Our venerable father Athanasius of Mt. Athos, hegumen, humble and peaceful, who founded the cenobitic way of living in the Great Lavra. Despite many trials, he was father to many monks who followed his ascetic model. He lived during the end of the 10th century.
The angels in heaven marveled at your life on earth, for you occupied your flesh as a spirit from on high. You disarmed legions of demons, O glorious saint, and Christ rewarded you with bountiful gifts. Because of this, O Father, we ask you now to pray for the salvation of all.
Your flock invokes you as a man of special sight and a zealous preacher of God, O inspired saint. Do not cease praying for your servants that they may be delivered from attacks and assaults. We cry to you: Rejoice, O father Athanasius.
Galatians 5:22 – 6:2
Brothers and sisters: The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity. Against such there is no law! Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us follow the spirit’s lead. Let us never be boastful, or challenging, or jealous toward one another.
Brothers and sisters, if someone is detected in sin, you who live by the spirit should gently set him right, each of you trying to avoid falling into temptation himself. Help carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Luke 6: 17-23
The Lord said to his disciples: “everything has been given over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son– and anyone whom the Son wished to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
1 Corinthians 2:9- 3:2
Brothers and sisters: Of wisdom it is written: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him.” Yet God has revealed this wisdom to us through the Spirit. The Spirit scrutinizes all matters, even the deep things of God. Who, for example, knows a man’s innermost self but the man’s own spirit within him? Similarly, no one knows what lies at the depths of God but God’s Spirit, helping us to recognize the gifts he has given us. We speak of these, not in words of human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, thus interpreting spiritual things in spiritual terms. The natural man does not accept what is taught by the Spirit of God. For him, that is absurdity. He cannot come to know such teaching because it must be appraised in a spiritual way. The spiritual man, on the other hand, can appraise everything, though he himself can be appraised by no one. For, (Scripture says,), “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Brethren, the trouble was that I could not talk to you as spiritual men but only as men of flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, and did not give you solid food because you were not ready for it. You are not ready for it even now, being still very much in a natural condition. For as long as there are jealousy and quarrels among you, are you not of the flesh? And is not your behavior that of ordinary men? When someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and someone else, “I belong to Apollos,” is it not clear that you are still at the human level?
After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? Simply ministers through whom you became believers, each of them doing only what the Lord assigned him. I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. This means that neither he who plants nor he who waters is of any special account, only God, who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters work to the same end. Each will receive his wages in proportion to his toil.
Matthew 13: 31-36
The Lord told this parable: “The reign of God is like a mustard seed which someone took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest seed of all, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes so big a shrub that the birds of the sky come and build their nest in its branches.”
Jesus offered them still another image: “The reign of God is like yeast which a woman took and kneaded into three measures of flour. Eventually the whole mass of dough began to rise.” All these lessons Jesus taught the crowds in the form of parables. He spoke to them in parables only, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden since the creation of the world.” Then, dismissing the crowds, Jesus went home.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Tuesday, July 4 –
