Hebrews 1.1-12 (Epistle)

1Bog koji je negda mnogo puta i razliènijem naèinom govorio ocevima preko proroka, govori i nama u pošljedak dana ovijeh preko sina, 2Kojega postavi našljednika svemu, kroz kojega i svijet stvori. 3Koji buduæi sjajnost slave i oblièje biæa njegova, i noseæi sve u rijeèi sile svoje, uèinivši sobom oèišæenje grijeha našijeh, sjede s desne strane prijestola velièine na visini, 4I toliko bolji posta od anðela koliko preslavnije ime od njihova dobi. 5Jer kome od anðela reèe kad: sin moj ti si, ja te danas rodih? I opet: ja æu mu biti otac, i on æe mi biti sin. 6I opet uvodeæi prvorodnoga u svijet govori: i da mu se poklone svi anðeli Božiji. 7Tako i anðelima govori: koji èini anðele svoje duhove, i sluge svoje plamen ognjeni. 8A sinu: prijestol je tvoj, Bože, va vijek vijeka; palica je pravde palica carstva tvoga. 9Omiljela ti je pravda, i omrzao si na bezakonje: toga radi pomaza te, Bože, Bog tvoj uljem radosti veæma od drugova tvojijeh. 10I opet: ti si, Gospode, u poèetku osnovao zemlju, i nebesa su djela ruku tvojijeh: 11Ona æe proæi, a ti ostaješ: i sva æe ostarjeti kao haljina, 12I saviæeš ih kao haljinu, i izmijeniæe se: a ti si onaj isti, i tvojijeh godina neæe nestati.

2 Timothy 2.1-10 (Epistle, St Theodore)

1Ti dakle, sine moj, jaèaj u blagodati Isusa Hrista; 2I što si èuo od mene pred mnogijem svjedocima, ono predaj vjernijem ljudima, koji æe biti vrijedni i druge nauèiti. 3Ti dakle trpi zlo kao dobar vojnik Isusa Hrista; 4Jer se nikakav vojnik ne zapleæe u trgovine ovoga svijeta da ugodi vojvodi. 5Ako i vojuje, ne dobija vijenca ako pravo ne vojuje. 6Radin koji se trudi najprije treba da okusi od roda. 7Razumij što govorim; a Gospod da ti da razum u svemu. 8Opominji se Gospoda Isusa Hrista koji usta iz mrtvijeh, od sjemena Davidova, po jevanðelju mojemu, 9U kojemu trpim zlo do samijeh okova kao zloèinac; ali se rijeè Božija ne veže. 10Zato trpim sve izbranijeh radi da i oni dobiju spasenije u Hristu Isusu sa slavom vjeènom.

Mark 2.23-3.5 (Gospel)

23I dogodi mu se da iðaše u subotu kroz usjeve, i uèenici njegovi trgahu putem klasje. 24I fariseji govorahu mu: gledaj, zašto èine u subotu što ne valja? 25A on reèe im: nijeste li nikad èitali šta uèini David kad mu bi do nevolje i ogladnje s onima što bijahu s njim? 26Kako uðe u Božiju kuæu pred Avijatarom poglavarom sveštenièkijem i hljebove postavljene pojede kojijeh ne bijaše slobodno nikome jesti osim sveštenika, i dade ih onima koji bijahu s njim? 27I govoraše im: subota je naèinjena èovjeka radi, a nije èovjek subote radi. 28Dakle je gospodar sin èovjeèij i od subote.

1I uðe opet u zbornicu, i ondje bješe èovjek sa suhom rukom. 2I motrahu za njim neæe li ga u subotu iscijeliti da ga okrive. 3I reèe èovjeku sa suhom rukom: stani na srijedu. 4I reèe im: valja li u subotu dobro èiniti ili zlo èiniti? dušu održati, ili pogubiti? A oni muèahu. 5I pogledavši na njih s gnjevom od žalosti što su im onako srca odrvenila reèe èovjeku: pruži ruku svoju. I pruži; i posta ruka zdrava kao i druga.

John 15.17-16.2 (Gospel, St Theodore)

17Ovo vam zapovijedam da imate ljubav meðu sobom. 18Ako svijet na vas uzmrzi, znajte da na mene omrznu prije vas. 19Kad biste bili od svijeta, onda bi svijet svoje ljubio: a kako nijeste od svijeta, nego vas ja od svijeta izbrah, zato mrzi na vas svijet. 20Opominjite se rijeèi koju vam ja rekoh: nije sluga veæi od gospodara svojega. Ako mene izgnaše, i vas æe izgnati; ako moju rijeè održaše, i vašu æe održati. 21Ali sve æe vam ovo èiniti za ime moje, jer ne poznaju onoga koji me posla. 22Da nijesam bio došao i govorio im ne bi grijeha imali; a sad izgovora neæe imati za grijeh svoj. 23Koji mrzi na mene i na oca mojega mrzi. 24Da nijesam bio djela tvorio meðu njima kojijeh niko drugi ne tvori, ne bi grijeha imali: a sad i vidješe, i omrznuše na mene i na oca mojega. 25Ali da se zbude rijeè napisana u zakonu njihovom: omrznuše na mene ni za što. 26A kad doðe utješitelj, koga æu vam poslati od oca, Duh istine, koji od oca izlazi, on æe svjedoèiti za mene. 27A i vi æete svjedoèiti, jer ste od poèetka sa mnom.

