Sunday
This week from St. Nikolai’s Prologue…

The Wisdom of God is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, through Whom every created thing was created. All that was created manifests its All-wise Creator, both that which is in the fields and that which is in the city. In the fields is pure and bright nature, while in the city is man with his trades and skills. The Wisdom of God cries out—and does not whisper—through all of nature and  through all the beneficial trades and skills of man. She has covered all the fields; she has filled the entire city; she is above the earth and under the earth, in the starry firmament and in the depths of the seas. He who wants to hear her can hear her in every place; he who wants to learn from her and be delighted by her can be taught and delighted in every place; he who wants to be corrected and built up by her can be corrected and built up by her in every place. Thus the Wisdom of God is clear and evident in all created things in the world from its very beginning. But the Wisdom of God is clearer and more evident in the prophets and in other men of God who were made worthy to approach her outside created nature. Through their mouths, the Wisdom of God has been proclaimed in the fields, in the cities, on the streets of the cities, and at the doors of men. But the Wisdom of God is most audible and most clear in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God was manifested in the flesh and demonstrated to men in Its miraculous power and beauty. This Wisdom of God does not speak through things or through men, but speaks of Itself and from Itself alone, personally and directly. By His wisdom the Lord has filled the entire world through His Holy Church, so that it can be said that today, just as twenty centuries ago…

 

Prayer:  O my God I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. (Act of Faith)

Monday

Oh, if only we could enter into the mystery of God’s providence in the lives of men! We would be filled with fear and trembling before every evil deed and before every sin of men. I understood understood Thy works, O Lord, and I was afraid (Habakkuk 3:2). In certain great events, the mystery of God’s providence is obvious even to less spiritual men, for example, in the fate of the Crown Prince Dimitri  of Russia and the bloodthirsty and power-loving Boris Godunov. In order to arrive at the first place among the noblemen in the court of Tsar Theodore, Godunov poisoned many of the nobles. When he reached the position of being closest to the tsar, he even planned to poison the brother of the tsar, the eight-year-old Dimitri. On several occasions, through hired mercenaries, he administered the most bitter poison to the young crown prince, but the poison had no effect. Providence permitted the criminal to murder his victim, not secretly and quietly, but publicly. Godunov dispatched murderers who slew the crown prince publicly in the middle of the day. Thus did Dimitri become a public martyr and Godunov a public criminal for all of Russia. After that, a certain Dimitri surfaced and proclaimed that he was the crown prince (as though he were the rightful Crown Prince Dimitri and someone else had been murdered) and set out with an army against Godunov. He defeated Godunov and drove him to such despair that he prepared poison and took the poison himself. He who poisoned others poisoned himself! He who murdered the innocent Dimitri was himself defeated by a man with the name of Dimitri! He who has spiritual eyes to see, let him see the mystery of God’s providence.

 

Prayer:  Having risen from sleep I hasten to Thee, O Lord, Lover of men, and by Thy loving-kindness I strive to do Thy work, and I pray to Thee:  help me at all times, in everything, and deliver me from every evil thing of the world and every attack of the devil, and lead me into Thine eternal Kingdom. For Thou art my Creator, the Giver and Provider of everything good, and all my hope is in Thee, and to Thee I send up glory, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.  Amen.
*Prayer for the next day’s morning

Tuesday

fools? The peace of simpletons is physical peace, and the prosperity of fools is physical feasting. King Herod wanted such peace, and he was devoured by worms; Jezebel wanted such prosperity, and dogs consumed her. By what name would we call a man who, in deciding to build a house, thinks that he will set the roof in the air first and afterward erect walls and then lay the foundation of the house? We would call him a simpleton and a fool. Much the same are all those who are attempting to establish peace in the world without inward peace, and to establish outward prosperity for men without inward prosperity. The Christian Faith is the only one that builds from the foundation, and the foundation is Christ, a firm and indestructible rock. Thus the Christian Faith builds the peace and prosperity of men on Christ. A blessed and joyful inward peace is built on Christ the Lord, and on this peace outward peace is built. So also is true and lasting prosperity. It is still better to say that true peace and true prosperity are like a well-built house, and outward peace and prosperity are like the external adornments of the house. If the adornments fall, the house will stand; but if the house is destroyed, will the adornments then hang in the air? O my brethren, the Christian teaching is the only sensible teaching about peace and prosperity. All else is madness and foolishness. For how could the servants build a mansion on the estate of the Master without permission of the Master and without His help?

