Our Venerable Father and Confessor Chariton (350); Holy Viacheslav, Czech Prince; Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev Who Repose in the Nearer Caves of the Venerable Anthony; Passing into eternal life of Blessed Nykyta Budka (1949), First Bishop of Canada and Confessor of Karaganda Polyeleos Feast.
2 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:17-23
Read 2 Corinthians 4:6-15
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
If you have read the text of the Divine Liturgy, you may have noticed there are many prayers which the priest prays quietly. Among these numerous prayers is the beautiful prayer before the reading of the Holy Gospel, which begins: “Make the pure light of Your Divine knowledge shine in our hearts, O loving Master. Open the eyes of our minds that we may understand the message of Your Good News.”
The Scriptures, brothers and sisters, are not simply meant to be read. We read them so that through them, God may shine in and through us. The Scriptures, which testify of the Lord’s Resurrection, are meant to transform us here and now so that our lives may continually witness to the active presence of the resurrected Lord.
Consider what St. Isaac the Syrian says:
When the apostle said, ‘God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts,’ he referred to the resurrection. He showed this resurrection to be the exodus from the old state which in the likeness of Sheol incarcerates a person where the light of the gospel will not shine mystically upon him. This breath of life shines through hope in the resurrection. By it the dawning of divine wisdom shines in the heart, so that a person should become new, having nothing of the old.