Sunday<\/p>\n
Psalm 19:<\/p>\n
May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May He send you help from His holy place, And may He support you from Zion.\u00a0 May He remember every sacrifice of yours, And may your whole burnt offering be honored. (Pause May He give you according to your heart, May He fulfill all your counsel. We will greatly rejoice in Your salvation, And in the name of our God we will be magnified.\u00a0 Now I know the Lord has saved His anointed; He will hear him from His holy heaven; The salvation of His right hand is mighty. Some glory in chariots, some in horses, But in the name of the Lord our God we shall be magnified.\u00a0 Their feet were tied together; so they fell; But we rose up and were restored.\u00a0 \u00a0O Lord, save Your King, And hear us in the day we call upon You.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Saint Focus: Sts Constantine and his mother Helena are commemorated this week. In old age St. Helena went to the Holy Land on a quest to find the True Cross, which she did. But she also built churches and shrines over many places that were sanctified by the presence and earthly life of Christ that we can still visit today. Some think that old age is a time to do less by St. Helena shows us that it can actually be the start of the most important accomplishments of our life with the Lord’s guidance.<\/p>\n
Prayer:
\nO God, who by the Resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant we beg Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
Monday<\/p>\n
**St. Nikolai’s Prologue this week<\/p>\n
The angel of God asks the myrrh-bearing women, as though in astonishment: Why<\/p>\n
seek ye the living among the dead? As though the perceiver of the mystery of God and God\u2019s power wanted to say: \u201cHow could you have thought for a moment that He is the hostage of death? Do you not know that He is the principal source of life? Do you not know that all life is through Him and that not one living thing can borrow even a drop of life from any other source? Did He not, on earth, reveal to you fully His authority over life and death? Who gave life to the lifeless Lazarus? Who took away the life of the barren fig tree?\u201d O my brethren, let us also cease to look for the living among the dead. If there are some of us who are still seeking Christ among the dead, let them desist from this soul-destroying effort. This is the vain effort of the Jews, pagans and non-Christians. We know that the Lord and Giver of Life is not in the tomb but on the Throne of Glory in the heavens. The spirit not darkened by sin looks up into heaven and does not see the tomb; while the spirit darkened by sin looks into the tomb and does not see heaven. Sin and virtue, at cross purposes with each other, govern the spiritual vision of a man\u2014 each revealing to man its own world. Sin brings the vision of the spirit down to the earth and reveals to it the corruption of the world. Virtue uplifts the spirit to heaven and reveals to it the eternal world, and the resurrected Christ as the King in that world. O my brethren, let us not seek life from creation, but from the Creator. Let us not commit an even graver sin: let us not seek the Creator in the tomb of creation or the Illuminating, Immortal One in the darkness of death.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 Our Father, Who art in the Heavens, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.<\/p>\n
Tuesday<\/p>\n
The Apostle Paul knows in advance the objections that the unbelievers will make concerning the resurrection from the dead, and he rejects them in advance. Even today, the non-believers\u2014 who have not seen with physical eyes the miracle of the resurrection in nature, much less the spiritual resurrection\u2014 ask: \u201cHow will the dead be raised?\u201d Thou fool! continues the apostle, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die (I Corinthians 15: 36). Unless the seed dies in the ground, the plant will not grow; in other words, something totally different from the seed will sprout up. The unbelievers see through their eyes yet do not see, but ask: \u201cHow will a dead man resurrect?\u201d How? In the same way that Christ resurrected. He went down lifeless into the tomb, and rose alive. Even nature manifests resurrection from the dead; but more strongly than nature, it is manifested by the resurrected Lord. In order to make it easier for us to believe and to hope\u2014 to believe in the resurrection in general and to have hope in our own resurrection\u2014 He Himself resurrected from the grave and, prior to that, resurrected Lazarus the four-days-dead, the son of the widow of Nain, and the daughter of Jairus.<\/p>\n
The unbelievers ask: \u201cWith what kind of body will the dead rise?\u201d In whatever kind of body God wills. With God there are many kinds of bodies. The Apostle Paul divides all bodies into two groups: earthly bodies and heavenly bodies. Therefore, they who have died in earthly bodies will be clothed with heavenly bodies: the incorruptible will replace the corruptible; the immortal will replace the mortal; the beautiful will replace the ugly. In the heavenly body, man will also recognize himself and others around him, just as man recognizes himself both when he is clothed in beggar\u2019s rags and when he is clothed in royal purple.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 Holy angel of the Lord by guardian, pray to God for me.<\/p>\n
Wednesday<\/p>\n