 

Prayer:  Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
*Salve Regina

Wednesday

It is a horrible thing to kill a man. There are no words to describe the horror which lays hold of the murderer. While a man is preparing to kill another man, he thinks that killing a man is the same as killing an ox. When he carries out his preconceived crime, then, all at once, he realizes that he has declared war on heaven and earth, and that he has become exiled and cut off from both heaven and earth. The victim does not give him peace either day or night. A known criminal came to Zosimas on Sinai and begged him to tonsure him a monk. Zosimas clothed him in the monastic habit and sent him to the Monastery of the Venerable Dorotheus near Gaza, to lead a life of asceticism in the cenobium. After nine years the tonsured criminal returned to St. Zosimas, returned his monastic habit, and sought his secular clothes. To the question as to why he was doing this, the criminal replied that for nine years he had fervently prayed to God, fasted, kept vigil, and fulfilled all acts of obedience, and that he felt many of his sins had been forgiven, but that one of his sins tormented him continually. He had once killed an innocent child, and that child was appearing to him day and night and asking him: “Why did you kill me?” Because of this he had decided to leave and to turn himself in to the authorities, that they might execute him and thus  repay blood for blood. Dressing in his former clothes, he went to the town of Diospolis, where he acknowledged his crime and was beheaded. Thus, by his blood, he washed away his bloody sin.

 

Prayer:  Queen of Heaven rejoice, alleluia: For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia, Has risen as He said, alleluia. Pray for us to God, alleluia. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray : O 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. Amen.
*Regina Coeli

Thursday

If all the mountains moved toward you, would you be able to push them back with your hands? You would not. If the great darkness of all the mysteries in the heavens and on the earth rushed upon the small candle of your understanding, would you, with your understanding, be able to illuminate the darkness? Even less! Do not rely on your understanding, for the greater portion of the perishable matter which you call intellect is nothing more than dead ashes. O man, do not rely on your understanding, for it is a road over which a mob rushes—a hungry, thirsty, motley and curious mob of sensual impressions. O man, trust in the Lord with all your heart. In Him is understanding without end and all-seeing. The Lord says: I am understanding; Mine is strength (Proverbs 8:14). He looks upon the paths on which your blood flows and on all the crossroads on which your thoughts wander. With compassion and love He offers Himself to you as a Leader, and you rely on your darkened and perishable understanding. Where was your understanding before your birth? Where was your understanding when your body was taking form, when your heart began to beat and flow with blood, when your eyes began to open, and when your voice began to issue from your throat? Whose understanding was all this while your mind was still sleeping as coal in a coal mine? Even from the time your understanding awoke, can you enumerate all the illusions that it has delivered to you, all the lies in which it has entangled you, all the dangers that it did not foresee? O my brother, trust only in the Lord with all your heart! He has rescued you numerous times from your own understanding, from its illusions and lies, and from the danger into which it has pushed you. Like a blind man compared to a man who can see, so is your understanding compared to the understanding of God. O blind one, trust in the Leader. O brother, trust only in the Lord with all your heart.

 

Prayer:  The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.   And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.

Friday

Do not ever violate the fast on Wednesday and Friday. This fast is commanded by the Church and is well founded. If you have ever in your life violated this fast, pray to God that He forgive you, and sin no more. Pious men do not consider themselves exempt from this fast when traveling, or even in sickness. St. Pachomius met some men carrying a corpse and he saw two angels in the funeral procession. He prayed to God to reveal to him the mystery of the presence of the angels at the burial of this man. What good did this man do that the holy angels of God accompanied him in procession to the grave? According to God’s providence, both angels approached Pachomius and explained this to him: “One of us is the angel of Wednesday and the other is the angel of Friday. Seeing how this man always, even until death, fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, we are honorably accompanying his body. As he kept the fast until death, so are we glorifying him.”

Prayer:   Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that, we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord.

Saturday

The Lord does not deny you that which you need; neither should you deny the man whom the Lord has sent to you in order to test your heart. If a beggar extends his hand to you for help once in your life, give to him and do not refuse. Remember how many years there are in your life and how many hours in a day and how many minutes in an hour—every minute of so many, many thousands of days you extend your hand to the Lord, and the Lord gives and does not refuse. Remember the mercy of God, and your lack of mercy will burn you as a live coal, and it will never give you any peace until you repent and soften your heart. Do not ever say: “These beggars annoy me!” So many millions of men live on earth, and all are beggars before the Lord; emperors as well as laborers, the wealthy as well as servants, all are beggars before the Lord. And the Lord never says: “These beggars annoy me!” O man, give thanks to God that someone seeks something good from you, be it material or spiritual! This means that you are a man of God’s trust: God has entrusted some of His goods to you, for all goods belong to God. Show yourself worthy of this trust; show yourself worthy in lesser things so that you may be entrusted with greater things.

 

Prayer:  May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.