For centuries in Orthodox Church There is a special way of reading the scriptures: the reading of the beginnings.
the biblical text is read in the temple of the head, and for special thematic passages, "beginnings".
You can imagine a whole chapter or just a part of it, for example, a story about some kind of miracle, prophecy, parable.
There are “ordinary conceived” - for every day of the year, conceived for festive services, for worship during a favor, for “common services” of saints, conceived “simply necessary” (for sacraments and necessary) and others.
the opening of the "new year" of the sliding annual cycle.
the first gospel concept - "in the beginning was the word ..." (John 1: 1-17);
The first apostles are "the first book that I wrote to you..." (Acts 1:1-8). During church year in the temple all the books of the New Testament are read, with the exception of the Apocalypse, as well as in full or in full.
In part, many books of the old zaveta.i, if every day zachalam indicated in our application (which means that they are read in church on this day), to try to understand what they read, opens with a completely different
side.
and it is not a description of events, seemingly well known, that will determine the understanding of the meaning of the scriptures, it reveals something of a deeper spiritual significance. In the full version you can: 1. Full integration with the program.
Orthodox church calendar»from the company master software.2.
The scripture reading is for the whole of 2015. 3. Ability to read New Testament and individual books in the old arbitrary order. By purchasing the full version of the "Gospel Reading" program, you thereby support us as the developers of the main "Orthodox" program.
tserkovnyykalendar".
Thanks in advance to everyone who helps us, God bless you for the psalms!
The Psalms is the only liturgical book of the Old Testament that has come to fully worship the New Testament, the Christian church.
"Psalter" in Greek is called a stringed musical instrument, which is accompanied by hymns.
This book is a collection of hymns that glorify God's concern for the world and man.
The Psalms, in fact, are the oldest prayer book, the depth and poetry of which describe the feelings of perhaps the best prayer books.
It's no wonder that Christian ascetics have been saying for a long time: "It's more likely that the sun will stop its march across the sky than it will stop reading psalms" - friends.dorogie - updated version of all 2015!
Also in this version there are new features.
Now, in the menu, you can bookmark the profile you have read and then go to nee.esche We have added the ability to read the psalter in Church Slavonic.
click to select language "settings -> psalm language".

question strictly orthodox(inside) calendar and got the best answer

Answer from Igor[guru]
I haven't been to church for a long time. but at one time he participated in the services as a reader.
the birth of the church is considered from the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. Week 24 is the 24th in a row this year from the feast.
OK. , 24 credits , VI, 17-23. - I understand you have a church calendar in your hands. Luke is the gospel of Luke, the gospel is divided into chapters and verses. 24 end (conceived in Old Slavonic beginning) in the gospel and the apostle, these terms are used, this is what should be read on the indicated day, according to the holiday, at the service. Vi is the fourth chapter of the said gospel and 17-23 are the verses in this chapter.
these abbreviations are used for convenience, a lot of text will be written if you write each time. The Gospel of Luke 24 began the fourth chapter 17-23 verses. there just aren't enough books.
so it is with the index of readings, and the lives of the saints. Col 3 (the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians 3 chapter) 17 verse to 4 chapter of the first verse.
I hope that clarified. contact if something is not clear.

Answer from Nikolai Prusenkov[guru]
let's start with what YOU have noted; Qty. 3, 17-4. 1 - this means that YOU open the epistle to the Colossians and read chapter 3 from stanzas 17 to 1 stanza of chapter 4; OK. 9. 44-50 - You open the Gospel of Luke and read stanzas from 44 to 50 in chapter 9 ... a special service Gospel is divided into conceptions ...

Answer from Brevis[guru]
Abbreviations not only Orthodox know
what from the Bible Lk. Luke 12:48-59 chapter 12 verses 48-59
WEEK - Old Russian name of the week
PENTECOST - Otherwise called the Day of the Holy Trinity.
i.e. 24 weeks after the Holy Trinity

Then a certain lawyer approached Jesus, and, tempting Him, asked Him, saying: Teacher! what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is like it: love thy neighbor as thyself; on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. When the Pharisees had gathered, Jesus asked them: what do you think of Christ? whose son is he? They say to Him: Davidov. He says to them, How then, by inspiration, does David call Him Lord, when he says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool? So if David calls Him Lord, how can He be his son? And no one could answer Him a word; and from that day on no one dared to question Him.

