All Souls Saturday; The Transfer of the Relics of Our Holy Father Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (847)
Great Fast Day 27.
Hebrews 6:9-12; 1 Corinthians 15:47-57; Mark 7:31-37; John 5:24-30
Read Hebrews 6:9-12
Brothers and Sisters, in today’s epistle we are reminded again to persevere in faith and not be sluggish -a constant theme for us during this holy season of Great Lent. As we have just passed the midpoint of the fast let us take strength from those who, like us, struggled in trying to be holy and who ultimately gained that prize through their perseverance. I found this excerpt from St. Macarius the Egyptian’s twenty-first spiritual homily to be a powerful reminder of the task we have:
The man who has really denied the world, and has made the effort and flung off the burden of the earth, and has taken himself away from the vain desires of fleshly pleasures, and glory, and authority and human honours, and has withdrawn from them with his whole heart—since the Lord secretly helps him in this open effort, in proportion to his denial of the will of the world—and has taken his stand to serve the Lord, and attended constantly upon it with his whole self, body and soul, this man, I say, finds contrariness, and hidden passions, and unseen bonds, and secret battle and effort, and hidden striving; and thus beseeching the Lord, and receiving from heaven the armour of the Spirit, which the blessed apostle reckons up, the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, and arming himself with these, he will be able to stand against the hidden wiles of the devil amidst the wickedness of the present.
Having provided himself with this armour by all prayer and perseverance and supplication and fasting, and all by faith, he will be able to fight out the battle against the principalities and the powers, and the world rulers; and thus having overcome the opposing forces by the co-operation of the Spirit and his own earnestness in all virtues, he will become meet for eternal life, glorifying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; to whom be glory and might for ever. Amen.