Galatians 5.11-21 (Epistle)

11A ja, braæo, ako još obrezanje propovijedam, zašto me gone? Tako se ukide sablazan krstova. 12O da bi otsjeèeni bili oni koji vas kvare! 13Jer ste vi, braæo, na slobodu pozvani: samo da vaša sloboda ne bude na želju tjelesnu, nego iz ljubavi služite jedan drugome. 14Jer se sav zakon izvršuje u jednoj rijeèi, to jest: ljubi bližnjega svojega kao sebe. 15Ali ako se meðu sobom koljete i jedete, gledajte da jedan drugoga ne istrijebite. 16Velim pak: po duhu hodite, i želja tjelesnijeh ne izvršujte. 17Jer tijelo želi protiv duha, a duh protiv tijela; a ovo se protivi jedno drugome, da ne èinite ono šta hoæete. 18Ako li vas duh vodi, nijeste pod zakonom. 19A poznata su djela tjelesna, koja su preljuboèinstvo, kurvarstvo, neèistota, besramnost, 20Idolopoklonstvo, èaranja, neprijateljstva, svaðe, pakosti, srdnje, prkosi, raspre, sablazni, jeresi, 21Zavisti, ubistva, pijanstva, žderanja, i ostala ovakova, za koja vam naprijed kazujem, kao što i kazah naprijed, da oni koji takova èine neæe naslijediti carstva Božijega.

Mark 7.5-16 (Gospel)

5A potom pitahu ga fariseji i književnici: zašto uèenici tvoji ne žive kao što nam je ostalo od starijeh, nego jedu hljeb neumivenijem rukama? 6A on odgovarajuæi reèe im: dobro je prorokovao Isaija za vas licemjere, kao što je pisano: ovi ljudi usnama me poštuju, a srce njihovo daleko stoji od mene. 7No zaludu me poštuju uèeæi naukama, zapovijestima ljudskijem. 8Jer ostaviste zapovijesti Božije, a držite obièaje ljudske, pranje žbanova i èaša; i druga mnoga takova èinite. 9I reèe im: dobro ukidate zapovijest Božiju da svoj obièaj saèuvate. 10Jer Mojsije reèe: poštuj oca svojega i mater svoju; i: koji opsuje oca ili mater smræu da umre. 11A vi kažete: ako reèe èovjek ocu ili materi: korvan, to jest: prilog je èim bih ti ja mogao pomoæi. 12I tako ne date mu ništa uèiniti ocu svojemu ili materi svojoj, 13Ukidajuæi rijeè Božiju svojijem obièajem koji ste postavili; i ovako mnogo koješta èinite. 14I dozvavši sav narod reèe im: poslušajte mene svi, i razumijte. 15Ništa nema što bi èovjeka moglo opoganiti da uðe spolja u njega, nego što izlazi iz njega ono je što pogani èovjeka. 16Ako ko ima uši da èuje neka èuje.

Commemoration of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae (Chonae) (4th c.)

In Colossae in Phrygia there were a church and a holy spring dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Malicious pagans diverted the course of two rivers so that they would inundate the church. But the Archangel appeared, bringing with him an earthquake that shook the whole area and opened a fissure into which the waters plunged, sparing the church. The place was thereafter called “Chonae” Greek for “funnels” instead of Colossae.

Holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.), parents of St John the Forerunner.

The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the “Unia,” by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim’s farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the “Greek Catholic” training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there.

When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying “Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!” But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of “Greek Catholic” priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities).

Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim’s labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism.

In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said “My only politics is the Gospel” — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands.

Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim’s grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.