In this Gospel we are told about the mystery of love, about our responsibility in the use of holy words. Like the word "love". On the eve of the Passion of Christ, on the eve of the Cross of the Lord, when the high priests, scribes and Pharisees, connoisseurs of Holy Scripture, approach the Lord, trying to catch Him. And one of them, of these legal theologians, asks the Lord which commandment is the greatest. Maybe not everyone knows that the scribes taught that if you carefully study the law, you can count 613 commandments in it. 248 of them are affirmative, that is, talking about what to do, and the remaining 365 are negative, warning what not to do. O false.

What does Christ think of this? A professor of theology addresses Him, and we do not hear the intonation of his voice - with reverence he addresses Christ or with triumphant mockery. If the Lord exalts one commandment, He will diminish others, and all commandments are equal before God, they say. And Christ speaks of love not because this commandment excludes others, but because it includes all the commandments.

Christ does not oppose love to the law, but shows what the greatest commandment is hidden within the law, what treasure is stored in its depths. All the law and the prophets, He says, rest on these two commandments. This means that all Scripture loses its meaning - all the commandments - if there is no love in them, at least the striving for love.

We know how the word of God tells us about love. Indeed, our God is love. Everything in the world - both heaven and earth, not only the law and the prophets - is established on love. Take away the law of love and everything falls apart. All the prophets speak of love and live by love, because only love can see. Only love can see what is happening here on earth and in eternity. And only love legitimizes the relationship between people. And nothing is true and Orthodox in our faith if love is not in the first place.

The Holy Fathers say that love is the main fortress. Only in it can the army of Christ find security, that is, we who seek the Lord. Love is the most important secret of man. What is a person? This is a creature created by God for love. That is why Satan hated man so much.

Short and sweet word "love". Sweet, like "Jesus the Sweetest," like the name of God is sweet. In love is the fulfillment of the whole law, and the yoke of the commandments with love is truly easy. The Lord says: "Take My yoke upon you" - and if in the midst of this terrible world we would learn to walk this ancient and eternally new way, then already here, on earth, we "would find rest for our souls."

And so, we hear in the Gospel today how the scribes and Pharisees, the Old Testament theologians, fall silent after such an answer from the Savior. And He in turn asks them His question: “What do you think about Christ, Whose Son is He?” The question, the answer to which they knew best, because they repeated several times every day in the catechism that Christ is the Son of David. This, after all, is a paraphrase “The Son of David is the Anointed One,” that is, Christ. Therefore, it is not difficult for them to answer the Savior's question.

But if Christ is the Son of David, the Lord asks them, why does David call Him Lord? We can all read this in Psalm 109. And it is clear that the answer they give is insufficient, inadequate. Indeed, when did any father address his son as Lord? And for those who do not know the divinity of Christ, this cannot but be absurd.

Therefore, they are silent - they do not know what to answer to the Lord. Or they are silent, because in their wickedness they do not want to recognize the Messiah as God. Their theology has gone so far that they are likened to Satan himself, who quotes the Holy Scriptures.

But for us who know God, the answer is by the gift of God, by the gift of Christ's love, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, just as it was given by the Holy Spirit to David to confess Christ as Lord - the answer is quite clear. As God, Christ is the Lord for David, and as a man, He is the Son of David. That He is the Son of David can be known by examining the genealogies, but that He is God cannot be comprehended by any mind.

Precisely because our Lord Jesus Christ is David's Lord, we can perceive that He is the Son of David. To comprehend the secret of His Divine exhaustion, the secret of His love, when He becomes a man, when He accepts the whole human path to the end, to death on the cross.

The Lord stops the mouths of these false theologians, “and from that day on,” as the Gospel says, “none of them asked Him about anything.” I didn't dare to ask him. One could, of course, ask a lot if the same question were asked in a different way. Because if they were looking for the truth, after hearing this, they would ask more and more questions, and the most important question they would ask: what should we do to be saved? But since their purpose was different, they turned away from Him.

