The holy martyrs Cyricus and Julietta, his mother, were martyred at Caesarea in Cappadocia in the year 304. When they had firmly refused the order of the judge to offer incense to idols, they were cast into the fire.
The holy great martyr Prince Vladimir, equal to the apostles was baptized Basil at Kiev in Rus’. Son of Prince Svyatoslav, grandson of Igor and Olga, he was pagan for the first part of his life. He sent out envoys to find the religion best suited for his people, and he and his court were baptized in the orthodox faith. He bestowed care in spreading the orthodox faith among the peoples subject to him. Reposed in the year 1015 and was buried in the church of the Tithes. A piece of his holy relics was kept in Holy Wisdom Cathedral, established by his son, Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise.
Your martyrs, O Lord our God, in their struggles received incorruptible crowns from You. With Your strength, they brought down the tyrants and broke the cowardly valor of demons. Through their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
You were like a merchant seeking a fine pearl as you sat on the throne of the mother of cities, the God-redeemed Kiev. Sending messengers to the capitol in your search for the faith, you discovered the priceless Pearl which is Christ. He chose you in turn as a second Paul. You submitted to the rites of baptism, and the scales of spiritual blindness fell from your eyes. Now your people have come to celebrate your death. Pray for the authorities in the land of Rus’ to be saved.
Carrying Cyricus in her arms, Julietta, the martyr for Christ, bravely cried aloud with joy in the midst of the arena: “It is You, O Lord, who give strength to Your martyrs!”
You were like the great apostle Paul. Late in life you gave up the foolish philosophy of idols and became a perfect man through the water of baptism. Now you stand with joy in the court of Christ. We ask you to pray for the land of Rus’ and for the salvation of its authorities.
Galatians 1: 11-19
Brothers and sisters: I assure you, the gospel I proclaimed to you is no mere human invention. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I schooled in it. It came by revelation from Jesus Christ. You have heard, I know, the story of my former way of life in Judaism. You know that I went to extremes in persecuting the Church of God and tried to destroy it; I made progress in Jewish observance far beyond most of my contemporaries, in my excess of zeal to live out all the traditions of my ancestors.
But the time came when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his favor chose to reveal his Son to me, that I might spread among the Gentiles the good tidings concerning him. Immediately, without seeking human advisers or even going to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, I went off to Arabia; later I returned to Damascus. Three years after that I went up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, with whom I stayed fifteen days. I did not meet any other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord.
I declare before God that what I have just written is true. Thereafter I entered the regions of Syria and Cilicia. The communities of Christ in Judea had no idea what I looked like; they had only heard that “he who was formerly persecuting us is not preaching the faith he tried to destroy,” and they gave glory to God on my account.
John 10: 1-9
The Lord said, “Truly I assure you: whoever does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a marauder. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep; the keeper opens the gate for him. The sheep hear his voice as he calls his own by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all those that are his, he walks in front of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. They will not follow a stranger; such a one they will flee, because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Even though Jesus used this figure with them, they did not grasp what he was trying to tell them. He therefore said to them again: “My solemn word is this: I am the sheepgate. All who came before me were thieves and marauders who the sheep did not heed. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be safe. He will go in and out, and find pasture.”
1 Corinthians 10: 12-22
Brothers and sisters: Let anyone who thinks he is standing upright watch out lest he fall! No test has been sent you that does not come to all men. Besides, God keeps his promise. He will not let you be tested beyond your strength. Along with the test he will give you a way out of it so that you may be able to endure it.
I am telling you, whom I love, to shun the worship of idols, and I address you as one addresses sensible people. You may judge for yourselves what I am saying. Is not the cup of blessing we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, many though we are, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Look at Israel according to the flesh and see if those who eat the sacrifices do not share in the altar! What am I saying – that meat offered to an idol is really offered to that idol, or that an idol is a reality? No, I mean that the Gentiles sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and likewise the table of demons. Do we mean to provoke the Lord to jealous anger? Surely we are not stronger than he!
Matthew 16: 20-24
At that time Jesus strictly ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From then on Jesus [the Messiah] started to indicate to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly there at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and to be put to death, and raised up on the third day. At this, Peter took him aside and began to remonstrate with him. “May you be spared, Master! God forbid that any such thing ever happen to you!” Jesus turned on Peter and said, “Get out of my sight, you satan! You are trying to make me trip and fall. You are not judging by God’s standards but by man’s.” Jesus then said to his disciples: “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Tuesday, July 14 –
