8th Week of Pentecost

Acts 17:16-20,22-24,30-34
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Some asked, “What is this scavenger trying to say?” Others said, “He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities,” because he was preaching about ‘Jesus’ and ‘Resurrection.’ They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, “May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean.” Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” And so Paul left them. But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Luke 11:24-26
“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first.”

Prayer of the Faithful, vol. III:
Safro – OPENING PRAYER

Lord,
great and just Judge,
on the Morning of the world to come you will sit in judgment
and repay each one according to his deeds.
Deliver us from shame and confusion,
and invite us to share the joy and exultation of your
blessed ones,
who dwell in indescribable light.
We shall glorify you, your Father and your Holy Spirit,
now and forever.
Amen.

Saint of the Day: The Martyrs of Thebes (Thebaid), 3rd century A.D.
A large number of Christians who were imprisoned, tortured and murdered together in the persecutions of Decius and Valerian, in Thebes, Egypt.

Mediatation:
Devotion to the Holy Cross
Isaac of Nineveh was a great defender of the outward, bodily actions that should accompany prayer. He had taken on the Messalians (Syriac msalyane, ‘those who pray’) “which appeared in the fourth century and spread over the entire Christian Orient, rejected the Church’s sacraments and asceticism” (Hilarion Alfeyev, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh). In response to them and their sole desire for ecstatic mystical experiences, Isaac argued that it was the tradition of the ancient fathers that bodily reverence for God should go along with the inner prayer of the heart, together creating true piety in the one who prays. This stance of Isaac is seen clearly in his devotion to the Holy Cross, a central symbol in the prayer, art, and theological thought of ancient Syriac Christianity.
“In many places Isaac mentions prayer and prostrations before the Cross, kissing the Cross, and other signs of special reverence which must be shown by a Christian to the Cross” (Hilarion Alfeyev, Prayer in St. Isaac of Nineveh). For him the Cross is foreshadowed in the Ark of the Covenant, where Moses and the people of Israel acknowledged the presence of God by prostration before the Ark. Now the presence of God is perfectly manifested in the Cross of Christ, and in reverence to that presence we adore Christ through prayer and prostration before the Cross. The Cross therefore is the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and is the eschatological (end-of-time) bridge to the Kingdom of God. The Holy Cross stands out in the theology of Isaac as the symbol above all others of the whole sweep of salvation history. It was to be venerated with prostrations, kissing the image of the Cross, kneeling, laying in front of its image for long periods of time, and putting one’s head to the floor numerous times.