I have not come to call the righteous

But for what reason do the Pharisees blame the Savior for eating with sinners? Because it was the law to put a distinction between the holy and the profane: that is, that whatever was hallowed was not to be brought into contact with things profane.

They made the accusation therefore supposedly vindicating the law; but really it was envy against the Lord, and readiness to find fault. But He shows them that He is present now, not as a judge, but as a physician; and He performs the proper duty of the physician’s office, in being in the company of those in need of healing.

But no sooner had they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they bring forward another, finding fault because His disciples did not fast, wishing to obtain hereby an opportunity against Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

A Lutheran Pastor's Firsthand Account of Prison Life

by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

I am a Christian from an Orthodox country-the country of Romania. Having been in prison for fourteen years for my faith, it is now my missionary work to help persecuted Christians in Communist countries. I would like to tell you the stories of several Orthodox Christians with whom I was privileged to come into contact during my time in prison. Their examples and their deeds have been a constant source of encouragement to me throughout the years.

Always Rejoice

The first man was a priest who was put in jail at the age of seventy. His name was Surioanu. When he was brought in with his big white beard and white pate, some officers at the gate of the jail mocked him. One asked, "Why did they bring this old priest here'?" And another replied with a jeer, "Probably to take the confessions of everybody." Those were his exact words.

This priest had a son who had died in a Soviet jail. His daughter was sentenced to twenty years. Two of his sons-in-law were with him in jail--one with him in the same cell. His grandchildren had no food, they were forced to eat from the garbage. His whole family was destroyed. He had lost his church. But this man had such a shining face--there was always a beautiful smile on his lips. He never greeted anyone with "Good morning" or "Good evening," but instead with the words, "Always rejoice."

One day we asked him, "Father, how can you say 'always rejoice'--you who passed through such a terrible tragedy?"

He said, "Rejoicing is very easy. If we fulfill at least one word from the Bible, it is written, 'Rejoice with all those who rejoice.' Now if one rejoices with all those who rejoice, he always has plenty of motivation for rejoicing. I sit in jail, and I rejoice that so many are free. I don't go to church, but I rejoice with all those who are in church. I can't take Holy Communion, but I rejoice about all those who take. I can't read the Bible or any other holy book, but I rejoice with those who do. I can't see flowers [we never saw a tree or a flower during those years. We were under the earth, in a subterranean prison. We never saw the sun, the moon, stars--many times we forgot that these things existed. We never saw a color, only the gray walls of the cell and our gray uniforms. But we knew that such a world existed, a world with multicolored butterflies and with rainbows], but I can rejoice with those who see the rainbows and who see the multi-colored butterflies."

In prison, the smell was not very good. But the priest said, "Others have the perfume of flowers around them, and girls wearing perfume. And others have picnics and others have their families of children around them. I cannot see my children but others have children. And he who can rejoice with all those who rejoice can always rejoice. I can always be glad." That is why he had such a beautiful expression on his face.

Heaven's Smile

Let me interrupt to tell you about another Orthodox Christian. He was not a priest, but a simple farmer. In our country, farmers are almost always illiterate, or nearly so. He had read his Bible well, but other than that he had never read a book. Now he was in the same cell with professors, academicians, and other men of high culture who had been put in jail by the Communists. And this poor farmer tried to bring to Christ a member of the Academy of Science. But in return, he received only mockery.

"Sir, I can't explain much to you, but I walk with Jesus, I talk with Him, I see Him." "Go away. Don't tell me fairy tales that you see Jesus. How do you see Jesus?"

"Well, I cannot tell you how I see Him. I just see Him. There are many kinds of seeing. In dreams, for instance, you see many things. It's enough for me to close my eyes. Now I see my son before me, now I see my daughter-in-law, now I see my granddaughter. Everybody can see. There is another sight. I see Jesus."

"You see Jesus?"

"Yes, I see Jesus."

"What does He look like? How does He look to you? Does He look restful, angry, bored, annoyed, happy to see you? Does He smile sometimes?"

He said, "You guessed it! He smiles at me."

"Gentlemen, come hear what this man says to us. He mocks us. He says Jesus smiles at him. Show me, how does He smile?"

