possess (and these the world considers  frivolous and mindless). This clearly shows you how you need to conceal your spiritual wealth, that is, your virtues, good works, fasting, vigils and prayers. Why do not the wise children of this world reveal their material wealth? For two reasons: So that neither would thieves hear of it, nor would evil men be provoked to envy. There also exist envious men and jealous thieves in regard to spiritual treasure. They are the spirits of malice. As soon as you reveal your spiritual treasure, they will endeavor to belittle it and to squander it. Just as soon as you reveal it without need— let us say, out of vanity, so as to be praised— they seize it and disparage it. And you, O rich man of spiritual treasure, will imperceptibly and suddenly become a poor man. Many who were spiritually rich, the saints, made themselves out to be fools before the world so that, by appearing foolish, they would conceal their great wisdom and strength within themselves. Abba Isaiah writes: “Those good works that are performed in secret are more pleasing to God.” St. Nilus of Sinai says: “The covered skin of the body is white, but the uncovered skin is parched and black.” So it is with our concealed and our revealed good works.

Wednesday

The apostles endured all to the end and entered into blessed eternity. The saints willingly endured difficulties and sufferings to the end and were glorified in heaven and on earth. The martyrs willingly endured all pains to the end and became the adopted fellow heirs of the Kingdom of Christ. Every founder of a new organization recruits followers for himself with the promise of good fruits and many pleasures, but deliberately remains silent about the hardships and labors that lead to those fruits and pleasures. Our Lord Jesus is the only one Who spoke the whole truth to His followers— both the bitter and the sweet side of the truth. He did not promise fruits without service, glory without suffering, ultimate rest without the thorny path, victory without struggle, pleasure without bitterness, or the Kingdom without tears and self-denial.

Although our Lord enumerated the many difficulties that would befall His followers, in the end He does not abandon them without consolation. He gives meaning to their sufferings and does not leave them in darkness. He says: He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And what that blessing is which awaits those who endure to the end, He Himself has sufficiently revealed. This blessing has been witnessed to even until today and continues to be witnessed to by many saints, who have either appeared in glory to the faithful from the other world or who, while yet in the flesh, were raised in the spirit to a vision of that glory and blessedness which await those who are faithful, elect and persevering.

Thursday

When the forty-two Greek commanders from Ammoria were in the Hagarene prison (see March 6), certain Moslem sages came to counsel them to embrace the faith of Mohammed and thereby receive their freedom. These sages stressed to the Christian commanders the two advantages of Islam over Christianity: first, Mohammed is a more recent prophet than Christ, and second, the Moslems were victorious on all sides over Christianity, by which God clearly points out the truth of their religion. To the first point, the commanders replied: “If two men are debating over a field, and one has many witnesses that the field is his, and the other does not have any witnesses except his own personal testimony, what do you think? Whose field is it?” To this the Hagarenes replied: “Undoubtedly, the field is his who had many witnesses.” To this the commanders replied: “By yourselves you have judged in favor of Christ and against Mohammed, for Christ had with Him the witness of all the prophets and apostles, but Mohammed alone witnesses to himself.” To the second point, the commanders replied: “If you would gauge the truth of a faith by victories in wars, then this would mean that all the idolatrous nations who from time to time have conquered the world, such as the Persians, Greeks, Romans and others, possessed the true faith. This, even you Moslems would never acknowledge. And because you have been victorious over the Christians now, this does not mean that your faith is better, but that our sins are great, because of which God punishes us through you.”

Friday

Brethren, there is one eye that never sleeps. This is the eye of God. There are more eyes in heaven, brethren, than there are stars in the firmament of the heavens. They are the eyes of the angels. No veil or wall or darkness can conceal any secret on earth from these eyes. Everything is revealed and open before the All-seeing God and His holy angels. The man who believes that all the works of man can be hidden becomes a criminal. Thus thought the Jewish elders, who arranged and planned in secrecy their evil plot against Christ the Lord. Secretly they persecuted Him, secretly they judged Him in the darkness of night, and secretly they bribed and paid false witnesses. And, like Judas, they secretly condemned Him. Where are their secrets today? All have been revealed and opened before the entire world. It is easier for man to hide from the air than from the sight of God. All the secrets of mankind, the good and the evil, are revealed before God. A countless number of those secrets God reveals to the entire world according to His providence. Those who can understand this truth, that God sees all and knows all, carefully guard themselves in the depth of their hearts from evil thoughts and especially from evil deeds. Whenever your heart entices you to do evil, O man, call to mind these words which are not of man but of God: There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. And you, whatever good you do in secret, do not become fainthearted. All of your good is written in heaven and will be revealed in its time.

Saturday

… “Everywhere today the disease of disbelief has entered deeply into the minds, and most of all the hearts, of men. Our Orthodoxy, even when it is outwardly still correct, is the poorest, the feeblest Christianity there has ever been And still the voice of the Northern Thebaid calls us—not, it may be, to go to the desert but at least to keep alive the fragrance of the desert in our hearts: to dwell in mind and heart with these angel-like men and women and have them as our truest friends, conversing with them in prayer; to be always aloof from the attachments and passions of this life, even when they center about some institution or leader of the church organization; to be first of all a citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the City on high towards which all our Christian labors are directed, and only secondarily a member of this world below which perishes.” Fr. Seraphim Rose