Tuesday

1 Cor. 1:1-9; Matt. 13:24-30

The good seed was sown, but the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. The tares in the Church are heroes and schisms, while in each of us they are bad thoughts, feelings, desires, and passions. A person accepts the good see of the word of God, decides to live in a holy way, and begins to live in this way. When himself weakens, then the enemy of salvation comes and places evil ideas in him which, if not rejected at the start, ripen into desires and dispositions, introducing their own spheres of activity, which mix themselves in with good works, feelings, and thoughts. In this way both remain together until the harvest. This harvest is repentance. The Lord sends the angels-a feeling of contrition and the fear of God-and they come in like a sickle, then burn up all the tares in the fire of painful self-condemnation. Pure wheat remains in the granary of the heart, to the joy of the man, the angels, and the Most Good God worshipped in Trinity.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 12:4-5, 15-21; Matt. 12:9-13

It is lawful to do well on the sabbath days (Matt. 12:12). After healing the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the Lord said this as a reproach to the Pharisees, who took the commandments about the Sabbath rest so far that they even measured the number of steps they could walk that day. But since it is not possible to do good works without movement, they would sooner have agreed to neglect good works than to allow ant extra movement. The Savior denounced them for this time and again, because the Sabbath required rest from worldly cares and not from works of piety and brotherly love. In Christianity, instead of the Sabbath, Sunday is celebrated with the same goal: rest from all worldly affairs and the devotion of that day solely to God's works. Christian sobriety has never reached the point of pharisaic pettiness concerning not doing things on this day has been set far beyond the proper limits. Not doing things kept the Pharisees from performing good works, whereas the things which Christians allow themselves are what lead them away from good works. On the eve of Sunday they go to the theater and then to some other entertainment. In the morning, they oversleep and there is no time to go to church. There are several visits, then lunch, and in the evening again entertainment. Thus all their time relegated to the belly and to pleasing the other senses, and there is no time even to remember God and good works.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 9:18-33; Matt. 11:2-15

The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violence take it by force (Matt. 11:12). The Kingdom suffereth violence-that is, it is attained with violence, with labor, force, and difficult spiritual struggles. Therefore, only those who lead a labor-filled ascetic life attain it. Thus, every sort of comforts renounced along the path to the Kingdom. Pleasures of all types distance us from the Kingdom. But these days we have concern only for pleasures- sometimes emotional, but more often fleshly: to eat, drink, have fun, make merry, and luxuriate in everything. We have said to the Kingdom, "I beg you to excuse me," although there is a feast in the Kingdom-a royal feast-one so sumptuous that we could not even conceive of it, because we do not have the taste for it. What is considered sweet there is bitter to us, what is pleasant there is repulsive to us, what gladdens one there is a burden for us. We have gone totally separate ways. And the Kingdom, together with the violent who take it by force, withdraws from us. We are glad about this, and are even ready to drive them away more quickly. Indeed, we have already started talking about it, but the evil one has not yet managed to arrange this.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 7:1-13; Matt. 9:36-10:8

Sending the Holy Apostles to preach, the Lord commanded them to call everyone, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matt. 10:7), that is, the Kingdom has come-go toward it. What ought we to preach? We should cry to all, "Sons of the Kingdom! Don't run from the Kingdom into bondage and slavery"-for they are in fact running. Some are captivated by freedom of mind. They say, "We don't want the bonds of faith and the oppression of authority, even Divine authority; we'll figure things out and make up our minds for ourselves." So they have made up their minds. They have built fables in which there is more childishness than in the mythology of the Greeks-and they magnify themselves...Others are enticed by the broad path of the passions. They say, "We don't want to know positive commandments or the demands of conscience-this is all abstract: we need tangible naturalness." And they have gone after it. What has come of it? They have bowed down before dumb beasts. Has not the theory that man originated from animals arisen from this moral fall? This is where they have gone! And everyone runs from the Lord, everyone runs...

-From St. Theophan the Recluse