That was one of the grandest moments of my life. The farmer became very, very earnest. His face began to shine. In the Church today there are pastors and theologians who can't believe the whole Bible. They believe half of it, a quarter of it. Somehow they can't believe the miracles. I can believe the whole of it because I have seen miracles. I have seen transfigurations-not like that of Jesus, but something apart. I have seen faces shining.

A smile appeared on the face of that farmer. I would like to be a painter to be able to paint that smile. There was a streak of sadness in it because of the lost soul of the scientist. But there was so much hope in that smile. And there was so much love and so much compassion, and a yearning that this soul should be saved. The whole beauty of heaven was in the smile on that face. The face was dirty and unwashed, but it held the beautiful smile of heaven.

The professor bowed his head and said, "Sir, you are right. You have seen Jesus. He has smiled at you."

Pure Orthodoxy

Now, to come back to this priest, Surioanu. He was always such a happy being. When we were taken out for walks, in a yard where there was never a flower, a piece of herb, or grass, he would put his hand on the shoulder of some Christian and ask, "Tell me your story."

Usually the men would talk about how bad the Communists were. "They've beaten me and they've tortured me and they've done terrible things."

He would listen attentively; then he would say, "You've said plenty about the Communists; now tell me about yourself. When did you confess last?"

"Well, some forty years ago."

"Let us sit down and forget the Communists and forget the Nazis. For you are also a sinner. And tell me your sins."

Everybody confessed to him--I confessed to him, too, and I remember that as I confessed to him, and the more I told him sins, the more beautiful and loving became his face. I feared in the beginning that when he heard about such things he would loathe me. But the more I said bad things about myself, the more he sat near to me. And in the end he said, "Son, you really have committed plenty of sins, but I can tell you one thing. Despite all of these sins, God still loves you and forgives you. Remember that He has given His Son to die for you, and try one day a little bit, and another day a little bit, just to improve your character so it should be pleasant to God."

My experiences with this priest were among the most beautiful encounters of my life. He is no longer on this earth. He was an example of what real Orthodoxy is all about. There exists such Orthodoxy. I don't see much point in becoming an Orthodox from a Lutheran background or from a Baptist background or from any other background unless one desires that kind of Orthodoxy. His was an excellent Orthodoxy, a pure Orthodoxy. May God help us all to be truly Orthodox, after the example of so many saints who are depicted on the icons, and after the example of so many saints alive today.

A Good Confession

There was a brigade in Romania which was only for priests, bishops, pastors, rabbis, and laymen--whoever was in prison for his faith. One day a political officer came to inspect that brigade. Everybody stood at attention, and at random he called out a young man (whose name was Coceanga) and asked him, "What have you been in your civilian life?"

And he replied, "Sir, what I have been in my civilian life, I will be forever. I am a priest of God."

"Aha, a priest! And do you still love Christ?"

The priest was silent for a few seconds-seconds as long as eternity, because he knew that his eternal destiny would be decided in those seconds. The Lord said, "Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, 33). And then after a little meditation, his face began to shine--I have seen so many shining faces--and with a very humble but very decided voice he said, "Captain, when I became a priest, I knew that during Church history thousands had been killed for their faith. And as often as I ascended to the altar dressed in those beautiful, ornate robes, surrounded by the respect and love of the congregation, I promised to God that if ever I had to suffer, if ever I wore the uniform of the prisoner, I would still love Christ.

"Captain ," he went on to say, "I so pity you. We have the truth, and you have whips. We have love, and you have iron bars on prison cells. Violence and hatred is a very poor argument against truth and love. If you were to hang all the professors of mathematics, if all the mathematicians were hanged, how much would be four plus four then? It would still be eight. And eight plus eight would still be sixteen.

"You can't change the truth by hanging those who speak the truth. If all the Christians were hanged, it would still remain so that there is a God, and He is love. And there is a Savior; His name is Jesus Christ, and by confessing Him a man can be saved. And there exists a Holy Spirit, and a host of angels around the earth. And there exists a beautiful paradise--you can't change the truth."

I wish there was a way to convey the tone with which he said those words. We, the others, were ashamed because we believed in Christ, we hoped in Christ, but this man loved Christ as Juliet loved Romeo and as the bride loves the bridegroom.

