Daily Orthodox - November 19th, 2024

Today is Tuesday of the 22nd Week after Pentecost.

Fasting Obligations

• OCA: Wine and oil permitted.
  
• GOARCH, Antioch: Fish, wine, and oil permitted.

Today, we commemorate...

1. The Holy Prophet Obadiah (Abdias)

Obadiah was born in the village of Betharam in the region of Shechem. He lived at the court of King Ahab, but when the king turned away from true worship and bowed down to idols, Obadiah did not follow the king, but continued to serve the one, true God. When the evil Queen Jezebel, in her hatred of Elias, raised a persecution against all the prophets of God, Obadiah gathered a hundred of them, hid them in two caves, and fed them to the end of the persecution (1 Kings 18:4). A contemporary of the great Prophet Elias, Obadiah revered him greatly and served him in all things, as his follower and disciple. He lived nine hundred years before Christ and entered peacefully into rest.

2. The Holy Martyr Barlaam of Caesarea in Cappadocia (304)

Barlaam was born in Antioch. Because of his faith in Christ the Lord, the impious judge tortured him harshly. Finally, the judge decided to mock him by forcing him to offer sacrifice to the idols. For this he took him to the pagan temple and set a burning coal on his palm and incense on the coal. The judge thought that the pain would cause the martyr to shake the coal and incense off his hand before the idols, and thus involuntarily cense them. However, the soldier of Christ heroically held the burning coal on his palm with no thought of casting it before the idols, until his fingers were burned through and fell off and his palm was completely burnt. St. Basil the Great said: "He had a right hand more powerful than fire: although the coal burned his hand, his hand still held the fire as if it were ash." Chrysostom writes: "The angels looked from the heights. The archangels beheld-the scene was majestic, in truth transcending human nature. Behold, who would not wish to see a man who made such an ascetic endeavor, yet did not feel that which is characteristic of men to feel; a man who was himself both the alter of oblation and the sacrifice and the priest?" When his hand burned off, elder Barlaam's whole body fell to the ground dead and his soul went to the eternal rest of our Lord the Savior. This glorious, heroic elder suffered in the year 304.

3. The Venerable Barlaam and Ioasaph the Heir

Barlaam and Joseph were Indian ascetics. Ioasaph was son and heir to King Abenner. By God's providence, elder Barlaam visited him, taught him the Christian Faith and baptized him. After that, the elder withdrew to a mountain to live a life of asceticism, but Ioasaph remained to struggle with many temptations in the world, and by God's grace, to overcome them. Ioasaph finally succeeded in bringing his father to Christ. After he was baptized, King Abenner lived four years in deep repentance-for he had committed grave sins in persecuting Christians-and then ended his earthly existence and went to the better life. The young Ioasaph turned over the rule of the kingdom to his friend Barachias, and entered the wilderness to live a life of asceticism for the sake of Christ. His one desire on earth was to see his spiritual father, elder Barlaam, once again. The merciful God fulfilled his desire, and one day Ioasaph stood before Barlaam's cave and cried out: "Bless me, father!" Elder Barlaam labored in asceticism in the wilderness for seventy years and lived one hundred years in all. St. Ioasaph himself left his kingdom at the age of twenty-five, and went into the wilderness where he lived for thirty-five years. They both had great love for the Lord Jesus, brought many to the true Faith and entered into the eternal joy of their Lord.

4. The Holy Martyr Heliodorus, in Pamphylia (273)

Heliodorus was from the town of Maggido in Pamphylia and suffered for the Christian Faith in the time of Emperor Aurelian. During his harsh tortures, he heard a voice from heaven: "Be not afraid, I am with thee!" Thrown into a glowing-hot brazen ox, he fervently prayed to God and God saved him. All at once, the glowing ox cooled, and Heliodorus emerged alive. The judge cried out to him that he had performed some magic. To this, the martyr replied: "My magic is Christ!" He was beheaded and went to the Lord.

5. Martyrs Azes of Isauria and 150 soldiers (284)
6. Martyr Agapius of Gaza (306)
7. St. Patroclus of Bourges (577)
8. St. Egbert, archbishop of York (766)
9. St. Hilarion of Georgia, wonderworker of Thessalonica (875)
10. St. Simon, wonderworker of Calabria (10th c.)
11. St. Barlaam, first abbot of the Kiev Caves (1065)
12. Uncovering of the relics (1626) of Hieromartyr Adrian, founder of Poshekhonye Monastery (Rostov) (1550)
13. St. Philaret, metropolitan of Moscow (1867)
14. St. Ioannicius, schema-archimandrite, of Glinsk Hermitage (1914)
15. New Hieromartyrs Porphyrius, bishop of Simferopol, Ioasaph, bishop of Chistopol, Michael, archimandrite, of Moscow, Gregory, archimandrite, of Odessa, and Gerasim, hieromonk, of Kazakhstan (1937)
16. New Hieromartyrs Ioasaph, abbot, and Peter, hieromonk, both of the Holy Transfiguration Guslitsky Monastery (Moscow) (1937)
17. New Hiero-confessor Alexis, schema-archimandrite, of Khust (Carpatho-Russia) (1947)
18. St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia and Kalisa (1991)

For more information on today's saints or commemorations not provided, see https://www.oca.org/saints/lives (Slavic) and/or https://www.goarch.org/chapel (Greek).

Reflection

Reflections are added when it includes additional stories from the life of a saint commemorated today.

A tale of the Elder Barlaam to Ioasaph: A man was fleeing from a terrifying unicorn. Fleeing thus, he fell into a pit, but grabbed hold of a tree. Just when he thought that he was out of danger, he looked down below the tree and saw two mice, one black and one white, gnawing alternatively but continuously at the roots of the tree, so as to gnaw through and bring the tree crashing down. Looking down even further, he saw a huge, terrifying serpent which, with its jaws wide open, was waiting to devour the man when the tree would fall down. He then saw four smaller poisonous snakes around his feet. Looking upward, the man saw a little bit of honey on a branch, and forgetting all the danger that surrounded him, extended his hand to reach that little bit of sweetness in the tree. The interpretation is this: The unicorn represents death, which from Adam now pursues every man to kill him; the pit filled with all sorts of dangers is this world; the tree is the path of our life; the white and black mice are days a nights, that continue one after the other to shorten our life; the huge and horrible snake is hell; the four poisonous snakes are the four elements from which the body of man is composed; the little bit of honey on the branch of the tree is the little sweetness that this life offers to man. Oh, if only men would not be captivated by that inconsequential sweetness, forgetting the terrible dangers that surround them and draw them down to eternal ruin!

Daily Scriptures

Slavic and Greek

• Epistle: Colossians 2:20-3:3
  

<20> Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— <21> "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," <22> which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? <23> These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. <1> If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. <2> Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. <3> For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

• Gospel: Luke 17:26-37 [Greek adds 18:8]
  

<26> And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: <27> They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. <28> Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; <29> but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. <30> Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. <31> "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. <32> Remember Lot's wife. <33> Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. <34> I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. <35> Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. <36> Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left." <37> And they answered and said to Him, "Where, Lord?" So He said to them, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together." [<8> I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"]