What does the word of God tell us today? That all Christians, without exception, are called to be theologians who are in no way inferior to book theologians. Because they are anointed with the same anointing with which Christ was anointed - with the Holy Spirit, by the gift of Christ, by the gift of His Cross, by the gift of His love for us. Our word about God will only be true when we have love for the Lord. There are two ways to study theology. One external knowledge, bookish. Books need to be read, everyone who can accommodate as much as possible, but there is another way - this is when our life, in agreement with the most important mystery of Christ, with His Cross, with His love, comprehends the incomprehensible to any mind.

What do you think about Christ? - the Lord asks, after all, every person. Because every person (not only Christians) speaks his word about God. Some think nothing of Him at all, even Christian theologians may think nothing of Him. Others may belittle His honor and dignity. We know what heretics were in the Church of Christ and what are still there. Still others may be maliciously opposed to Him, like these theologians of the scribes. And so every person, one way or another, turns out to be a theologian.

For those who believe in Christ, the Lord is precious. And what they think of Christ is precious. Be it the humble fishermen apostles. The Apostle John the Theologian - his Gospel, his Apocalypse, his Epistles - all the light of the Holy Spirit and Divine love. Or the Monk Silouan of Athos, whose memory was recently celebrated, a simple Tambov peasant who writes such amazing words about God. Both day and night his soul cries for Christ and that other people do not think about it, and therefore they lose everything and perish.

Today the Holy Church warns us against external theology, not because it is bad, but because there is a danger of so-called intellectualism, when everything passes only through the head, and not through the soul and heart. Such theologians can be very educated people, they can speak very well, but the most important thing is not in their word. On the one hand, there is the danger of theological ignorance, on the other, a daring attempt to know the truth with one mind.

We must always remember that the main thing that determines our thought, our spirit and our confession of faith is the worship of the Cross of Christ. If it is genuine, then the love of God is revealed to us, the grace of the Holy Spirit is granted to us, through which we learn all the secrets of life - and who was and is, and forever will be our Savior Messiah Christ.

We see today this fullness and integrity of the confession of the truth according to that host, recently glorified, of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia. According to the multitude of holy saints of God, who are all depicted with a cross. Each of them holds in the cross the whole mystery of theology, the whole mystery of who Christ is both in humanity and in divinity, and participation in this theology. And we must see the glory that our Church preserves and be worthy of this glory, this theology.

And let's say it again: it's absurd to think that someone here allegedly opposes external knowledge. But only love can comprehend why David calls Christ Lord. Only by the grace of the Cross, when we worship Him with all our lives.

The cross is where truth and love are inextricably united, because we know how much love perishes in a world without truth. The cross is the wisest book you can read. Whoever does not know this book is an ignoramus, even if he knows all the Holy Scripture by heart. Genuine theologians are only those who love this Book, learn from it, delve into it. Everything bitter that is in this Book will never be enough for those who want to be satisfied with its sweetness, because this sweetness is Christ's truth and love.

In the hand of the Living Christ on almost all icons is a scroll of Scripture: the Lord, the Lord of history, the Lamb slain, crucified and resurrected - He is the only one Who can open all the seals, because He is in us and we are in Him. In the light of Paschal, our reading of life must be illuminated more and more by the reading of Scripture. The Lord wants to “open our minds to understanding” events, to give us the ability to see His living presence in our every death, because death is defeated by Him. “Fear not, I was dead, but behold, I am alive forever and ever” (Rev. 1:17-18).

The book of Nehemiah tells that after the return of the God-chosen people from the 70-year Babylonian captivity, the priest Ezra reads the Scripture, forgotten during the years of exile. And everyone from sunrise to noon listens to him with tears, in which the joy of gaining the Law of God is mixed with sorrow for their unfaithfulness, which caused this captivity after a long period of divisions, betrayals and useless compromises with ambitious paganism.

Oh, that today our people, after their no less long and no less terrible captivity, could return to hearing the word of life! However, everything is being done to deprive him of this opportunity not only physically, but most importantly - to make him incapable of perceiving the highest truth. And we, Christians, have been given, by the grace of God, to stand in churches and listen, as if for everyone, to the gospel of the Gospel. We listen to this word with humility and gratitude to the One who speaks personally to each of us. Truly, we must listen to the gospel as if the Lord Himself were present and spoke to us. Let no one say: Blessed are those who could see Him. Because many of those who saw Him participated in His crucifixion, and many of those who did not see Him believed in Him. The same words that came out of the mouth of the Lord are sealed in writing to be preserved for us.

