Our father Paul the Confessor, archbishop of Constantinople, was frequently exiled by the Arians because of his adherence to the Nicene faith, and was as often restored to dignity. Finally, he was sent by Constantius the emperor to Cucusum, a small village in Cappadocia. There, it is said, he was strangled in a conspiracy of the Arians in the year 351. St. Athanasius the Great, a contemporary of St. Paul, writes briefly about his exiles, “St. Paul the first time was sent by Constantine to Pontus, the second time he was fettered with chains by Constantius, and then he was locked up in Mesopotamian Syngara and from there moved to Emesus, and the fourth time to Cappadocian Cucusus in the Taurian wilderness.”
The Church sees you among her priests as another Paul because of your confession of the divine faith. The blood of Abel and Zechariah calls for you to the Lord. O venerable father, pray to Christ our God to grant great mercy to our souls.
You shone over the earth like a heavenly star, and now you enlighten the universal Church. For her sake, you suffered, shed your blood and made a gift of your soul, O Paul. And like the blood of Abel and Zechariah, your blood cried out to the Lord with might.
2 Thessalonians 2: 1-12
Brothers and sisters: On the question of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we beg you, brethren, not to be so easily agitated or terrified, whether by an oracular utterance, or rumor, or a letter alleged to be ours, into believing that the day of the Lord is here.
Let no one seduce you, no matter how. Since the mass apostasy has not yet occurred nor the man of lawlessness been revealed–that son of perdition and adversary who exalts himself about every so-called god proposed for worship, he who seats himself in God’s temple and even declares himself to be God – do you not remember how I used to tell you about these things when I was still with you? You know what restrains him until he shall be revealed in his own time. The secret force of lawlessness is already at work, mind you, but there is one who holds him back until that restrainer shall be taken from the scene. Thereupon the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by manifesting his own presence. This lawless one will appear as part of the workings of Satan, accompanied by all the power and signs and wonders at the disposal of falsehood–by every seduction the wicked can devise for those destined to ruin because they have not opened their hearts to the truth in order to be saved. Therefore God is sending upon them a perverse spirit which leads them to give credence to falsehood, so that all who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evildoing will be condemned.
Luke 12: 48-59
The Lord said, “When mush has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted. I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited! I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel till it is over! Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth? I assure you, the contrary is true; I have come for division. From now on, a household of five will be divided three against two and two against three; father will be split against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Jesus said to the crowds: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that rain is coming–and so it does. When the wind blows from the south, you say it is going to be hot– and so it is. You hypocrites! If you can interpret the portents of earth and sky, why can you not interpret the present time? Tell me, why do you not judge for yourselves what is just? When you are going with your opponent to appear before a magistrate, try to settle with him on the way lest he turn you over to the judge, and the judge deliver you up to the jailer, and the jailer throw you into prison. I warn you, you will not be released from there until you have paid the last penny.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Tuesday, November 5 –
