October 6translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.

One of the Twelve great Apostles. Through his doubt in the Resurrection of Christ the Lord, a new confirmation of that wondrous and saving event was gained. For the risen Lord appeared again to His disciples in order to convince Thomas. And the Lord said to Thomas: Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas cried out: My Lord and my God (John 20)! After the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the apostles cast lots as to who would go where to preach, the lot fell upon Thomas to go to India. He was somewhat saddened that he had to go to so distant a land, but the Lord appeared to him and encouraged him. In India Saint Thomas converted many, both noblemen and the poor, to the faith of Christ, and established the Church there, and appointed priests and bishops. Among others, Thomas also converted to the faith two sisters, the wives of two Indian princes: Tertiana and Migdonia. Because of their faith both of these sisters were tortured by their husbands, with whom they did not wish to live after their baptism, and were then released. Having been freed from marriage, they lived God-pleasing lives until their deaths. Dionysius and Pelagia, at first betrothed to one another, when they heard the apostolic preaching did not enter into married life but devoted themselves to ascetic labors. Pelagia ended her life as a martyr for the faith, and Dionysius was appointed bishop by the apostle. Prince Misdaeus, the husband of Tertiana, whose wife and son Azanes were baptized by Thomas, condemned the apostle to death and sent five soldiers, who pierced him with five spears. And so the Holy Apostle Thomas gave up his soul into the hands of his Christ. Before his death he too, like the other apostles, was miraculously transported to Jerusalem for the funeral of the Most Holy Theotokos. But having arrived late, he grieved bitterly, and at his entreaty they opened the tomb of the Most Holy and Most Pure One, but did not find her body in it. The Lord had taken His Mother to His heavenly abodes. And so Holy Thomas, by his unbelief there, confirmed the faith in the Resurrection of the Lord, and by his tardiness here, revealed to us the wondrous glorification of the Mother of God.

Day alternates with night, and night with day. So let our daytime repentance alternate with nighttime repentance, and nighttime with daytime. Daytime repentance is shown mainly in good deeds, and nighttime repentance in prayer, sighing, and weeping. Thus we repay the days and nights — that is, we fill them with that which is of the greatest worth before God, and that which will accompany us to the Judgment of God. Look upon King David, and see the example of true repentance. It is not enough to confess one's sin before a priest and immediately consider it forgiven. Behold, David too confessed his sin before the Prophet Nathan, saying: I have sinned against the Lord (II Samuel 12:13). But the great king did not consider this sufficient; rather, he continually sighed in prayer before God and washed his sin every night with tears of repentance. Even lying in bed did not serve him for rest but for the weariness of penitential weeping, weeping with sighs. Do not say: David killed and committed adultery — he had much to repent. But do you not murder people with hatred, and do you not commit adultery with impure thoughts and desires? This life is not for justifying oneself, brother, but for convicting oneself. Blessed only is he whom God shall justify at the Dread Judgment. Repentance is not a matter of one hour or one day. It should be our inner occupation until the end of our life. Every night I flood my bed, says David. By this it is not said that one need not repent by day, but that the outpouring of the soul's repentance is more fitting at night than by day. In the silence of the night both our sins and the Judgment of God appear more clearly before our eyes... And does not the night more clearly remind us of death than does the day? And our bed of the approaching grave? O Lord, righteous and wondrous, we cannot truly repent without Thy help. Help us, O All-Good One, that we may see the wounds of our sins, and smell the stench from them, and weep over ourselves before our relatives weep over our dead carcass; before, O Lord, before — our guardian angels weep over the carrion of our souls when it is cast into the unquenchable fire. Help and save us, O Lord our God. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.