Reading and Saints for January 8, 2019

according to the usage of the Ukrainian Catholic Church

Troparion and Kontakion:

Troparion (1): At Your baptism in the Jordan, O Lord, worship of the Trinity was revealed, for the Fathers voice bore witness to You, calling You His beloved Son, and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of these words. O Christ God, Who appeared and enlightened the world, glory be to You!Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and for ever and ever: Amen.Kontakion (4): You have revealed Yourself to the world today, and Your light, O Lord, has shined upon us. We recognize You and exclaim to You: You have come and revealed Yourself, O Inaccessible Light!

Heb 4:1-13

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it.  For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.[a]  For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.  For he has  somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”  And again in this place he said,“They shall never enter my rest.”

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,  again he sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  For if Joshua had given them rest, God[b] would not speak later of another day.  So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God;  for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.

 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Luke 21:12-19

But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony.  Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer;  for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

St. George the Chosebite (610-641)

I’m unable to find any information on the saint.

Our Venerable Mother, Domnica (474?)

She was born in Rome and reared in the love of Christ. She secretly left her parents' house and traveled by ship to Alexandria, where she found lodging with four virtuous pagan maidens. By her example and counsel these four were in time led to abandon idolatry and embrace Domnica's faith. The five then sailed to Constantinople, where it is said that the Patriarch Nectarius (October 11) was notified of their coming by an angel and met them at the dock. The Patriarch baptized the four maidens himself, giving them the names Dorothea, Evanthia, Nonna and Timothea, then settled them and Domnica in a monastery.   Soon the fame of Domnica's pure life, wise teaching, and wondrous healings spread throughout the city, and even the Emperor Theodosius, with the Empress and his court, came to see her. Soon the crowds made it impossible for her and her sisters to live the heavenly life for which they had entered the monastery; so they relocated the monastery to a remote, demon-haunted location where executions had once commonly been performed, since everyone avoided the area. Here a new monastery was built by order of the Emperor, and the sisters found peace.   Saint Domnica's fame continued, and she became not only a healer but an oracle for the city of Constantinople, prophesying the death of the Emperor Theodosius and the unrest which followed it. She reposed in peace, having first entrusted the care of the monastery to Dorothea. At the moment of her death, the whole monastery was shaken, and those present saw Saint Domnica dressed as a bride, being borne heavenward escorted by a company of white-clad monks and nuns.

St Emilian the Confessor

Saint Emilian, Bishop of Cyzikus, lived during the reign of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). He was summoned together with other bishops to the court of the emperor, who insistently urged the bishops to refrain from the veneration of holy icons. Saint Emilian was the first to tell the emperor firmly that the question of the veneration of holy icons ought to be discussed and decided only within the Church by its spiritual leaders, and not at the imperial court. In the year 815 he was sent to prison for the Orthodox Faith, where he died as a confessor.