John 10.1-9 (Matins Gospel, St Tikhon)

1Zaista, zaista vam kažem: ko ne ulazi na vrata u tor ovèij nego prelazi na drugom mjestu on je lupež i hajduk; 2A koji ulazi na vrata jest pastir ovcama: 3Njemu vratar otvora, i ovce glas njegov slušaju, i svoje ovce zove po imenu, i izgoni ih; 4I kad svoje ovce istjera, ide pred njima, i ovce idu za njim, jer poznaju glas njegov. 5A za tuðinom neæe da idu, nego bježe od njega, jer ne poznaju glasa tuðega. 6Ovu prièu kaza im Isus, ali oni ne razumješe šta to bijaše što im kaza. 7Tada im reèe Isus opet: zaista, zaista vam kažem: ja sam vrata k ovcama. 8Svi koliko ih god doðe prije mene lupeži su i hajduci; ali ih ovce ne poslušaše. 9Ja sam vrata; ko uðe kroza me spašæe se, i uæi æe i iziæi æe, i pašu æe naæi.

Isaiah 48.17-49.4 (6th Hour)

17Ovako veli Gospod, izbavitelj tvoj, svetac Izrailjev: ja sam Gospod Bog tvoj koji te uèim da bi napredovao, vodim te putem kojim treba da ideš. 18O, da si pazio na zapovjesti moje! mir bi tvoj bio kao rijeka, i pravda tvoja kao valovi morski; 19I sjemena bi tvojega bilo kao pijeska, i poroda utrobe tvoje kao zrna njegovijeh; ime se njihovo ne bi zatrlo ni istrijebilo ispred mene. 20Izidite iz Vavilona, bježite od Haldejaca; glasno pjevajuæi objavljujte, kazujte, razglašujte do krajeva zemaljskih; recite: izbavi Gospod slugu svojega Jakova. 21Neæe ožednjeti kad ih povede preko pustinje; vodu iz stijene toèiæe im, jer æe rascijepiti kamen i poteæi æe voda. 22Nema mira bezbožnicima, veli Gospod.

1Poslušajte me, ostrva, i pazite, narodi daljni. Gospod me pozva od utrobe; od utrobe matere moje pomenu ime moje. 2I uèinio je usta moja da su kao oštar maè, u sjenu ruke svoje sakri me; uèinio me je sjajnom strijelom, i u tulu svojem sakri me. 3I reèe mi: ti si sluga moj, u Izrailju æu se tobom proslaviti. 4A ja rekoh: uzalud se trudih, uzalud i naprazno potroših silu svoju; ali opet sud je moj u Gospoda i posao moj u Boga mojega.

Genesis 27.1-41 (Vespers)