Is it possible to love someone without knowing them? To devote every day, at least a little time, to reading the Gospel with prayer means to gradually begin to know and see Christ, just as the apostles saw Him. He Himself is in these words filled with wisdom, compassion for the misfortune of sinners, holy anger and firmness towards businessmen from religion, patient concern for disciples who often do not understand the meaning of His words. It is difficult to love the Lord, to truly know Him, without listening to the Word of God, without reading the Holy Gospel - at least for a few minutes every day.

Before starting to read the Gospel at the service, the priest or deacon says: “And that we may be vouchsafed to hear the Holy Gospel of the Lord God, we pray.” And what prayer does the priest pray before this: “Shine in our hearts, Lover of mankind, of Your God-reason incorruptible light.” And further: “Wisdom, forgive me. Let's hear the Holy Gospel. Peace to all ". And the reading ends, as it begins, with our answer: "Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee." How do we give glory and praise to the Lord? Words and deeds, our life? Or do we immediately forget about this word, making it fruitless? What exile from the presence of God will follow after this for us? - Hotter than Babylon. And in our Fatherland, we, all our people, may find ourselves in a worse captivity than Babylon. The great enemy of God in the world is ignorance of the most important thing; spiritual ignorance is the cause and root of all troubles and evils that poison nations and confuse human souls. Ignorance, exacerbated by the powerful organized influence of television and the media, supposedly objectively, without God, covering what is happening in life. How great a multitude of people who call themselves Orthodox Christians suffer spiritual defeat, becoming easy prey for the enemy, only because of the lack of a firm knowledge of their faith. Ignorance is followed by delusion, the void is filled with blackness. What can be sadder than when ignorance of the word of God makes the world incapable of accepting the salvation of Christ that is offered to it!

A certain man was rich, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day.

There was also a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate in scabs and desired to feed on the crumbs falling from the rich man's table, and the dogs, coming, licked his scabs.

The beggar died and was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died, and they buried him.

And in hell, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, and crying out, said: Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said: child! remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus - evil; now he is comforted here, while you suffer; and besides all this, a great chasm has been established between us and you, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us.

Then he said: So I ask you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment.

Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen.

He said: No, Father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead comes to them, they will repent.

Then Abraham said to him: if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone were raised from the dead, they would not believe.

Luke 16:19-31

Interpretation of the Gospel of the Blessed
Theophylact of Bulgaria

Luke 16:19. A certain man was rich, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day.

This speech is related to the previous one. Since above the Lord taught to manage wealth well, He justly adds this parable, which, by the example of what happened to the rich man, points to the same thought. This speech is precisely a parable, and not a real event, as some thought without reason. For the time has not yet come either for the righteous to inherit good things, or for sinners - the contrary. And the Lord gave figurativeness to speech in order to enlighten the merciless about what lies ahead for them, and teach those who are suffering that they will be prosperous for what they endure here. The Lord took the rich man into a parable without a name, since he is not worthy to be named before God, as it was said through the Prophet: “I will not remember their names with my mouth” (Ps. 15:4).

Luke 16:20. There was also a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate covered in scabs.

But he mentions the poor by name, for the names of the righteous are written in the book of life. They say, according to the tradition of the Jews, that at that time there was a certain Lazarus in Jerusalem, who was in extreme poverty and illness, and that the Lord mentioned him, taking him into a parable as obvious and known.

The rich man was in all respects prosperous. He dressed in purple and fine linen, and not only dressed, but also enjoyed every other pleasure. “He feasted brilliantly,” it is said, and not that today - yes, but tomorrow - no, but “every day”, and not that moderately, but “brilliantly”, that is, luxuriously and wastefully. But Lazarus was poor and sick, and, moreover, "in scabs," as it is said. For it is possible to be ill and, nevertheless, not to be wounded, and from these evil increases. And he was defeated at the rich man's gate.

Luke 16:21. and wished to feed on the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and the dogs came and licked his scabs.

A new sorrow to see that others are enjoying in abundance, while he is starving. For he did not want to be satisfied with sumptuous foods, but with crumbs from them, such as were eaten by dogs. No one cared about the healing of Lazarus either: for the dogs licked his wounds, since no one drove them away.

Luke 16:22. The beggar died and was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.
   
