Our venerable mother Theodora of Alexandria who, as a young woman committed adultery on the advice of a fortune-teller. She was accused by her conscience, and left the world, cutting off her hair and dressing as a man in order to enter the monastery of Octodecatos, assuming the name of Theodore. Falsely accused of having sex with a prostitute, she accepted rebuke as a punishment for her former sin. She ended up in the desert for seven years, until the hegumen took her back. Only at her death in the year 490 did the monks realize that she was a woman.
In you, O mother, the divine image was strictly preserved; taking up your cross, you followed Christ. You taught us by example how to spurn the flesh, for it passes away, and how to care for the soul, which is immortal. Therefore, O venerable Theodora, your soul rejoices with the angels.
In order to obtain complete forgiveness of your sins, you spent all of your bodily strength in fast and your nights in vigils and prayers to God. Through the way of repentance you obtained forgiveness.
Ephesians 1: 7-17
Brothers and sisters: It is in Christ and through his blood that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven, so immeasurably generous is God’s favor to us. God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan he was pleased to decree on Christ, to be carried out in the fullness of time: namely, to bring all things in the heavens and on earth into one under Christ’s headship.
In him we were chosen; for in the decree of God, who administers everything according to his will and counsel, we were predestined to praise his glory by being the first to hope in Christ. In him you too were chosen; when you heard the glad tidings of salvation, the word of truth, and believed in it, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit who had been promised. He is the pledge of our inheritance, the first payment against the full redemption of a people God has made his own, to praise his glory.
For my part, from the time I first heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the members of the church, I have never stopped thanking God for you and recommending you in my prayers. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant you a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly.
Mark 8: 1-10
At that time another large crowd assembled, and they were without anything to eat. He called the disciples over to him and said: “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd. By now they have been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way. Some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples replied, “How can anyone give these people sufficient bread in this deserted spot?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied. Then he directed the crowd to take their places on the ground. Taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they handed them out to the crowd. They also had a few small fish; asking a blessing on the fish, he told them to distribute these also. The people in the crowd ate until they had their fill; then they gathered up seven wicker baskets of leftovers. Those who had eaten numbered about four thousand. He dismissed them and got into the boat with his disciples to go to the neighborhood of Dalmanutha.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Thursday, September 10 –
