دوم قرنتیان ۱۰.۷-۱۸ (رساله)

۷شما تنها به ظواهر می‌نگرید. اگر کسی اطمینان دارد از آنِ مسیح است، باید در نظر داشته باشد که ما نیز به همان اندازه از آنِ مسیحیم. ۸زیرا سرافکنده نخواهم شد حتی اگر اندکی بیش از اندازه به اقتداری فخر کنم که خداوند نه برای ویرانی بلکه برای بنای شما به ما داده است. ۹نمی‌خواهم به نظر آید که می‌کوشم با نامه‌های خود شما را بترسانم، ۱۰زیرا بعضی می‌گویند: «نامه‌های او وزین و قوی است، امّا حضورش ضعیف و بیانش رقّت‌انگیز.» ۱۱آنان که چنین می‌گویند باید بدانند که هرآنچه در غیاب خود در نامه‌هامان می‌گوییم، همان را به هنگام حضور، به عمل خواهیم آورد. ۱۲ما جرأت نمی‌کنیم خود را از زمرۀ کسانی بشماریم یا با کسانی قیاس کنیم که خودستایند. چه نابخردانه است که آنان دربارۀ خویشتن با میزانهای خودشان قضاوت می‌کنند و خود را با خود می‌سنجند. ۱۳ولی ما نه بیش از حدِ مجاز، بلکه در حدودی فخر می‌کنیم که خدا برایمان معین کرده است، حدودی که شما را نیز در بر می‌گیرد. ۱۴ما از حدود خود پا فراتر نگذاشته‌ایم، چنانکه گویی هرگز نزد شما نیامده باشیم. زیرا نخستین کسانی بودیم که انجیل مسیح را به شما رساندیم. ۱۵ما به آنچه دیگران انجام داده‌اند فخر نکرده، از حدود خود تجاوز نمی‌کنیم. امید ما این است که هر چه ایمان شما بیشتر رشد می‌کند، دامنۀ فعالیت ما در میان شما نیز گسترده‌تر شود، ۱۶تا بتوانیم انجیل را در سرزمینهایی فراسوی شما بشارت دهیم. زیرا نمی‌خواهیم به کاری فخر کنیم که پیشتر، و آن هم در قلمرو شخصی دیگر انجام شده است. ۱۷پس «هر که فخر می‌کند، به خداوند فخر کند.» ۱۸زیرا نه آن که خودستایی کند پذیرفته می‌شود، بلکه آن که خدا او را بستاید.

مرقس ۳.۲۸-۳۵ (انجیل)

۲۸«آمین، به شما می‌گویم که تمام گناهان انسان و هر کفری که بگوید آمرزیده می‌شود؛ ۲۹امّا هر که به روح‌القدس کفر گوید، هرگز آمرزیده نخواهد شد، بلکه مجرم به گناهی ابدی است.» ۳۰این سخن عیسی از آن سبب بود که می‌گفتند «روح پلید دارد.» ۳۱آنگاه مادر و برادران عیسی آمدند. آنان بیرون ایستاده، کسی را فرستادند تا او را فرا خواند. ۳۲جماعتی که گرد عیسی نشسته بودند، به او گفتند: «مادر و برادرانت بیرون ایستاده‌اند و تو را می‌جویند.» ۳۳عیسی پاسخ داد: «مادر و برادران من چه کسانی هستند؟» ۳۴آنگاه به آنان که گردش نشسته بودند، نظر افکند و گفت: «اینانند مادر و برادران من! ۳۵هر که ارادۀ خدا را به جای آورَد، برادر و خواهر و مادر من است.»

شهید بزرگ اِفِمیا ستایش‌شده (۳۰۴)

She was born in Chalcedon to noble Christian parents. When Priscus, the locul Proconsul, celebrated a public sacrifice to Ares, forty-nine Christians including Euphemia hid themselves to avoid idolatry. Their absence was noticed, and they were found and brought before Priscus. After torturing all of them for eleven days, on the twelfth day he singled out Euphemia because of her beauty and began to flatter her, hoping in this way to draw her away from the Faith. When his efforts proved useless, he ordered her to be more savagely tortured than any of her fellow believers. She was miraculously preserved intact through many tortures, finally giving her soul into God’s hands when she was thrown to wild beasts. Her devout parents retrieved and buried her body. Her relics are preserved in the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The miracle wrought by her holy relics at the Council of Chalcedon is commemorated on July 11.

کشیش‌شهید مقدس کیپریان کارتاژ (۲۵۸)

He was born to wealthy and noble parents in Carthage (north Africa), and became a prominent lawyer in that city. Around the year 246 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by the priest Caecilianus. Immediately he gave all his goods to the poor and retired to a quiet place in the country to devote himself to prayer and study of Christian writings. In 248 or 249 he was elected Bishop of Carthage by the insistence of the people, though some priests opposed the consecration of such a new Christian.

Soon after his election, the Emperor Decius began a terrible persecution of Christians, during which Cyprian, in hiding, upheld his flock by letters. During this time many Christians gave in to fear of death and either sacrificed to the idols or signed statements that they had done so. When the persecution ended, the problem arose of how to treat the apostates who wished to be received back into the Church. Rigorist groups such as the Novatians and Montanists held that these lapsi had removed themselves from all hope of salvation and could never re-enter the Church. Cyprian rejected this view (as well as the position of some who would immediately reconcile the apostates); he established the position, still standard in the Church, that apostates could be restored after confession and long penance. His position led to a schism in the Church at Carthage when Cyprian’s opponents set up Maximus the Montanist as a rival Bishop. The schism was only ended by a plague that swept the Empire and the city of Carthage in 253-254, together with a renewed persecution of Christians. Saint Cyprian’s tireless care for the suffering during this time won most of the schismatics back to his side. When peace returned, Cyprian called a series of Councils in Carthage to resolve the conflicts that had troubled the Church. He upheld the African (and Eastern) churches’ practice of reconciling heretics to the Church by Baptism rather than by laying on of hands, as was done in Rome; though Cyprian did not seek to impose this practice on other churches, Rome was not so tolerant and broke with the African church until the death of Pope Stephen.

In 256, yet another persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian. Cyprian was arrested and brought before the Proconsul of the region. He refused to defend himself, and when told that he was to be executed, said only Deo Gratias!(Thanks be to God!). At his execution the holy bishop ordered that twenty-five gold pieces be given to the executioner, and put on the blindfold with his own hands.

Note: St Cyprian is missing on this date from traditional martyrologies because he was once confused with St Cyprian of Antioch (October 2). Today is the date of his martyrdom and the date of his commemoration on the Latin calendar.

قدیس نینیان, روشنگر اسکاتلند (۴۳۲)

One of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles, he was born in Britain around the year 360. Though Britain was still mostly pagan, Ninian was born of Christian parents. He traveled to Rome as a young man, and spent several years there engaged in study and ascetic struggle. He was ordained in Rome and sent back as a missionary to Britain around the year 400. On the way he probably met St Martin of Tours: many of the churches he founded, including his cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honor of St Martin. He established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen and converted many more Britons to the Faith. He also converted many of the fierce Picts, inhabitants of today’s Scotland, to faith in Christ. He reposed in peace in Whithorn in 432.

پدر مقدس ما دوروتئوس تنها مصر (سده ۴)

He was one of the great company of Egyptian desert fathers of the fourth century. He lived alone in a cell in the Thebaid for sixty years, devoting himself to prayer, asceticism and renowned love of labor. He spent his days building cells for new monks, his nights making plaited mats, all the while immersed in prayer and psalmody.