From the calendar 2025

Saturday, September 6

Miracle of Archangel Michael at Colossae

Appointed readings

2 passages

Epistle

1 Corinthians 2:6–9

6However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

7But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

8which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'

Gospel

Matthew 22:15–22

Open Reader ↗

15Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.

16And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, 'Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.

17Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?'

18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, 'Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?

19Show Me the tax money.'

20So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, 'Whose image and inscription is this?'

21They said to Him, 'Caesar's.'

22And He said to them, 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

The rhythm of the day

Fasting: Fast-free
Weekly tone: Tone 3

In remembrance

The saints commemorated this day

Miracle of Archangel Michael at ColossaeRead the life

In Colossae in Phrygia there were a church and a holy spring dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Malicious pagans diverted the course of two rivers so that they would inundate the church. But the Archangel appeared, bringing with him an earthquake that shook the whole area and opened a fissure into which the waters plunged, sparing the church. The place was thereafter called “Chonae” Greek for “funnels” instead of Colossae.

Holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.), parents of St John the Forerunner.Read the life

The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)Read the life

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the “Unia,” by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim’s farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the “Greek Catholic” training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy.

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