The holy martyr Justin was a philosopher who followed purely the true wisdom he had recognized in the truth of Christ. He instructed by his character, taught the truth of the faith and fought by his writings. When he presented his Apology for the Christian religion to the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (161-180) in Rome and confessed he himself was a Christian, St. Justin was condemned to death.
O Lord our God, your holy martyrs have deserved the crown of immortality on account of their good fight. Armed with your strength they have vanquished their persecutors and crushed Satan’s dreadful might. Through their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Embellished by the wisdom of your heavenly words, all of God’s Church tells the world of your holy life. Receiving a crown in return for your blood, you stand before Christ in the company of angels and pray unceasingly for all of us.
Romans 1:28 thru 2:9
Brothers and sisters: [Perverse men] did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God delivered them up to their own depraved sense to do what is unseemly. They are filled with every kind of wickedness: maliciousness, greed, ill will, envy, murder, bickering, deceit, craftiness. They are gossips and slanderers, they hate God, are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wrongdoing and rebellious toward their parents. One sees in them men without conscience, without loyalty, without affection, without pity. They know God’s just decree that all who do such things deserve death; yet they not only do them but approve them in others.
That is why everyone of you who judges another is inexcusable. By your judgment you convict yourself, since you do the very same things. “We know that God’s judgment on men who do such things is just.” Do you suppose, then, that you will escape his judgment, you who condemn these things in others yet do them yourself? Or do you presume on his kindness and forbearance? Do you know that God’s kindness is an invitation to repent? In spite of this, your hard and impenitent heart is storing up retribution for that day of wrath when the just judgment of God will be revealed, when he will repay every man for what he has done: eternal life to those who strive for glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing right; wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness. Yes, affliction and anguish will come upon every man who has done evil, the Jew first, then the Greek.
Matthew 5: 27-32
The Lord said: “You have heard the commandment, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ What I say to you is: anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts. If your right eye is your trouble, gouge it out and throw it away! Better to lose part of your body than to have it all cast into Gehenna. Again, if your right hand is your trouble, cut it off and throw it away! Better to lose part of your body than to have it all cast into Gehenna.
“It was also said, ‘Whenever a man divorces his wife, he must give her a decree of divorce.’ What I say to you is: everyone who divorces his wife forces her to commit adultery, but lewd conduct is a separate case. The man who marries a divorced woman likewise commits adultery.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Wednesday, May 31 –