An Undying Love

When I was in jail I fell very, very ill. I had tuberculosis of the whole surface of both lungs, and four vertebrae were attacked by tuberculosis. I also had intestinal tuberculosis, diabetes, heart failure, jaundice, and other sicknesses I can't even remember. I was near to death.

At my right hand was a priest by the name of Iscu. He was abbot of a monastery. This man, perhaps in his forties, had been so tortured he was near to death. But his face was serene. He spoke about his hope of heaven, about his love of Christ, about his faith. He radiated joy.

On my left side was the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest almost to death. He had been arrested by his own comrades. Don't believe the newspapers when they say that the Communists only hate Christians or Jews--it's not true. They simply hate. They hate everybody. They hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate anti-Semites, they hate anti-Christians, they hate everybody. One Communist hates the other Communist. They quarrel among themselves, and when they quarrel one Communist with the other, they put the other one in jail and torture him just like a Christian, and they beat him.

And so it happened that the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest nearly to death had been tortured nearly to death by his comrades. And he was dying near me. His soul was in agony.

During the night he would awaken me, saying, "Pastor, please pray for me. I can't die, I have committed such terrible crimes."

Then I saw a miracle. I saw the agonized priest calling two other prisoners. And leaning on their shoulders, slowly, slowly he walked past my bed, sat on the bedside of this murderer, and caressed his head--I will never forget this gesture. I watched a murdered man caressing his murderer! That is love--he found a caress for him.

The priest said to the man, "You are young; you did not know what you were doing. I love you with all my heart." But he did not just say the words. You can say "love," and it's just a word of four letters. But he really loved. "I love you with all my heart."

Then he went on, "If I who am a sinner can love you so much, imagine Christ, who is Love Incarnate, how much He loves you! And all the Christians whom you have tortured, know that they forgive you, they love you, and Christ loves you. He wishes you to be saved much more than you wish to be saved. You wonder if your sins can be forgiven. He wishes to forgive your sins more than you wish your sins to be forgiven. He desires for you to be with Him in heaven much more than you wish to be in heaven with Him. He is Love. You only need to turn to Him and repent."

In this prison cell in which there was no possibility of privacy, I overheard the confession of the murderer to the murdered. Life is more thrilling than a novel--no novelist has ever written such a thing. The murdered--near to death-received the confession of the murderer. The murdered gave absolution to his murderer.

They prayed together, embraced each other, and the priest went back to his bed. Both men died that same night. It was a Christmas Eve. But it was not a Christmas Eve in which we simply remembered that two thousand years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It was a Christmas Eve during which Jesus was born in the heart of a Communist murderer.

These are things which I have seen with my own eyes.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs. He helped us create Brotherly Help of the Churches

I have not come to call the righteous

But for what reason do the Pharisees blame the Savior, Jesus, for eating with sinners? Because it was the law to put a distinction between the holy and the profane: that is, that whatever was hallowed was not to be brought into contact with things profane.

They made the accusation therefore supposedly vindicating the law; but really it was envy against the Lord, and readiness to find fault. But He shows them that He is present now, not as a judge, but as a physician; and He performs the proper duty of the physician’s office, in being in the company of those in need of healing.

But no sooner had they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they bring forward another, finding fault because His disciples did not fast, wishing to obtain hereby an opportunity against Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

If your heart

If your heart has been softened either by repentance before God or by learning the boundless love of God towards you, do not be proud with those whose hearts are still hard. Remember how long your heart was hard and incorrigible.

Seven brothers were ill in one hospital. One recovered from his illness and got up and rushed to serve his other brothers with brotherly love, to speed their recovery.

Be like this brother. Consider all men to be your brothers, and sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given you better health than others, know that it is given through mercy, so in health you may serve your frailer brothers.

Bishop Nikolai

Bear one another’s burden

It being impossible for man to be without failings, he exhorts them not to scrutinize too severely the offences of others, but even to bear their failings, so their own may in turn be borne by others. In the building of a house, all the stones do not hold the same position: one is fitted for a corner but not for the foundations, another for the foundations and not for the corner.

So too it is in the body of the Church. The same thing holds true in the frame of our own flesh: one member bears with the other, and we do not require everything from each, but what each contributes in common constitutes both the body and the building...

