Our venerable mother Melany the Younger of Rome set out with her husband, St. Pinianus, for the Holy City of Jerusalem in the 5th century. There she lived among the women consecrated to God and her husband among the monks. They practiced the religious life and both came to rest in a holy death.
You loved the purity of virginity and supplicated your Beloved with gracious words. You spent your fortunes for the monks and nuns, and you even built them monasteries, O blessed Melany. Now that you have retired to a heavenly monastery, do not forget us.
Your soul shone with light from the One born for us of the Virgin, and you sparkled with all the virtues, for you are worthy of all praise. You shared your worldly wealth with those on earth and stored for yourself treasures in heaven, becoming a marvelous example of ascetical life. Therefore, O holy Melany, we honor you with love.
1 Timothy 6: 11-16
Brothers and sisters: Seek after integrity, piety, faith, love, steadfastness, and a gentle spirit. Fight the good fight of faith. Take firm hold on the everlasting life to which you were called when, in the presence of many witnesses, you made your noble profession of faith. Before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who in bearing witness made his noble profession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to keep God’s command without blame or reproach until our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear. This appearance God will bring to pass at his chosen time. He is the blessed and only ruler, the King of king and the Lord of lords who alone has immortality and who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no human being has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and everlasting rule! Amen.
Matthew 12: 15-21
Jesus was aware of the Pharisees’ plot to destroy him so he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him and he cured them all, though he sternly ordered them not to make public what he had done. This was to fulfill what had been said through Isaiah the prophet: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my loved one in whom I delight. I will endow him with my spirit and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will his voice be heard in the streets. The bruised reed he will not crush; the smoldering wick he will not quench until judgment is made victorious. In his name, the Gentiles will find hope.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Friday, December 30 –