1Ovo vam kazah da se ne sablaznite. 2Izgoniæe vas iz zbornica; a doæi æe vrijeme kad æe svaki koji vas ubije misliti da Bogu službu èini.

Holy Apostle Onesimos (ca. 109)

He was a Phrygian by birth, a slave of Philemon, to whom the Apostle Paul addressed his epistle. Onesimos escaped from Philemon and fled to Rome, where he was converted to the Faith by St Paul. St Paul sent him back to his master, who at St Paul’s urging gave him his freedom. He served the Church for many years before dying a martyr, beaten to death with clubs.

Saint Onesimos is also commemorated on November 22, with Sts Philemon, Archippus and Aphia; and on January 4 at the Synaxis of the Seventy Disciples.

Our Venerable Father Dalmatius of Siberia (1697)

Saint Dalmatius is venerated as a pioneer of the movement that took many ascetics to dwell in the wilderness of Siberia, establishing a new company of Desert Fathers and causing the Russian Far North to be called the ‘Northern Thebaid.’ He was born in Tobolsk and reared in piety by his family, recently-converted Tatars. When grown, he entered the imperial army as a Cossack and served with such distinction that the Tsar awarded him a noble title. He married and lived in Tobolsk in comfort and prosperity. One day — after the destruction of Tobolsk in a great fire in 1643 — struck by a realization of the vanity of worldly things, he left family, wealth and property and went to a monastery in the Ural Mountains, taking with him only an icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

He was tonsured a monk with the name of Dalmatius, and devoted himself to prayer and ascesis with such fervor that, a short time later, the brethren elected him Abbot. Fearing pride and fleeing honor, Dalmatius fled with his icon of the Theotokos to a remote cave, where he lived a life of silence and continual prayer. His presence did not long remain secret in that sparsely-settled region, and soon Christians were coming from far and wide to ask his prayer and counsel; many pagans came to him for holy Baptism. Soon his habitation became too small for those who had chosen to stay as his disciples, and the Saint received a blessing from the Bishop of Tobolsk to build a wooden chapel and some cells. This was the beginning of the great Monastery of the Dormition (also called the Monastery of St Dalmatius).

Over the years the brethren endured many tribulations. Once the Tatar Prince of the region, provoked by false rumors, planned to destroy the monastery and kill all the monks. The night before the attack, the holy Mother of God appeared to the prince in resplendent clothes, holding a flaming sword in one hand and a scourge in the other. She forbade the Prince to harm the monastery or the brethren, and commanded him to give them a permanent concession over the region. Convinced by this vision, the Prince made peace with the monks and became the Monastery’s protector, though he was a Muslim.

In the succeeding years the Monastery was repeatedly burned down by the fierce pagan tribes which inhabited the area; once all the monks except St Dalmatius himself were butchered, but always the monastery was rebuilt. The Saint reposed in peace in 1697, and was succeeded as abbot by his own son Isaac, who built a stone shrine at the Monastery to house the relics of the Saint and the icon of the Mother of God which he had kept with him throughout his monastic life.

Our Venerable Father Anthimos of Chios (1960)

He was born in 1869 to devout peasants on Chios; he left elementary school early to become a shoemender. At the age of nineteen he visited a monastery (founded by the monk Pachomios, who had been the spiritual counsellor of St Nektarios); he was so moved by the monks’ ‘angelic life’ that on returning home he built himself a small hut and dwelt in it. His only ‘help’ in his spiritual contests was an icon of the Mother of God, which soon began to work miracles, drawing many to his hermitage. After a time he retired to a monastery where he was tonsured under the name Anthimos. He fell ill there, and his abbot sent him home to his parents for the sake of his health. At home, despite the fact that he was caring for his aged parents and practicing his shoemender’s trade, he continued to live as a monk, spending nights on end in prayer and sometimes living only on bread and water for extended periods.

Increasing numbers of visitors came to his hermitage and wonder-working icon of the Theotokos, and in 1910 he received the Great Schema. The people of Chios wanted him to be ordained to the priesthood, but his bishop refused due to the Saint’s lack of education. At the prompting of Anthimos’ godfather, the Bishop of Smyrna ordained him instead. After a pilgrimage to Mt Athos, he returned to Chios, where he became chaplain to a leper hospital. Soon the hospital, which had fallen into corruption, became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery as a hospital. Saint Anthimos tended many of the sickest with his own hands, working many miracles of healing; some of his recovered patients became monks or nuns.

With the notorious ‘Exchange of Populations’ of 1922-1924, refugees poured into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. In response to a vision of the Mother of God, St Anthimos built a monastery, which opened with thirty nuns and grew rapidly, despite the opposition of many who said that setting up such a community was out of date (in 1924!). The monastery soon housed eighty nuns and was known througout Greece as a model of monastic life. Father Anthimos served as priest to the nuns, and continued to receive the many faithful — often sixty or seventy per day — who came to him for prayer or counsel. He carried on this ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his cell and prayed that he be enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-one, mourned and revered by the whole island of Chios.