The holy prophet Joel announced the great day of the Lord and the mysterious pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh, which the divine majesty in Christ deemed fit to fulfill marvelously on the day of Pentecost.
The holy martyr Varus was a soldier, who, under Maximianus the emperor, visited and refreshed six holy hermits in a prison. When a seventh died in the wilderness, Varus wished to take his place and suffered cruel torments with them in Egypt in the year 307.
You knew beforehand of the coming of God in the flesh and the descent of the Holy Spirit. You announced the impending judgment, O prophet Joel. Through your prayers, save those who venerate you from all sorrow.
You saw the army of passion-bearers suffer according to the law, and showing courage, you sought to endure it as well. You longed to die for Christ, and you received the martyr’s crown from Him, O Varus. Therefore, pray for the salvation of our souls.
Having followed Christ, O Varus, you drank from His chalice. You received the crown of martyrdom and exult forever with the angels. Never cease to intercede before the Lord for our souls.
Colossians 2: 13-31
Brothers and sisters: Even when you were dead in sin and your flesh was uncircumcised, God gave you new life in company with Christ. He pardoned all our sins. He canceled the bond that stood against us with all its claims, snatching it up and nailing it to the cross. Thus did God disarm the principalities and powers. He made a public show of them and, leading them off captive, triumphed in the person of Christ.
No one is free, therefore, to pass judgment on you in terms of what you eat or drink or what you do on yearly or monthly feasts, or on the sabbath. All these were but a shadow of things to come; the reality is the body of Christ. Let no one rob you of your prize by insisting on servility in the worship of angels. Such a one takes his stand on his own experience; he is inflated with empty pride by his human reflections when he should be in close touch with the head. The whole body, mutually supported and upheld by joints and sinews, achieves a growth from this source, which comes from God.
If with Christ, you have died to cosmic forces, why should you be bound by the rules that say, “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” as though you were still living a life bounded by this world?
Luke 9: 18-22
At that time Jesus went to pray in seclusion and his disciples were with him. He put this question to them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” “John the Baptizer,” they replied, “and some say Elijah, while others claim that one of the prophets of old has returned from the dead.” Then Jesus asked them, “But you–who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Messiah of God.” Jesus strictly forbade them to tell this to anyone. “The Son of Man,” he said, “must first endure many sufferings, be rejected by the elders, the high priests and the scribes, and be put to death, and then be raised up on the third day.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Sunday, October 18 –
