Sunday

Romans 6:8 –   Brethren  So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Saint Focus: on Friday we focus on St. Herman of Alaska who lived on Spruce Island, Alaska, in the 19th century. There are many things that we can learn from him, one of which is the importance of time alone with God: “How do you manage to live alone in the forest, Father Herman? Don’t you ever become lonesome?” He answered, “No I am not there alone! God is here, as God is everywhere. The Holy Angels are there. With whom is it better to talk, with people, or with Angels? Most certainly with Angels.”

Prayer:  With the Saints, give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no sighing, but life everlasting.
*Kontakion of the Departed

Monday
*Practical Commentary

[Judg. 6–8; 13–16]

SO long as that generation of the Israelites lived who had eaten of the manna in the desert, and who had seen the wonders of the Lord wrought for them, both in the wilderness and in the taking of Chanaan, they did not depart from the way of the Lord; but their children, having intermarried with the pagan nations around them, contrary to the express command of God, began to adore the idols which their wives worshipped. Then the Lord delivered them into the hands of their enemies.

They afterwards repented and turned again to the Lord their God. In this manner, falling into idolatry and returning again to the worship of the true God, they went on for several generations. Whenever they humbled themselves before God, and showed signs of true repentance, the Lord hastened to their relief. From time to time He raised up among them brave and pious men, who smote the enemy with a strong hand. These men were called Judges. Amongst them were Barac, Jephte, Samson—who was famous for his great strength—and the pious Samuel.

But the most renowned of all the Judges was Gedeon, the son of a common Israelite, who lived at the time when God had delivered the children of Israel into the hands of the Madianites on account of their sins.

The Lord sent an angel to Gedeon, as he was threshing and winnowing wheat at his father’s house. The angel said to him: “The Lord is with thee, O most valiant of men. Go in this thy strength, and thou shalt deliver Israel out of the hands of the Madianites.” Gedeon asked how he could deliver Israel, seeing that his family was the lowest in the tribe of Manasses, and that he himself was the least in his father’s house. The angel assured him that God would be with him, and that the Madianites should be cut off to a man.

Soon after this the Madianites crossed the Jordan with a large army, and encamped in the valley of Jezrael. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gedeon, and he sounded the trumpet, and calling together the Israelites, formed an army of thirty-two thousand men and drew them up in battle array. Before commencing the attack Gedeon said to God: “If Thou wilt save Israel by my hand, I will put this fleece of wool on the floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground beside, I shall know that by my hand, as Thou hast said, Thou wilt deliver Israel.” And it was so. The next day he asked God that the fleece might be dry and the ground wet with dew. And God did as Gedeon requested.

But the Lord spoke to Gedeon and told him that his army was too great, and that the Madianites should not thus be delivered into his hands, lest the children of Israel should glory, and say that they conquered by their own strength.

And the Lord commanded Gedeon to speak to the people and proclaim in the hearing of all that whosoever was fearsome or timorous should return home. And the army hearing this, twenty-two thousand men retired from the field, leaving only ten thousand to meet the enemy. The Lord spoke again to Gedeon, telling him that there were still too many soldiers. “Bring them to the waters”, He said, “and there I will try them.”

Prayer:  O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.

Continued tomorrow

Tuesday

He then told Gedeon to observe how the men would drink when they came to the water. “They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves; but they that shall drink, bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side.” The number of those who had lapped the water from the hollow of their hand, in order to save time, was three hundred men; all the rest of the multitude had knelt down to drink at their ease.

Gedeon kept with him only the three hundred who drank the water from the hollow of their hand: the rest he sent to their homes. He then divided the three hundred men into three companies, and gave them trumpets in their hands, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said to them: “What you shall see me do, do you the same; I will go into one part of the camp, and do you as I shall do.”

Gedeon and the three hundred men who were with him approached the enemy’s camp at the midnight-watch, and entering in, began to sound their trumpets and to strike the pitchers one against the other, dazzling the bewildered enemy with the sudden light of the concealed lamps. At the same time the Israelites cried out with a loud voice: “The sword of the Lord and of Gedeon.”

The sudden alarm and the fierce attack of Gedeon’s men threw the Madianites into such confusion that they turned their swords against each other and fled in all directions. Then all the tribes of Israel, seeing that victory was on their side, rose up and pursued the Madianites, cutting off their retreat on every side, so that of the whole army of one hundred and thirty-five thousand men, only fifteen thousand returned alive to their own country. Israel had peace for forty years.