1Kad Isak ostarje i oèi mu potamnješe, te ne viðaše, dozva Isava starijega sina svojega, i reèe mu: sine! A on odgovori: evo me. 2Tada reèe: evo ostario sam, ne znam kad æu umrijeti; 3Uzmi oružje svoje, tul i luk, i izidi u planinu, te mi ulovi lova; 4I zgotovi mi jelo po mojoj volji, i donesi mi da jedem, pa da te blagoslovi duša moja dok nijesam umro. 5A Reveka èu šta Isak reèe sinu svojemu Isavu. I Isav otide u planinu da ulovi lova i donese. 6A Reveka reèe Jakovu sinu svojemu govoreæi: gle, èuh oca tvojega gdje besjedi s Isavom bratom tvojim i reèe: 7Donesi mi lova, i zgotovi jelo da jedem, pa da te blagoslovim pred Gospodom dok nijesam umro. 8Nego sada, sine, poslušaj me što æu ti kazati. 9Idi sada k stadu i donesi dva dobra jareta, da zgotovim ocu tvojemu jelo od njih, kako rado jede. 10Pa æeš unijeti ocu da jede i da te blagoslovi dok nije umro. 11A Jakov reèe Reveci materi svojoj: ali je Isav brat moj rutav, a ja sam gladak; 12Može me opipati otac, pa æe se osjetiti da sam ga htio prevariti, te æu navuæi na se prokletstvo mjesto blagoslova. 13A mati mu reèe: neka prokletstvo tvoje, sine, padne na mene; samo me poslušaj, i idi i donesi mi. 14Tada otišav uze i donese materi svojoj; a mati njegova zgotovi jelo kako jeðaše rado otac njegov. 15Pa onda uze Reveka najljepše haljine starijega sina svojega, koje bijahu u nje kod kuæe, i obuèe Jakova mlaðega sina svojega. 16I jareæim kožicama obloži mu ruke i vrat gdje bješe gladak. 17I dade Jakovu sinu svojemu u ruke jelo i hljeb što zgotovi. 18A on uðe k ocu svojemu i reèe: oèe. A on odgovori: evo me; koji si ti, sine? 19I Jakov reèe ocu svojemu: ja, Isav tvoj prvenac; uèinio sam kako si mi rekao; digni se, posadi se da jedeš lova mojega, pa da me blagoslovi duša tvoja. 20A Isak reèe sinu svojemu: kad brže naðe, sine? A on reèe: Gospod Bog tvoj dade, te izaðe preda me. 21Tada reèe Isak Jakovu: hodi bliže, sine, da te opipam jesi li sin moj Isav ili ne. 22I pristupi Jakov k Isaku ocu svojemu, a on ga opipa, pa reèe: glas je Jakovljev, ali ruke su Isavove. 23I ne pozna ga, jer mu ruke bjehu kao u Isava brata njegova rutave; zato ga blagoslovi; 24I reèe mu: jesi li ti sin moj Isav? A on odgovori: ja sam. 25Tada reèe: a ti daj sine, da jedem lova tvojega, pa da te blagoslovi duša moja. I dade mu, te jede; pa mu donese i vina, te pi. 26Potom Isak otac njegov reèe mu: hodi, sine, cjeluj me. 27I on pristupi i cjeliva ga; a Isak osjeti miris od haljina njegovijeh, i blagoslovi ga govoreæi: gle, miris sina mojega kao miris od polja koje blagoslovi Gospod. 28Bog ti dao rose nebeske, i dobre zemlje i pšenice i vina izobila! 29Narodi ti služili i plemena ti se klanjala! Bio gospodar braæi svojoj i klanjali ti se sinovi matere tvoje! Proklet bio koji tebe usproklinje a blagosloven koji tebe uzblagosilja! 30A kad Isak blagoslovi Jakova, i Jakov otide ispred Isaka oca svojega, u taj èas doðe Isav brat njegov iz lova. 31Pa zgotovi i on jelo i unese ocu svojemu, i reèe mu: ustani, oèe, da jedeš što ti je sin ulovio, pa da me blagoslovi duša tvoja. 32A Isak otac njegov reèe mu: ko si ti? A on reèe: ja, sin tvoj, prvenac tvoj, Isav. 33Tada se prepade Isak, i reèe: ko? da gdje je onaj koji ulovi i donese mi lova, i od svega jedoh prije nego ti doðe, i blagoslovih ga? on æe i ostati blagosloven. 34A kad èu Isav rijeèi oca svojega, vrište iza glasa i ožalosti se veoma, i reèe ocu svojemu: blagoslovi i mene, oèe. 35A on mu reèe: doðe brat tvoj s prijevarom, i odnese tvoj blagoslov. 36A Isav reèe: pravo je što mu je ime Jakov, jer me veæ drugom prevari. Prvenaštvo mi uze, pa eto sada mi uze i blagoslov. Potom reèe: nijesi li i meni ostavio blagoslov? 37A Isak odgovori, i reèe Isavu: eto sam ga postavio tebi za gospodara; i svu braæu njegovu dadoh mu da mu budu sluge; pšenicom i vinom ukrijepih ga; pa šta bih sada tebi uèinio, sine? 38A Isav reèe ocu svojemu: eda li je samo jedan blagoslov u tebe, oèe? blagoslovi i mene, oèe. I stade iza glasa plakati Isav. 39A Isak otac njegov odgovarajuæi reèe mu: evo, stan æe ti biti na rodnoj zemlji i rosi nebeskoj ozgo. 40Ali æeš živjeti od maèa svojega, i bratu æeš svojemu služiti; ali æe doæi vrijeme, te æeš pošto se naplaèeš skršiti jaram njegov s vrata svojega. 41I Isav omrze ljuto na Jakova radi blagoslova, kojim ga blagoslovi otac, i govoraše u srcu svojem: blizu su žalosni dani oca mojega, tada æu ubiti Jakova brata svojega.

