The holy martyr Hyacinth was born into a pious Christian family in the city of Amastridea (now Amastra in Anatolia). An angel that appeared gave him his name. As a three-year-old boy, St. Hyacinth asked God that a dead infant might be resurrected. The Lord hearkened to his childish prayer, and the dead one arose. Both lads afterwards grew up together, and they lived an ascetic life. St. Hyacinth once noticed how the pagans were worshiping a tree, and so he chopped it down. For this they subjected him to harsh tortures. They smashed out all his teeth, and having bound him with rope, they dragged him along the ground and threw him in prison. It was there that the holy sufferer departed to the Lord.
The holy martyr Emilian, who was a Slav, suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian wanted to restore the cult of the pagan gods throughout the Roman Empire, and he issued an edict, according to which all Christians who failed to honor the pagan gods would be subject to death. Instead of being intimidated by these threats, St. Emilian’s faith in Christ was strengthened. The next day he went into a pagan temple and smashed the statues with a hammer. The governor ordered that St. Emilian be beaten mercilessly, and then to be burned alive. He did not perish when he was thrown into the fire, but instead the flames consumed many of the pagans who were standing about. When the fire had gone out, St. Emilian lay down upon the dying embers, and gave up his soul to the Lord. The wife of the pagan ruler was also a secret Christian, and she gathered up the saint’s relics and buried them. Afterward, a church dedicated to the holy Martyr Emilian was built at Constantinople, where his relics were transferred.
The venerable martyr Tarsykia Matskiv was a nun in the order of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. During the Second World War she was missioned in the Ukrainian city of Krystynopil. When the Soviet Army invaded the city in 1944, Sister Tarsykia was shot by a soviet soldier as she went to open the gates to welcome the priest coming to celebrate Divine Liturgy. She was buried in the garden of the convent under the statue of the Theotokos, as it was too dangerous to go to the cemetery. On September 2, 2007, Blessed Tarsykia’s mortal remains were exhumed, and ceremonially transferred to her hometown of Chodoriv, via the Cathedral of Stryj Eparchy. In silent procession, throngs of people escorted her relics, borne on the shoulders of priests, as pallbearers, to an outdoor Divine Liturgy, to accommodate these crowds, before being encrypted in the church itself. This was the funeral Blessed Tarsykia never had.
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.
Inflamed with the divine fervor, you were not afraid of the fire. You entered it willingly and were reduced to ashes in the flames. You went up like a sacrifice to the Master. O glorious martyr Emilian, pray for us.
1 Corinthians 14: 6-19
Brothers and sisters, just suppose that I should come to you speaking in tongues. What good will I do you if my speech does not have some revelation, or knowledge, or prophecy, or instruction for you? Even in the case of lifeless things which produce a sound, such as a flute or a harp, how will anyone know what is being played if there is no distinction among the notes? If the bugle’s sound is uncertain, who will get ready for battle? Similarly, if you do not utter unintelligible speech because you are speaking in a tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will be talking to the air. There are many different languages in the world and all are marked by sound; but if I do not know the meaning, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker and he a foreigner to me. Since you have set your hearts on spiritual gifts, try to be rich in those that build up the church.
This means that the man who speaks in a tongue should pray for the gift of interpretation. If I pray in a tongue my spirit is at prayer but my mind contributes nothing. What is my point here? I want to pray with my spirit, and also to pray with my mind. I want to sing with my spirit and with my mind as well. If your praise of God is solely with the spirit, how will the one who does not comprehend be able to say “Amen” to your thanksgiving? He will not know what you are saying. You will be uttering praise very well indeed, but the other man will not be helped. Thank God, I speak in tongues more than any of you, but in the church I would rather say five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Matthew 20: 17-28
At that time as Jesus was starting to go up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve aside on the road and said to them: “We are going up to Jerusalem now. There the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, who will condemn him to death. They will turn him over to the Gentiles, to be made sport of and flogged and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised up.”
The mother of Zebedee’s sons came up to Jesus accompanied by her sons, to do him homage and ask of him a favor. “What is it you want?” Jesus said. She answered, “Promise me that these sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” In reply Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink of the cup I am to drink of?” “We can,” they said. He told them, “From the cup I drink of, you shall drink. But sitting at my right hand or my left is not mine to give. That is for those to whom it has been reserved by my Father.”
The other then, on hearing this, became indignant at the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said: “You know how those who exercise authority among the Gentiles lord it over them; their great ones make their importance felt. It cannot be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest, and whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. Such is the case with the Son of Man who has come, not to be served by others, but to serve, to give his own life as a ransom for the many.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Wednesday, July 17 –
