The Morning Offering

The Library's Bright Corner

November 18 / 5
Saints of the Day:

26^th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.

Martyrs Galacteon and his wife Episteme at Emesa (253).
Repose of St. Jonah, archbishop of Novgorod (1470).
St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus (Election 1917).
New Hieromartyr Gabriel priest (1937).
Apostles Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius, and Philologus of the Seventy (1st c.).
St. Gregory, archbishop of Alexandria (9th c.).
Martyrs Domninus, Timothy, Theophilus, Theotimus, Dorotheus, Eupsychius, Carterius, Pamphilius, Agathangelus, and Castorus of Palestine (307).
Hieromartyr Silvanus, bishop of Gaza.
St. Kea, bishop of Devon and Cornwall.
Venerable Odrada, virgin of Balen (8th c.) (Neth.).
St. Cybi, abbot in Cornwall and Wales (550) (Celtic & British).
St. Gregory of Cassano, Calabria (1002).

Quote of the Day:
"The more the rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, Christ's holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it."

Saint Hesychios the Priest  "On Watchfulness and Holiness" (The Philokalia) 

Photo of the Day:
The library's Bright Corner.

Scripture Readings for the Day:  
1 Timothy 3:1-13

Qualifications of Overseers

 ¹ This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ² A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵ (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); ⁶ not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁷ Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Qualifications of Deacons

⁸ Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, ⁹ holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. ¹⁰ But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. ¹¹ Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. ¹² Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. ¹³ For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Luke 11:47-12:1

⁴⁷ Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸ In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
⁵² “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
⁵³ And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him⁵⁴ lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.

Luke 12

Beware of Hypocrisy

 ¹ In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.