Proverbs 19.16-25 (Vespers)

16Ko drži zapovijesti, èuva dušu svoju; a ko ne mari za putove svoje, poginuæe. 17Gospodu pozaima ko poklanja siromahu, i platiæe mu za dobro njegovo. 18Karaj sina svojega dokle ima nadanja, i na pogibao njegovu da ne prašta duša tvoja. 19Velik gnjev pokazuj kad praštaš kar, i kad oprostiš, poslije veæma pokaraj. 20Slušaj svjet i primaj nastavu, da poslije budeš mudar. 21Mnogo ima misli u srcu èovjeèijem, ali što Gospod naumi ono æe ostati. 22Želja èovjeku treba da je da èini milost, a bolji je siromah nego laža. 23Strah je Gospodnji na život; u koga je on, boravi sit, niti ga pohodi zlo. 24Ljenivac krije ruku svoju u njedra, ni k ustima svojim ne prinosi je. 25Udri potsmjevaèa da ludi omudra, i razumnoga nakaraj da razumije nauku.

Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Vespers, St Tikhon)

Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3 (Vespers, St Tikhon)

Wisdom of Solomon 4.7-15 (Vespers, St Tikhon)

Hebrews 7.26-8.2 (Epistle, St Tikhon)

26Jer takov nama trebaše poglavar sveštenièki: svet, bezazlen, èist, odvojen od grješnika, i koji je bio više nebesa; 27Kojemu nije potrebno svaki dan, kao sveštenicima, najprije za svoje grijehe žrtve prinositi, a potom za narodne, jer on ovo uèini jednom, kad sebe prinese. 28Jer zakon postavlja ljude za sveštenike koji imaju slabost; a rijeè zakletve koja je reèena po zakonu, postavi sina vavijek savršena.

1A ovo je glava od toga što govorimo: imamo takovoga poglavara sveštenièkoga koji sjede s desne strane prijestola velièine na nebesima; 2Koji je sluga svetinjama i istinitoj skiniji, koju naèini Gospod, a ne èovjek.

John 10.9-16 (Gospel, St Tikhon)

9Ja sam vrata; ko uðe kroza me spašæe se, i uæi æe i iziæi æe, i pašu æe naæi. 10Lupež ne dolazi ni za što drugo nego da ukrade i ubije i pogubi; ja doðoh da imaju život i izobilje. 11Ja sam pastir dobri; pastir dobri dušu svoju polaže za ovce, 12A najamnik, koji nije pastir, kome nijesu ovce svoje, vidi vuka gdje ide, i ostavlja ovce, i bježi: i vuk razgrabi ovce i raspudi ih; 13A najamnik bježi, jer je najamnik i ne mari za ovce. 14Ja sam pastir dobri i znam svoje, i moje mene znaju. 15Kao što mene zna otac i ja znam oca; i dušu svoju polažem za ovce. 16I druge ovce imam koje nijesu iz ovoga tora, i one mi valja dovesti; i èuæe glas moj, i biæe jedno stado i jedan pastir.

Holy Martyr Calliopius, with his mother Theoclea (304)

Calliopius was the only son of a senator from Pamphylia and his wife Theoclea, who had long prayed to God for a child. The devout Theoclea reared her son in purity of life and love for God from infancy. When persecution of Christians broke out under Maximian, Theoclea put Calliopius aboard a ship bound for Pompeiopolis to save him from the persecutors. But Calliopius, as soon as he disembarked, encountered a pagan festival, where he was arrested when he refused to make sacrifice to the idols. Brought before the governor Maximus, he freely confessed that he was a Christian. For this he was cruelly tortured and thrown into prison. His mother, hearing of his torments, sold her goods and hurried to comfort him and encourage him in his martyrdom.

