The holy martyr Longinus the Centurion, a Roman soldier, served in Judea under the command of the governor, Pontius Pilate. When our Savior Jesus Christ was crucified, it was the detachment of soldiers under the command of Longinus which stood watch on Golgotha, at the very foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his soldiers were eyewitnesses of the final moments of the earthly life of the Lord, and of the great and awesome portents that appeared at His death. These events shook the centurion’s soul. Longinus believed in Christ and confessed before everyone, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27:54). According to tradition, Longinus was the soldier who pierced the side of the Crucified Savior with a spear, and received healing from an eye affliction when blood and water poured forth from the wound.
Your martyr Longinus, O Lord our God, in his struggle received an incorruptible crown from You. With Your strength, he brought down the tyrants and broke the cowardly valor of demons. Through his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
The Church greatly rejoices today in commemorating the courageous ever-memorable Longinus, and it cries out, “O Christ, You are my strength and my stronghold.”
Colossians 2: 1-7
Brothers and sisters: I want you to know how hard I am struggling for you and for the Laodiceans and the many others who have never seen me in the flesh. I wish their hearts to be strengthened and themselves to be closely united in love, enriched with full assurance by their knowledge of the mystery of God – namely Christ – in whom every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden.
I tell you all this so that no one may delude you with specious arguments. I may be absent in body but I am with you in spirit, happy to see good order among you and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Continue, therefore, to live in Christ Jesus the Lord, in the spirit in which you received him. Be rooted in him and built up in him, growing ever stronger in faith, as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
Luke 9: 12-18
As sunset approached the Twelve came and said to Jesus, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go into the villages and farms in the neighborhood and find themselves lodging and food, for this certainly is an out-of-the-way place.” Jesus answered them, “Why do you not give them something to eat yourselves?” They replied, “We have nothing but five loaves and two fish. Or shall we ourselves go and buy food for all these people?” (There were about five thousand men.) Jesus said to his disciples, “have them sit down in groups of fifty or so.” They followed his instructions and got them all seated. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven, pronounced a blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to his disciples for distribution to the crowd. They all ate until they had enough. What they had left, over and above, filled twelve baskets. Jesus went to pray in seclusion and his disciples were with him.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Thursday, October 15 –