 Prayer:  Holy angel of the Lord by guardian, pray to God for me.

Wednesday
Commentary on Gideon

Prayer obtains help in time of need. When neither life nor property was safe, and the Israelites were hunted from their homes, they turned to God and cried for help. And God heard their prayer and raised up Gedeon to be the saviour of his people.

Gedeon was humble of heart. He considered himself to be the lowest of the low, and did not trust to his own skill or strength, but only in God’s help. As soon as the twofold miracle of the fleece had convinced him that God was favourable to the Israelites, and had chosen him to save them, he confidently attacked the overwhelming host of the enemy with a mere handful of fighting men, and put it to flight. God exalteth the humble. “He that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”, says our Lord. Gedeon considered himself to be small and weak, but he did great things by the help of God. “The weak things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the strong, that no flesh should glory in His sight” (1 Cor. 1:27).

The 300 might easily have felt disheartened, and might have said: “How can we conquer an enemy who outnumbers us by four hundred and fifty to one!” But they trusted in God’s help, followed the example of their valiant leader, and thus gained a glorious victory, in spite of overwhelming odds against them. We too, in our fight against the enemies of our salvation, ought not to lose courage, but should trust in God and say with the holy apostle: “I can do all things in Him, who strengthened me” (Phil. 4:13).

Prayer:  Our Father, Who art in  Heaven, 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Thursday

The Israelites fell again into idolatry, and were persecuted by the Philistines. But an angel appeared to the wife of Manue, of the tribe of Dan, and said: “Thou shalt bear a son; no razor shall touch his head, for he shall be a Nazarite of God from his infancy, and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” When the child was born, he was called Samson.

Going to the city of the Philistines, he met a young lion; but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he tore the lion to pieces. Being delivered into the hands of the Philistines, he tore the cords with which he was bound, and finding the jaw-bone of an ass, he slew with it a thousand men. Remaining over night in Gaza, the Philistines bolted the gates of the city to prevent his escape. But Samson arose at midnight, took the gates with their posts and bolts, and carried them to the top of a hill.

Dalila, a Philistine woman, after many pleadings, extracted from him the secret of his strength. “The razor hath never come upon my head, for I am a Nazarite: that is to say, consecrated to God. If my head be shaven my strength will depart, and I shall be like other men.” During his sleep Dalila cut off his hair, called the Philistines, who captured him, put out his eyes, and cast him into prison. Some time after, a great feast was celebrated in honour of the idol Dagon (Fig. 39), when more than three thousand Philistines were assembled in the house. Blind Samson, whose hair had grown again, was brought out that he might amuse them by feats of his strength. He told the boy who led him to bring him to the pillars upon which the whole house rested. Then he prayed: “O Lord God, remember me and restore to me my former strength.” Then grasping the pillars, he shook them so strongly that the whole house rocked and fell upon himself and all the people. In this manner he killed many more enemies of God at his death than he had killed during life.

Commentary: Samson, from his youth up, led an austere life, consecrated to God. He was a soldier of God, a hero of the faith, and a saviour of his people, as long as he remained true to his holy state and corresponded with grace; but when he formed a friendship with a heathen woman, and by so doing forsook God, he in his turn was forsaken by God, and fell into the hands of his enemies, who oppressed and degraded him, and made him a slave. Thus it is with those Christians, consecrated to God by Baptism, who yet obey their sinful passions and separate themselves from God by mortal sin. There falls on them the sleep of spiritual sloth, they are bound with the bonds of sin, they lose all their strength, i. e. the grace of God, they become spiritually blind, and fall into the slavery of sin and bad habits.

Prayer:  O Lord, our God, in Thy goodness and love for men forgive me all the sins I have committed today in word, deed or thought. Grant me peaceful and undisturbed sleep. Send Thy Guardian Angel to guard and protect me from all evil. For Thou art the guardian of our souls and bodies, and to Thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
*(Evening Prayer and Confession of Sins)

Friday

[Ruth 1–4]

IN the days when the Judges ruled in Israel there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, with his wife and two sons, went to sojourn in the land of Moab. His name was Elimelech and his wife’s Noemi. After having lived many years in Moab Elimelech died, and his two sons, who had taken wives from amongst the daughters of Moab, also died ten years after their father’s death.