Calliopius was sentenced to death by crucifixion, as it happened on Holy Thursday; but the holy Theoclea bribed the officials to postpone the execution by one day, so that her son might imitate the Lord’s Crucifixion on the day that He endured it; she also prevailed upon the torturers to crucify Calliopius upside-down (like St Peter) in humility toward the Lord. When her son’s lifeless body was taken down from the cross, Theoclea cast herself upon it and died.

St George the Confessor, bishop of Mitylene (ca. 820)

The righteous George was Metropolitan of Mitylene. In his old age, a persecution was unleashed against the Church by the iconoclast Emperor Leo V (the Armenian). To further his plans, the Emperor summoned a Council of bishops which he expected to support his iconoclasm. At the Council, George and some other faithful bishops refused to follow the Emperor’s wishes, and openly stood in defense of the icons. For his stance, George was publicly humiliated, then sent into exile at Cherson on the Black Sea. There, after many years of extreme privation, the holy bishop died. By his prayers many were healed, both during his life and after his repose.

St Nilus (Nil Sorsky), abbot of Sora (1508)

St Nilus established the monastic skete (a community of monks living separately like hermits, but sharing some common life) in Russia. He took one side of a religious controversy that troubled the Russian Church’s life for many years. St Nilus and his disciples claimed that prayer and ascetic struggle are the whole purpose of monastic life, and opposed monastic ownership of property, or involvement in works such as almshouses, hospitals, and orphanages. Joseph, abbot of Volokalamsk, took up the argument on the other side, insisting that the Church and its monks should be involved in good works (and have the means to do those works) as well as in prayer. The two groups became known as the “Possessors” (Joseph’s side) and the “Non-Possessors” (Nilus’ side). Each group had reason to be troubled by the other’s extremes: Monasteries owned huge amounts of land, kept serfs, and were subject to corruption by involvement in finance; at the same time, the Church formed most of the ‘welfare’ system of Russia, and the Non-possessors did not suggest how the poor were to be tended, or orphans cared for, without the monasteries’ charity. Many of the Non-possessors tended toward a non-Russian and almost un-Orthodox puritanism, condemning beautiful churches and icons as diversions from true spirituality.

The Possessors (not surprisingly) were favored by the Tsarist government, and eventually won out. The artificial division of the Church into mystical and practical ‘parties,’ and the victory of one of the parties, led to a period of stagnation in the Russian church that was only corrected two hundred years later, when a great renewal of religious life, characterized by such holy Fathers as St Paisios Velichkovsky and St Seraphim of Sarov, restored the fullness and balance of Orthodox life to the Russian church.

An indication of the fullness of Orthodoxy: the Church has glorified not only St Nilus but his opponent St Joseph of Volokalamsk, who is commemorated on Sept. 9.

Saint Savvas the New of Kalymnos (1948) (March 25 OC)

He was born in Thrace to a poor family. Early in life he desired to become a monk and, failing to get his parents’ consent, left secretly for Mt Athos. After several years there, he traveled to Palestine, where he entered the Monastery of St George the Chozebite. In 1903 he was ordained to the priesthood. From 1907–1916 he lived in severe asceticism as a hermit on the banks of the Jordan. After living in several monasteries in Greece, he served with St Nektarios of Aegina for the last year of the Saint’s life (he reposed in 1920). After six more years on Aegina, Fr Savvas moved to the island of Kalymnos, where he spent the remainder of his life. He lived in quietness and asceticism, acquiring a reputation throughout the island as a confessor and spiritual father. He slept only a few hours each night, and gave away any money that came to him the same day, since he believed that it was wrong for a monk to have money in his cell after nightfall.

Saint Savvas reposed on the Old Calendar feast of the Annunciation in 1948. Innumerable miracles and healings have been wrought through his intercession. A striking example occurred in 1957: A group of young islanders were talking about the Saint, and one of them, who doubted his sanctity, said ‘If this lamp breaks I’ll believe.’ At that moment the lamp shattered spontaneously.

