Acts 12.12-17 (Epistle)

12I razmislivši doðe kuæi Marije matere Jovana koji se zvaše Marko, gdje bijahu mnogi sabrani i moljahu se Bogu. 13A kad kucnu Petar u vrata od dvora, pristupi djevojka po imenu Roda, da èuje. 14I poznavši glas Petrov od radosti ne otvori vrata, nego utrèa i kaza da Petar stoji pred vratima. 15A oni joj rekoše: jesi li ti luda? A ona potvrðivaše da je tako. A oni govorahu: anðeo je njegov. 16A Petar jednako kucaše. A kad otvoriše, vidješe ga, i udiviše se. 17A on mahnuvši na njih rukom da æute, kaza im kako ga Gospod izvede iz tamnice; i reèe: javite ovo Jakovu i braæi. I izišavši otide na drugo mjesto.

John 8.42-51 (Gospel)

42A Isus im reèe: kad bi Bog bio vaš otac, ljubili biste mene; jer ja od Boga iziðoh i doðoh; jer ne doðoh sam od sebe, nego me on posla. 43Zašto ne razumijete govora mojega? Jer ne možete rijeèi mojijeh da slušate. 44Vaš je otac ðavo; i slasti oca svojega hoæete da èinite: on je krvnik ljudski od poèetka, i ne stoji na istini; jer nema istine u njemu; kad govori laž, svoje govori: jer je laža i otac laži. 45A meni ne vjerujete, jer ja istinu govorim. 46Koji me od vas kori za grijeh? Ako li istinu govorim, zašto mi vi ne vjerujete? 47Ko je od Boga rijeèi Božije sluša; zato vi ne slušate, jer nijeste od Boga. 48Tada odgovoriše Jevreji i rekoše mu: ne govorimo li mi pravo da si ti Samarjanin, i da je ðavo u tebi. 49Isus odgovori: u meni ðavola nema, nego poštujem oca svojega; a vi mene sramotite. 50A ja ne tražim slave svoje; ima koji traži i sudi. 51Zaista, zaista vam kažem: ko održi rijeè moju neæe vidjeti smrti dovijeka.

St Pachomius the Great, founder of cenobitic monasticism (346)

His name in his native Coptic, Pachom, means “eagle.” He was an Egyptian pagan who entered the Roman army at a young age. While quartered at Thebes, he was amazed at the kindness of the local Christians, who brought food and drink to the soldiers. Learning who they were, he believed in Christ and vowed, once released from the army, to serve him for the rest of his life. At the end of his military service, he was baptised and became the disciple of the hermit Palamon, with whom he lived for ten years.

At a place called Tabennisis an angel appeared to him dressed in the robes of a monk and gave him a tablet on which was written a rule for a cenobitic monastery — one in which the brethren live communally rather than as hermits, something that had not been seen before among Christians. The angel commanded him to found such a monastery. Pachomius set to work, building many cells though there was no one to live there but himself and his brother John. When John questioned the unnecessary building, Pachomius only said that he was following God’s command, without saying who would live there or when.

But soon men began to assemble there, and in time so many came to be his disciples that he eventually founded nine monasteries housing thousands of monks. The rule that he gave (or had been given) for these monasteries became the model for all communal Christian monasticism thereafter. St Pachomius reposed in 346, before his great Egyptian fellow-strugglers St Anthony the Great and St Athanasius the Great.

Entertaining angels unawares: Christian believers’ simple acts of kindness toward their pagan oppressors may have seemed foolish to many, but it was such acts that opened the eyes of Pachomius to the light of Christ, and which bore incalculably great fruit: the founding of the monastic life which is still the backbone of Christ’s Church.

Our Father among the Saints Achillius, Bishop of Larissa (330)

He was born in Cappadocia, and was one of the 318 God-bearing Fathers who attended the First Ecumenical Council. At the council, Achillius took up a stone and said to the Arians, ‘If Christ is a creature of God, as you say, tell oil to flow from this stone.’ When the heretics kept silent, Achilleus went on, ‘And if the Son of God is equal to the Father, as we believe, let oil flow from this stone,’ at which oil flowed out. Returning to Larissa, the holy bishop cast down many pagan temples, built many churches, cast out many demons, and reposed in peace.