Noemi being now left alone, and full of sorrow for the loss of her husband and two sons, arose to return to her own country. Her two daughters-in-law, Orpha and Ruth, went forth with her. As they journeyed on towards the land of Juda, Noemi spoke to Orpha and Ruth: “Go ye home to your mothers. The Lord deal mercifully with you as you have dealt with the dead and me.” And she kissed them. But they lifted up their voice and wept, and said: “We will go on with thee to thy people.”

Noemi answered: “Do not so, my daughters; for I am grieved the more for your distress; and the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.” Then Orpha kissed her mother-in-law and returned. Ruth, however, would not depart. Noemi spoke again: “Behold, thy kinswoman is returned to her people; go thou with her.”

Thereupon Ruth replied: “Be not against me, for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go, and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. The land that shall receive thee dying, in the same will I die, and there will I be buried.” Then Noemi, seeing that Ruth was steadfast, would not urge her any more to return to her friends.

So they journeyed on together, and came to Bethlehem, where the report was quickly spread, and the women said: “This is that Noemi.”

It was the beginning of the barley-harvest, and Ruth asked Noemi: “If thou wilt, I will go into the fields and glean the ears of corn that escape the hands of the reapers.” And Noemi said: “Go, my daughter.” Now it so happened that the field in which Ruth went to glean belonged to a kinsman of Elimelech, named Booz, who was very rich. And behold, Booz came out to see the reapers, and said: “The Lord be with you.” They answered: “The Lord bless thee.”

Prayer:  Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Saturday
Continued…

And having observed Ruth gleaning in the barley-field (Fig. 40), he asked the overseer: “Whose maid is this?” The overseer replied: “This is Ruth who came with Noemi from the land of Moab; and she desires leave to glean the ears of corn that remain, following the steps of the reapers. She hath been in the field from morning till now, and hath not gone home for a moment.”

Then Booz addressed Ruth very kindly, and said: “Hear me, daughter: Keep with my maids and follow where they reap. I have charged my young men not to molest thee, and if thou art thirsty, go to the vessels and drink of the waters whereof the servants drink, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.” Full of gratitude for these kind words, Ruth bent down before Booz, and asked how it came that she, a woman of another country, should find favour in his sight.

Booz told her that all she had done for her mother-in-law since the death of her husband had been related to him. He prayed: “Mayest thou receive a full reward of the Lord, under whose wings thou art fled.” He then privately told the reapers: “Let fall some of your handfuls of purpose, that she may gather them without shame.” She gleaned therefore in the field till evening, and then beat out with a rod what she had gleaned, which was an ephi: that is three bushels. Grateful for the kindness shown her, she returned to her mother-in-law, carrying with her the barley she had threshed, and the leavings of the meal that had been given her. Noemi was astonished and asked: “Where hast thou gleaned to-day, and what hast thou wrought? Blessed be he that hath had pity on thee.” Ruth told the man’s name, that he was called Booz.

Next day she returned to the field of Booz and continued to glean after the reapers, till all the barley was laid up in the barns. Some time after Booz said to Ruth: “My daughter, all the people that dwell within the gates of my city know that thou art a virtuous woman.” So he married her. Then the ancients came and said to Booz: “May this woman be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may she have a famous name in Bethlehem.” The Lord blessed their union and gave them a son whom they called Obed. Then Noemi, full of joy, taking the child, laid it in her bosom; and she carried it and was a nurse to it. Now Obed was the father of Isai, whose son was David, of whose race Christ was born.

Commentary:

Noemi left her home only from necessity, and kept her faith untarnished in the midst of a heathen society; and as soon as the famine was over, she returned to her own country and fellow-believers. She unselfishly allowed her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab, and asked God to bless them: she did not wish them to share her poverty or help to support her. There is one point to which I wish to draw your attention, as it might not strike you of yourselves. By her living faith, her real piety and sincere love, in a word, by her good example, Noemi converted her daughter-in-law Ruth to the true faith, so that the latter was able to say: “Thy God is my God.” Oh, if only all [Christians]  would act as she did; if they would only act up to their holy faith and practise the virtues which it teaches, then the whole world would be convinced of the truth and excellence of the Faith! Our Divine Lord said: “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.