The following account is from Mother Nectaria McLees’ Evlogeite! A pilgrim’s guide to Greece: ‘His last words of counsel to his nuns were, “…love… is the bond of perfection,” and to the abbess he said, “Love, love, love (Agapa, agapa, agapa).” Then he clapped his hands six times, saying “The Lord, the Lord, the Lord…”

‘In 1957 his relics were uncovered in the presence of Metropolitan Isidoros of Kalymnos, who described them as “the bones being perfectly joined, and the vestments intact.” When the sepulchre was opened a divine and otherworldly fragrance covered the area, even to the outskirts of town far below. In 1961, an iconographer of the Skete of Kapsokalyvia on Mount Athos painted an icon of St. Savvas at Abbess Philothei’s request. The icon arrived by ferry, and as it was being transferred from the post office to the customs house where the nuns would pick it up, the convent bell began ringing by itself and continued until the icon was brought to the monastery.’

St Justin (Popovic) of Chelije in Serbia (1979) (March 25 OC)

He was born on the Feast of the Annunciation 1894, in Vranje, South Serbia, to a family whose seven previous generations had been headed by priests (Popovich means ‘family or son of a priest’ in Serbian). He began reading the scriptures at a young age, and as an adult carried a New Testament with him, reading three chapters every day. He studied at the Seminary of St Sava in Belgrade while St Nikolai Velimirovic (March 18) was on the faculty. In 1914, Blagoje (as he was called before his tonsure) completed the nine-year seminary program. He desired to become a monk, but postponed entry into the monastic ranks due to the outbreak of war and the poor health of his parents. He spent the war caring for his parents and serving as a student nurse.

In 1915 he was tonsured a monk under the name Justin, after St Justin the Philosopher. Shortly thereafter he traveled to Petrograd to study at the seminary; there he acquired a deep, first-hand knowledge of the Russian ascetical tradition and a lifelong love of Russian spirituality, especially that of the common people. He then attended Oxford University from 1916 to 1919, writing a doctoral dissertation which was rejected. After a brief return to Belgrade, he entered the Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Athens. As in Russia, he used his time there not merely to study but to drink in the Orthodox spirituality of the Greek people. He was ordained to the diaconate while in Greece, then to the priesthood after returning to Belgrade in 1922. He wept ‘as a newborn babe’ throughout his ordination service. One of his first labors as a priest was to translate the Divine Liturgy into modern Serbian. During this period he came to know Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky (later first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad) and St John Maximovich, both of whom were living in Serbia as exiles from the Russian Revolution.

Father Justin’s preaching, writing and spiritual counsel became known throughout his country. In 1931 he was sent to Czechoslovakia to help in reorganizing the Church there (then under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church), which was greatly tried and weakened by Uniatism. Realizing the people’s crying need a clear exposition of the Faith in their own language, he began in 1932 his three-volume Dogmas of the Orthodox Church. The first volume was so well-received that Fr Justin was made Professor of Dogmatics at the Seminary of St Sava, where he remained, completing the Dogmas and several other books, until the end of World War II. The new atheistic Communist regime then banned him from the university system, and Fr Justin lived from that time on in various Serbian monasteries.

In 1948 he entered Chelije Monastery, where he remained until his repose in 1979. He became Archimandrite and spiritual head of the Monastery. It was during this period that he emerged as a great light of Orthodoxy: pious believers from all parts of Yugoslavia, from Greece, and from all over the world traveled to Chelije to hear the holy Justin’s preaching and seek his counsel.

Saint Justin reposed in peace in 1979 at the age of 85, on the Feast of the Annunciation — the date of his birth. Since his repose, many miracles have been witnessed at his grave: healings, flashes of unearthly light from his tomb, and conversions of unbelievers by his prayers. His many writings are increasingly recognized as a fount of pure Orthodox teaching in the midst of our dark time.

Note: St Justin is commemorated on the anniversary of his repose, so his commemoration only coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation on the Old Calendar.