3-го числа

Memory of St. prophet malachi He came from the tribe of Zebulun and died four hundred years before the Nativity of Christ. He prophesied about the coming of Christ, the change of the Law of Moses to a better and terrible judgment. Memory of St. Martyr Gordius The martyr Gordius suffered during the persecution of Licinius, in Caesarea in Cappadocia, and was beheaded. When he was sentenced to execution, many advised him, in order to save his life, to at least apparently renounce Christ. “You deny Christ with your tongue,” they told him, “but believe in your heart as you wish; God does not require language, but thoughts and beliefs.” But he, like a rock in the middle of the sea, remained unshakable and answered the bad advisers: “I cannot move the tongue that I have by the grace of Christ to deny the Creator; for he believes in the truth with his heart, but confesses with his lips for salvation (Rom. 10:10). How can I deny my Lord, Whom I have bowed to since childhood, even when I was raised in the holy faith? Will the sky shake, will the earth tolerate me when I renounce God? Do not be deceived: God is not mocked; He judges us from our lips, justifies us from our words, and condemns us from our words. (Matthew 12:37). Have you not heard the rebuke of the Lord? Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:33). Even if I prolong my life by renunciation, is it not obvious madness to buy eternal torment and rejection from God with a short life? I advise you to be prudent and, leaving behind lies, speak what is right. Say that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11)! For thus does every tongue cry out, when at the name of Jesus every knee bows, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” Having said this and crossed himself, St. Proudius fearlessly went to the place of execution and, having been beheaded, received a blessed life from the Lord, for Whom he suffered. This was in 320.