James 3.11-4.6 (Epistle)

11Oare din aceeaşi vână a izvorului ţâşneşte şi apă dulce şi apă amară? 12Fraţii mei, poate oare un smochin să facă măsline sau o viţă să facă smochine? Nici apa sărată nu poate da apă dulce. 13Cine dintre voi este înţelept şi priceput? Să-şi arate, prin purtarea lui bună, faptele făcute cu blândeţea înţelepciunii! 14Dar, dacă aveţi în inima voastră pizmă amară şi un duh de ceartă, să nu vă lăudaţi şi să nu minţiţi împotriva adevărului. 15Înţelepciunea aceasta nu vine de sus, ci este pământească, firească, drăcească. 16Căci acolo unde este pizmă şi duh de ceartă, este tulburare şi tot felul de fapte rele. 17Înţelepciunea care vine de sus este, întâi, curată, apoi paşnică, blândă, uşor de înduplecat, plină de îndurare şi de roade bune, fără părtinire, nefăţarnică.

18Şi roada neprihănirii este semănată în pace pentru cei ce fac pace. 1De unde vin luptele şi certurile între voi? Nu vin oare din poftele voastre, care se luptă în mădularele voastre? 2Voi poftiţi, şi nu aveţi; ucideţi, pizmuiţi, şi nu izbutiţi să căpătaţi; vă certaţi şi vă luptaţi, şi nu aveţi, pentru că nu cereţi. 3Sau cereţi, şi nu căpătaţi, pentru că cereţi rău, cu gând să risipiţi în plăcerile voastre. 4Suflete preacurvare! Nu ştiţi că prietenia lumii este vrăjmăşie cu Dumnezeu? Aşa că cine vrea să fie prieten cu lumea se face vrăjmaş cu Dumnezeu. 5Credeţi că degeaba vorbeşte Scriptura? Duhul pe care L-a pus Dumnezeu să locuiască în noi ne vrea cu gelozie pentru Sine. 6Dar, în schimb, ne dă un har şi mai mare. De aceea zice Scriptura: „Dumnezeu stă împotriva celor mândri, dar dă har celor smeriţi.”

Mark 11.22-26 (Gospel)

22Isus a luat cuvântul şi le-a zis: „Aveţi credinţă în Dumnezeu! 23Adevărat vă spun că, dacă va zice cineva muntelui acestuia: „Ridică-te şi aruncă-te în mare”, şi dacă nu se va îndoi în inima lui, ci va crede că ce zice se va face, va avea lucrul cerut. 24De aceea vă spun că orice lucru veţi cere, când vă rugaţi, să credeţi că l-aţi şi primit, şi-l veţi avea. 25Şi, când staţi în picioare de vă rugaţi, să iertaţi orice aveţi împotriva cuiva, pentru ca şi Tatăl vostru care este în ceruri să vă ierte greşelile voastre. 26Dar, dacă nu iertaţi, nici Tatăl vostru care este în ceruri nu vă va ierta greşelile voastre.”

Our Holy Father Xenophon, his wife Mary and their sons Arcadius and John (6th c.)

Xenophon was a wealthy senator in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian. He and his wife Mary had two sons, Arcadius and John, to whom they gave every advantage of education. When they were of age, Xenophon sent them both to study law in Berytus (Beirut). But the ship on which they set out was wrecked in a storm, and the two brothers were cast ashore, alive but separated, neither knowing whether the other had survived.

Both brothers gave thanks to God for their salvation and, newly conscious of the vanity of earthly things, both became monks: John in Tyre and Arcadius in Jerusalem. Two years later, having heard no news from his sons, Xenophon made inquiries and found that they had never arrived at Beirut, and that they had seemingly perished in a shipwreck. Giving thanks to God, who gives and takes away, both Xenophon and his wife Mary put on coarse garments and went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, they met the spiritual father of Arcadius, who told them that both their sons were alive and that they would soon see them.

By God’s providence, John and Arcadius met one another at Golgotha and, joyfully reunited, spent some time serving Arcadius’ holy Elder. Two days later Xenophon and Mary, visiting the Elder, spent time with their two sons but did not recognize them until the Elder revealed their identity. The parents wept for joy and decided immediately to take up the monastic life themselves. Giving away their considerable wealth, the two entered monasteries in the Holy Land. Both parents and sons went far in the life of prayer, being granted the power to work miracles and foreknow future events.

St Ammonas of Egypt, disciple of St Anthony the Great (350)

“Saint Ammonas was a disciple of Saint Antony the Great and became his successor at the head of the hermits of the outer mountain of Pispir, after having spent fourteen years at Scetis in ceaseless prayer to the Lord to be granted victory over anger. He was afterwards consecrated bishop, probably by Saint Athanasius the Great. He possessed impassibility to the extent of being as though ignorant of the existence of evil, and incapable of passing judgment on anyone.

“One day some people came to ask him to settle a difference among them. The Saint responded by pretending to be insane, and answered a woman who treated him as a madman: ‘You don’t realize how much trouble I’ve given myself in the desert to acquire this madness and I have lost it today because of you!’ On another occasion when he was taken to visit a brother with a bad reputation, he sat on the barrel where [the erring brother’s] concubine was hiding while his accusers searched his cell in vain. Then, taking his leave of the unfortunate man, he simply said: ‘Brother, have a care for yourself!’

“When he was asked which deeds of ascesis are most pleasing to God, he replied: ‘Just sit in your cell and eat a little every day, always keeping the prayer of the Publican in your heart (Luke 18:13), and you can be saved.’ He also said that the fear of God begets moans and tears and these cause joy to arise in the soul, filling it with divine strength to do what is pleasing to God, and that this power from on high establishes us in the company of the Angels. Raised thus from height to height as we humbly pray to be delivered from sin, we shall (he said) receive as if of itself, revelation of the mysteries of God.” (Synaxarion)

Our Holy Mother Paula of Rome (404)

She was born in 347 to a noble family in Rome, and at age sixteen married Toxotius, a prominent nobleman. Though her husband was a pagan, he was devoted to her and gave her freedom to keep a Christian home and rear her children as Christians. They were blessed with five children. When she was thirty-two her husband died suddenly, and Paula resolved to turn her large house in Rome into a monastery. Later she traveled to the Holy Land with her spiritual father St Jerome (June 15). In Bethlehem she established two monasteries, one for women (where she dwelt) and one for St Jerome and his companions. Every day the nuns chanted the entire Psalter, which they were required to learn by heart. Paula was exceptionally austere in her fasting and lavish in her almsgiving, often giving away to the poor even the goods needed by her community for subsistence. She aided her spiritual father and brother Jerome in his controversies with Origen’s followers: St Jerome himself was hot-tempered, and St Paula often exhorted him to confront his enemies with patience and humility.

When she was fifty-six years old, she felt her death approaching, and heard Christ say to her ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone’ (Song of Songs 2:10-11). To this she replied ‘The time of harvest has come. I shall truly see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living,’ and gave up her soul joyfully. Her funeral was attended by throngs of monks, nuns and poor people, all of whom revered her as their mother and benefactress.