The Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYR CONON OF ISAURIA
He was instructed in the Christian faith and baptized in the name of the Most Holy and Life-giving Trinity by the Archangel Michael himself. And until his very death this Commander-in-Chief of God's hosts accompanied him invisibly. He was enlightened and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that his heart was drawn to nothing worldly, but only to the spiritual and heavenly. When his parents forcibly gave him in marriage, on the first evening he took a candle and placed it beneath a vessel, then asked his bride: which is better, light or darkness? She answered: light. He then began to speak to her of the Christian faith and of the spiritual life as better and more beautiful than the bodily. And so he succeeded in bringing her, and then his parents, to the Christian faith. And he and his wife lived as brother and sister. Soon both his parents and his wife died, and he withdrew entirely from worldly life and gave himself to prayer, fasting, and contemplation of God. He performed great miracles by which he converted many to Christianity. Among other things, he compelled evil spirits to serve him. During a persecution he was seized and tortured, and stabbed all over with knives. The sick were anointed with his blood and healed. He lived for two more years in his city after that and departed to the Lord. This wondrous saint lived and suffered in the second century.
2. HOLY MARTYR CONON THE GARDENER
He was a native of Nazareth. He was meek and without malice, and pleasing to God in all things. In the time of the Decian persecution he was tortured for Christ. But he remained firm in faith and sharply rebuked the pagan judges for their foolishness. With nails driven into his feet and bound to the prince's chariot, this good and guileless saint was dragged until he himself gave out and fell. Then he prayed to God for the last time and committed his spirit to Him in the year 251.
3. VENERABLE HESYCHIUS THE FASTER
He was born near Brusa in the eighth century. But he withdrew to a mountain called Maion, notorious for demonic apparitions. He built himself a hut there and a small chapel in honor of the holy Apostle Andrew. He enclosed a garden for himself which he cultivated so that he might live by his own labor. He worked miracles through his prayer. He prophesied that after his death there would be a women's monastery in that place. A month before his death he foresaw the day and hour of his repose. At midnight of the foretold day, people saw his hut bathed in an extraordinary light. And when they came, they found him dead. He was buried in the church of Saint Andrew, and afterward Theophylact, bishop of Amasia, translated his remains to the city of Amasia. He reposed peacefully and departed to the Kingdom of his Lord in the year 790.
4. VENERABLE MARK THE ASCETIC
Mark was an ascetic and wonderworker. Tonsured by his teacher Saint John Chrysostom at the age of forty, Mark spent yet another sixty years in the Nitrian desert in fasting, prayer, and the writing of profitable books. He knew the entire Holy Scripture by heart. He was greatly compassionate and wept over the misery of every creature of God. Once, weeping, he prayed to God for the blind puppy of a hyena, and the puppy received its sight. Out of gratitude the mother hyena brought him a sheepskin. But the saint forbade the hyena to slaughter the sheep of poor people in the future. He received Holy Communion from angelic hands. His homilies on the spiritual law, on repentance, on sobriety, etc. belong to first-rate ecclesiastical literature; the great Patriarch Photius himself praised them.
Hymn of Praise
THE ANGELS
Angels are our elder and better brethren,
The will of the Creator Most High is their will.
Brighter than light, swifter and more radiant,
Lighter and fresher than mountain air,
Clothed in light — the light of their Creator,
Untiring workers of the work of Christ.
They are concerned for men, their sole care:
How to restore to God the wandering son,
How to restore their younger brethren from the land of exile
To the joyful halls of home.
Michael the Commander-in-Chief, first among the first,
As the Morning Star among the stars, so he among the angels;
He hastens to every penitent to lift him up to God,
However many penitents there be, he reaches each one.
To serve, to serve, and to serve — that is his joy,
For even in heaven, primacy lies in service to one's neighbor.
Service that strengthens life and gladdens a mother,
Service adorned with unfading crowns —
That service is the angels' joy and gladness,
For it goes to the glory of God and to the salvation of men.
“Even in heaven, primacy lies in service to one's neighbor.”
Reflection
But why do some people, well educated and baptized as Christians, fall away from Christianity and take refuge in philosophy and scientific theories, as though in something more true than Christianity? For two main reasons: either from an entirely superficial knowledge of Christianity, or on account of sin. A superficial knowledge of Christianity repels one from it, while sin flees from Christ as a criminal from a judge. Superficial and vicious Christians have often been just as embittered enemies of Christianity as pagans. It is more comfortable for the superficial and the vicious to bathe in the shallow pool of human opinions than in the dangerous depths of Christ. For those who sincerely follow Christ, He unceasingly calls on to ever greater and greater depth, as He once called the Apostle Peter: "Launch out into the deep!"
Saint Mark the Ascetic writes that the law of God is understood in proportion to the fulfilling of God's commandments. "Ignorance drives a man to speak against what is beneficial, while insolence multiplies vices."
“Ignorance drives a man to speak against what is beneficial, while insolence multiplies vices.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Mystery of Holy Communion as the mystery of perfect love, namely:
1. Because on Christ's part it means the giving of His entire Self to His faithful;
2. Because the faithful on their part receive Christ into themselves with faith and trust;
3. Because it leads to the joyful, fruitful, and salvific union of God with man.
Homily
on voyaging with Christ into the deep
Launch out into the deep (Luke 5:4)
So the Lord commanded Peter and the other apostles when He had finished speaking. This means that He first gives instruction and then immediately calls to action. The same holds for us: as soon as we have learned something from the Gospel, we must at once go and put it into practice. Disciples who act are dear to the Lord, not disciples only.
Launch out into the deep! Along the shore, in the shallows, the Lord spoke to the people, who are less initiated into the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; but the apostles He calls into the deep. In the shallows the danger is lesser, but so is the catch. In the shallows there are serpents and frogs and other small water-creatures — that is all the danger; and in the shallows there are only small fish — that is all the catch. But in the great depths the danger is also great. There are great sea monsters and great storms — that is the danger; but there also are great and fine fish in enormous abundance — that is the catch. O consecrated ones, let us then launch out into the deep!
Launch out into the deep of the mysterious sea of life — but do not set out upon your vessel without Christ. Not for anything. For not only may you spend the entire night of your life catching nothing, as Peter complained: "We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing" — not only that, but you may fare worse still, if Christ is not in the vessel. The storms can swirl you about and cast you into the abyss; the great sea monsters can devour you. Storms — those are your own passions, O consecrated one, which go with you inescapably if you set out into the deep without Christ. The great sea monsters — those are the demons, who in the twinkling of an eye can destroy you, as in the twinkling of an eye they destroyed the great herd of two thousand swine.
But if you go with Christ into the deep, fear nothing, but go joyfully and boldly, cleaving to the Lord. You shall make the finest catch, and fill both vessels with it — both the bodily and the spiritual. The finest catch shall be yours, O consecrated one, and without danger you shall come out upon the shore — the shore of the Kingdom of Christ. Only never go anywhere without Christ! Neither into the shallows nor into the deep. In the shallows both hunger and many small creatures shall weary you, and in the deep a great evil shall overtake you.
Thou art our helmsman, our defense, our haven, O almighty Savior! To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Launch out into the deep! But do not set out upon your vessel without Christ. Not for anything.”