It is said about Pericles [Greek hero] that he was a man of almost perfect human beauty except that his head was oblong and resembled a gourd, so that he was subject to ridicule when he appeared bareheaded in public. In order to conceal the defect of this great man of his people, Greek sculptors always portrayed him with a helmet on his head. When some of the pagans knew how to conceal the defects of their friends, how much more, therefore, are we Christians obliged to do the same? Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another (Romans 12: 10), commands the Apostle to<\/p>\n
those who cling to Christ. How can we say that we adhere to the meek and All-pure Christ, if we daily poison the air with tales about the sins and shortcomings of others? To conceal your own virtue and the shortcomings of others\u2014 in this is preeminent spiritual wisdom.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.<\/p>\n
Thursday<\/p>\n
Why does the sower cast wheat upon the ground? Does he do this so that the wheat will die and rot? No, he does this so that it will live and bear fruit. In sowing the seed, the sower does not think about the death and decay of the seed, but rather about its life and yield. Indeed, with joy does the sower sow his seed, not thinking about the death of the seed, but rather about life and fruitfulness. The Sower is Christ the Lord and men are His wheat. He was pleased to call us wheat. There are many other types of seed on earth, but nothing is more precious than wheat. Why did the Lord sow us throughout the world? So that we should die and decay? No, rather that we should live and bring forth fruit. He alludes to our death incidently. He alludes to death only as a condition for life and multiple yield. The goal of sowing is not death but life. The seed must first die and decay, and He mentions this only in passing because He knows we are fully aware of it. He only reminds us incidentally of this, as His Gospel is primarily a narrative of life\u2014 about life and about bringing forth good fruit. He speaks to us a great deal about the latter because He knows we are not aware of it and that we are suffocating from ignorance and doubt. Not only does He speak to us abundantly about life, but He also shows us life. By His Resurrection, He demonstrates to us, more clearly than the sun,\u00a0life and the multitude of fruit. The entire history of His Church is a clear map of life.<\/p>\n
Act of Hope:\u00a0O my God relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. <\/span><\/p>\n Friday<\/p>\n When a man detaches his mind from earth and opens it to God with the desire to please Him, then God reveals His will in various ways. St. Peter of Damascus writes: \u201cIf a man has a full intention to please God, then God teaches him His will either through thoughts, through some other person, or through Holy Scripture.\u201d Such a man becomes attentive and keen, and awaits God\u2019s promptings from within and from without. For him, chance ceases to exist. The whole world becomes as a ten-stringed harp, which does not give out a single sound without the finger of God.<\/p>\n Prayer of St. Patrick\u00a0 (excerpt):\u00a0May the Strength of God guide us. May the Power of God preserve us. Saturday<\/p>\n Brethren, who has dead hope and who has living hope? He who hopes in dead things has a dead hope. He who hopes in the Living God has a living hope. Further, he who hopes in himself and in other people has a dead hope. He who hopes in the Living God has a living hope. Further, he who hopes in luck and well-being in this brief earthly existence, and who does not extend his hope beyond the grave has a dead hope. He who hopes in the resurrection and eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven has a living hope. Truly, a living hope is better than a dead hope; as life is better than death; as light is better than darkness; as health is better than sickness; as understanding is better than<\/p>\n ignorance. But Who brought and showed man that living hope\u2014 Who and how? The Apostle Peter gives an answer to that question: Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His Resurrection from the dead. No one else but the Lord Jesus Christ and by nothing else than by His Resurrection from the dead. By His Resurrection, the Lord gave wings to the pathetic hopes of man and extended those hopes beyond the grave, showing man the goal and purpose and fruit beyond the grave. All of this is confirmed not by a credulous man, but by an apostle who wavered for a long while in his faith and who denied Christ three times. That is why St. Peter\u2019s testimony of the resurrected Lord and the significance of His Resurrection is inexpressibly priceless for us.<\/p>\n St. Paisius Prayer\u00a0 (excerpt)\u00a0Lord have mercy on the nations of the world. Keep them in your embrace and envelope them with your holy protection. Keep them safe from every evil and war. Keep our beloved [nation] in your protective embrace day and night. Embrace her with your holy protection defending her from all evil and war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday Psalm 19: May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May He send you help from His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6641,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions\/6641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMay the Wisdom of God instruct us. May the Hand of God protect us.
\nMay the Way of God direct us. May the Shield of God defend us.
\nMay the Angels of God guard us. – Against the snares of the evil one.
\nMay Christ be with us! May Christ be before us! May Christ be in us, Christ be over all!
\nMay Thy Grace, Lord, Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.<\/p>\n