Luke 24.36-53 (6th Matins Gospel)

36A kad oni ovo govorahu, i sam Isus stade meðu njima, i reèe im: mir vam. 37A oni se uplašiše, i poplašeni buduæi, mišljahu da vide duha. 38I reèe im: šta se plašite? I zašto takove misli ulaze u srca vaša? 39Vidite ruke moje i noge moje: ja sam glavom; opipajte me i vidite; jer duh tijela i kostiju nema kao što vidite da ja imam. 40I ovo rekavši pokaza im ruke i noge. 41A dok oni još ne vjerovahu od radosti i èuðahu se reèe im: imate li ovdje što za jelo? 42A oni mu daše komad ribe peèene, i meda u satu. 43I uzevši izjede pred njima. 44I reèe im: ovo su rijeèi koje sam vam govorio još dok sam bio s vama, da sve treba da se svrši što je za mene napisano u zakonu Mojsijevu i u prorocima i u psalmima. 45Tada im otvori um da razumiju pismo. 46I reèe im: tako je pisano, i tako je trebalo da Hristos postrada i da ustane iz mrtvijeh treæi dan; 47I da se propovijeda pokajanje u ime njegovo i oproštenje grijeha po svijem narodima poèevši od Jerusalima. 48A vi ste svjedoci ovome. 49I gle, ja æu poslati obeæanje oca svojega na vas; a vi sjedite u gradu Jerusalimskome dok se ne obuèete u silu s visine. 50I izvede ih napolje do Vitanije, i podignuvši ruke svoje blagoslovi ih. 51I kad ih blagosiljaše, otstupi od njih, i uznošaše se na nebo. 52I oni mu se pokloniše, i vratiše se u Jerusalim s velikom radošæu. 53I bijahu jednako u crkvi hvaleæi i blagosiljajuæi Boga. Amin.

1 Corinthians 6.12-20 (Epistle)

12Sve mi je slobodno, ali nije sve na korist; sve mi je slobodno, ali neæu da što oblada mnome. 13Jela su za trbuh, i trbuh je za jela; ali æe Bog i ova i onoga pokvariti. A tijelo nije za kurvarstvo, nego za Gospoda, i Gospod za tijelo. 14A Bog i Gospoda podiže, i nas æe podiæi silom svojom. 15Ne znate li da su tjelesa vaša udi Hristovi? Hoæu li dakle uzeti ude Hristove i od njih naèiniti ude kurvine? Bože saèuvaj! 16Ili ne znate da ko se s kurvom sveže jedno tijelo s njom postane? Jer, reèe, biæe dvoje jedno tijelo. 17A ko se Gospoda drži jedan je duh s Gospodom. 18Bježite od kurvarstva; jer svaki grijeh koji èovjek èini osim tijela je; a koji se kurva on griješi svome tijelu. 19Ili ne znate da su tjelesa vaša crkva svetoga Duha koji živi u vama, kojega imate od Boga, i nijeste svoji? 20Jer ste kupljeni skupo. Proslavite dakle Boga u tjelesima svojijem i u dušama svojijem, što je Božije.

Luke 15.11-32 (Gospel)

11I reèe: jedan èovjek imaše dva sina, 12I reèe mlaði od njih ocu: oèe! daj mi dio od imanja što pripada meni. I otac im podijeli imanje. 13I potom do nekoliko dana pokupi mlaði sin sve svoje, i otide u daljnu zemlju; i onamo prosu imanje svoje živeæi besputno. 14A kad potroši sve, postade velika glad u onoj zemlji, i on se naðe u nevolji. 15I otišavši pribi se kod jednoga èovjeka u onoj zemlji; i on ga posla u polje svoje da èuva svinje. 16I željaše napuniti trbuh svoj rošèiæima koje svinje jeðahu, i niko mu ih ne davaše. 17A kad doðe k sebi, reèe: koliko najamnika u oca mojega imaju hljeba i suviše, a ja umirem od gladi! 18Ustaæu i idem ocu svojemu, pa æu mu reæi: oèe! sagriješih nebu i tebi, 19I veæ nijesam dostojan nazvati se sin tvoj: primi me kao jednoga od svojijeh najamnika. 20I ustavši otide ocu svojemu. A kad je još podaleko bio, ugleda ga otac njegov, i sažali mu se, i potrèavši zagrli ga i cjeliva ga. 21A sin mu reèe: oèe, sagriješih nebu i tebi, i veæ nijesam dostojan nazvati se sin tvoj. 22A otac reèe slugama svojijem: iznesite najljepšu haljinu i obucite ga, i podajte mu prsten na ruku i obuæu na noge. 23I dovedite tele ugojeno te zakoljite, da jedemo i da se veselimo. 24Jer ovaj moj sin bješe mrtav, i oživlje; i izgubljen bješe, i naðe se. I stadoše se veseliti. 25A sin njegov stariji bijaše u polju, i dolazeæi kad se približi kuæi èu pjevanje i podvikivanje. 26I dozvavši jednoga od slugu zapita: šta je to? 27A on mu reèe: brat tvoj doðe; i otac tvoj zakla tele ugojeno, što ga je zdrava vidio. 28A on se rasrdi i ne šæadijaše da uðe. Tada iziðe otac njegov i moljaše ga. 29A on odgovarajuæi reèe ocu: eto te služim toliko godina, i nikad ne prestupih tvoje zapovijesti, pa meni nikad nijesi dao jareta da bih se proveselio sa svojijem društvom; 30A kad doðe taj tvoj sin koji ti je imanje prosuo s kurvama, zaklao si mu tele ugojeno. 31A on mu reèe: sine! ti si svagda sa mnom, i sve je moje tvoje. 32Trebalo se razveseliti i obradovati, jer ovaj brat tvoj mrtav bješe, i oživlje; i izgubljen bješe i naðe se.

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.