Monday

1 Thess. 1:1-5; Luke 10:22-24

No man knoweth Who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him (Luke 10:22). The Son was on earth and revealed everything necessary for us Himself and through the Holy Spirit, Who acted in the Apostles. Consequently, what you find in the Gospels and the apostolic writings is all your will and can know about the Father and Divine things. Do not seek more than this, and do not think to find the truth about God and God's plans anywhere else aside from this. What a great treasure we possess! Everything has already been said. Do not rack your brains, just accept with faith what has been revealed. It has been revealed that God is One in Essence and Truine in Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Accept this with faith and uphold it. It has been revealed that the Tri-hypostatic God created all through the Word and preserves all in His right hand, in His providence is over all things. Accept this with faith and uphold it. It has been revealed that we were in a blessed state and fell, and that for our restoration and redemption the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, was incarnate, suffered, died on the Cross, resurrected and ascended into heaven. Accept this with faith and uphold it. It has been revealed that he who desires to be saved must believe in the Lord and, receiving Divine grace in the Holy Mysteries, must live, with its help, according to grace in the Holy Mysteries, must live, with its help, according to the Lord's commandments, struggling against the passions and lusts by means of spiritual endeavors that correspond to them. Accept this faith and do it. It has been revealed that whoever lives according to God's direction will enter after his death into radiant dwelling places, the foretaste of eternal bliss. But whoever does not live this way will, upon death, begin to experience the torments of hell. Accept this with faith and keep it faithfully. There is no need to rack your brains over your own invented things. Do not listen to those who show off their intelligence, for they do not know where they are going.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Col. 2:13-20; Luke 9:18-22

Whom say the people that I am? the Lord asked (Luke 9:18). In answer to this the Apostles related the current opinions among the people concerning Him, formed according to the nature of people's views at that time. Some said that He was John the Baptist, others that He was Elijah, others that He was one of the ancient prophets resurrected. How do people answer today? Also in various ways, each according to his own way of thinking. What sort of answers could be given by materialists, atheists, and the soulless, who are descended from apes, when they believe in neither God nor the soul? Spiritists get away with the same response as the Arians, which was denounced at the First Ecumenical Council. Deists see God as being very far from the world, and since they cannot contain in their system the mystery of Incarnation, they answer like the Ebionites and Socinians. You will encounter similar responses in Russian society, for the aforesaid three types of personalities exist and are multiplying among us. But thanks be to the Lord, we still have an extremely predominant number of sincere believers and those who strictly maintain the apostolic confession that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Incarnate, Only Begotten Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, Who even in Paradise was promised to our progenitors. Which party will prevail is known only to God. Let us pray that the darkness of false teachings be driven away. We have a weakness for bad things, and therefore it would not be surprising if a lie took the upper hand. Even now it is walking the streets of town openly, while in the past it cautiously hid from the gaze of Christian believers.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Phil. 4:10-23; Luke 7:36-50

How could it be that although Simon the Pharisee reveres the Lord and invites Him to his home, he is scandalized when he sees that He shows favor toward a sinful woman and permits her to approach Him? Why does he think to himself, If He were a prophet (Luke 7:39), and so forth? Because he has busied himself with entertaining, and has therefore ignored a sensible understanding of how God does things. These two realms, worldly and spiritual, have completely different characteristics and laws. Meanwhile, our mind, when it is preoccupied with something, begins to judge according to that thing. According to worldly customs, one must not have contact with an obviously sinful woman. This is how Simon judges, forgetting that repentance makes everyone pure and puts sinners on par with the righteous. He thinks that the sinful woman should not be there, and that if the Savior does not chase here away, it is probably because He does not know who she is. Another thought immediately follows this one: If He does not know, then what kind of prophet is He? He did not say this in words, but only thought it, although there was no outward change in his appearance or in how he was treating his guests. But the Lord saw his heart and corrected him accordingly. He suggested to him that sinners also have a place beside Him, and that the sinful woman, who had prostrated before Him in her heart, revered Him more than did Simon, who honored Him with nothing but food. Externals lead a person to a feeling of self-righteousness which is disagreeable to the Lord, while inner qualities always keep him in a feeling of his worthlessness before the face of the omniscient Lord.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Phil. 2:12-16; Luke 6:24-30

Woe to those who are rich, who are full, who laugh, and who are praised. But goos shall come to those who endure every wrongful accusation, beating, robbery, or imposed hardship. This is completely opposite to what people usually think and feel! The thoughts of God are as far from human thoughts as heaven is from the earth. How else could it be? We are in exile. and it is not remarkable for those in exile to be offended and insulted. We are under a penance, and the penance consists of deprivations and labors. We are sick, and bitter medicines are most useful for the sick. The Savior Himself did not have a place to lay His head for His whole life, and He finished His life on the Cross. Why should his followers have a better lot? The spirit of Christ is the spirit of preparedness to suffer and good-naturedly bear all that is sorrowful. Comfort, conceit, splendor, and ease are all foreign to its strivings and tastes. Its path lies in the fruitless, cheerless desert. Its model is the forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Who follows this path? Anyone who sees Canaan beyond the desert, overflowing with milk and honey. During his wandering he too receives manna-however, not from the earth, but from heaven; not bodily, but spiritually. All glory is within. 

-From St. Theophan The Recluse