For example, this man is irascible, you are dull-tempered: bear, therefore, with his vehemence so that he in turn may bear with your sluggishness... So do you by reaching forth a hand one to another when about to fall, fulfill the Law in common, each completing what is wanting in his neighbor by his own endurance.

But if you do not do it in this way, but each of you will investigate the faults of his neighbor, nothing will ever be performed by you as it ought... He shows that we ought to be our own lives, and this not lightly, but carefully to weigh our actions...

He who plants in the flesh wantoness, drunkenness, or inordinate desire, will reap the fruits of these things. And what are these fruits? Punishment, retribution, shame, derision, destruction... Have you sown almsgiving? The treasures of heaven and eternal glory await you. Have you sown temperance? Honor and reward, and the applause of angels, and a crown from the Judge await you.

St. John Chrysostom

Small prayers

Hymn of the Birthgiver of God
It is truly right to call you blessed, o Birthgiver of God, ever blessed and most pure and Mother of our God. More honourable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim; who without loss of virginity gave birth to God the Word, true Birthgiver of God we praise you.

Sunday Tropar
By your cross, you destroyed death! You opened paradise to the thief! You changed the weeping of the ointment bearing women to joy! And charged them to proclaim to your apostles that you arose, O Christ God, granting great mercy to the world!

Sunday Kontak
The dominion of death can no longer hold men captive, for Christ descended, shattering and destroying its powers! Hades is bound. The prophets together rejoice, for the Savior stood before them and said to those who believe: O you faithful! Come out to resurrection!

Apostle THOMAS

TROPARION of Apostle THOMAS

Holy Apostle Thomas, intercede with God all merciful that He may grant us the remission of our sins.



KONTAKION of Apostole THOMAS

Thomas, disciple of Christ and his faithful servant filled with divine grace, cried out in the sincerity of his love: "You are my Lord and my God!"

Gospel: John, 20:19-31

Kontakion Of Eustathius, JOHN THE BAPTIST

Kontakion Of Eustathius

O Holy Eustathius, you werean imitator of Christ in his passion; you drank of his cup with courage and became a sharer pf his glory: wherefore the God of us all granted you a divine power to work wonders.


TROPARION of the honorable and glorious Prophet, the Forerunner JOHN THE BAPTIST

Joy to you, O barren one unable to give bieth! Behold, you conceive today the one who is really a Torch of the Sun, who will enlighten the whole that suffered from blindness. Rejoice, O Zachary, and cry out in all confidence : "Thee One who will be born is a Prophet of the Most High!"


KONTAKION of the honorable and glorious Prophet, the Forerunner JOHN THE BAPTIST

Zachary rejoices greatly with his wife Elizabeth, for she conceived John the Forerunner whom the angel announced in gladness. As for us, we honor him in witness of this blessing.

TROPARION of the EXALTATION of the Holy CROSS

LORD OUR GOD, your Holy Martyrs EUSTATHIUS and THEOPISTA, AGAPIUS and THEOPISTA 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 God, save our souls!

Poem to meditate

Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
(Psalm 23:4)

When I struggle with pain that tortures me,
You walk with me, my God.

When my path is filled with worry and fear,
You walk with me, my God.

When sorrow and regret are haunting me,
You walk with me, my God.

When my life feels overwhelming and threatens to be too much,
You walk with me, my God.

When my time has come and death is waiting for me,
You walk with me, my God.

I count on you to be ever with me.
And so you are.

Thank you, God, for my body

My body is so tired, my God. It's wearing out. It has served me well, carrying me through this world with great care and service. And now I know that my bones and muscle and all my substance are weakened by the inevitable passage of time.

I thank you for my body, for all that it has done for me in this world. I thank you for all the blessing that have come to me through my senses and physical awareness, for the many things I've seen, touched, and known.

I thank you for the strength I've had, for the ability to work and move and do many of the things I've wanted and chosen to do. I thank you too for play and pleasure, for the enjoyment of so many of your tangible gifts.

I thank you for my ability to think, to reason, to appreciate, to be aware. When my time has come, my loving God, receive me and help me to release my body with gratitude and love. Thank you, God, for my body, wonderfully made and gratefully lived in.