What? Lazarus, being in such a plight, blasphemed God, blasphemed the luxurious life of the rich man? Condemned inhumanity? Murmured against the Providence? No, he did not think of anything like that, but he endured everything with great wisdom. Where is this visible? From the fact that when he died, the angels received him. For if he had been a murmurer and a blasphemer, he would not have been honored with such an honor - being accompanied and carried by Angels.
The rich man also died, and they buried him.

Even during the life of the rich man, his soul was truly buried, she wore flesh like a coffin. Therefore, after his death, he is not raised up by angels, but is brought down to hell. For he who has never thought of anything high and heavenly is worthy of the lowest place. With the words “they buried him,” the Lord hinted that his soul had been taken to hell and a gloomy place.

Luke 16:23. And in hell, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom

Just as, having driven Adam out of paradise, the Lord settled in front of paradise (Genesis 3:24), so that the suffering, repeated at the constant sight of paradise, would give Adam a clearer sense of the deprivation of bliss, so he condemned this rich man before the face of Lazarus, so that, seeing the state in which Lazarus is now, the rich man felt what he had lost through inhumanity. Why did the rich man see Lazarus, not with another of the righteous, but in the bosom of Abraham? Since Abraham was hospitable, and the rich man had to be convicted of dislike for hospitality, therefore the rich man sees Lazarus with Abraham. This one even invited those passing by into his house, and he despised even the one lying inside the house.

Luke 16:24. and crying out, he said, Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

Why does the rich man turn his request not to Lazarus, but to Abraham? Maybe he was ashamed, or maybe he thought that Lazarus remembered his evil, and in his deeds he concluded about Lazarus. If I (he might think), enjoying such happiness, despised him, oppressed by such misfortune, and did not give him even crumbs, then all the more he, despised by me, will remember evil and will not agree to show me mercy. That is why he addresses Abraham with his words, probably thinking that the patriarch does not know how it was. What about Abraham?

Luke 16:25. But Abraham said: child!
   
He did not say to the rich man: inhuman and cruel, aren't you ashamed? now you remembered humanity. But how? "Child"! See a compassionate and holy soul. Some wise man says: do not revolt a humble soul. Therefore, Abraham also says: "child", letting him know through this that even now it is in his power to call him so mercifully, but nothing more, and that more than this he has no power to do anything for him. What I can, I will give to you, that is, the voice of compassion. But to go from here to there, it is not in our will, for everything is enclosed.
remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus - evil; now he is comforted here, while you suffer;

Why didn't Abraham say to the rich man: You accepted, but "received"? The word "get back" we usually use about those who get what they were due. What are we learning? Because although some have defiled themselves with evil deeds, although they have reached the extreme degree of malice, they have ever done one or two good deeds. Therefore, the rich man also had some good deeds, and since he received a reward in the prosperity of this life, it is said that he "received his good." "And Lazarus is evil." It may be that he also committed one or two evil deeds, and in the affliction that he endured here received a due recompense for them. Therefore, he is comforted, and you suffer.

Luke 16:26. and besides all this, a great chasm has been established between us and you, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us.
   
"Gulf" signifies the distance and difference between the righteous and the sinners. For just as their intentions were different, so also their abodes have a great difference, when each receives a reward according to his will and life. Here, too, the objection against the Origenists should be taken into account. They say that the time will come when the torment will end and sinners will unite with the righteous and with God, and thus God will be all in all. But behold, we hear Abraham say that "those who want to pass from here to you ... or from there to us ... cannot" do this. Therefore, just as it is impossible for someone to pass from the lot of the righteous to the place of sinners, so it is impossible, Abraham teaches us, to pass from the place of torment to the place of the righteous. And Abraham is no doubt more worthy of faith than Origen.

What is "hell"? Some say that hell is an underground gloomy place, while others called hell the transition of the soul from the visible to the invisible and formless state. For as long as the soul is in the body, it is revealed by its own actions, and when it is separated from the body, it becomes invisible. This is what they call hell.

"Abraham's bosom" is called the totality of those blessings that are offered to the righteous upon their entry from the storm into the heavenly harbors; for even in the sea we usually call bays (bosom) places convenient for harboring and resting.

Pay attention also to the fact that on the day that offender will see in what glory the one offended by him will be, and this one in turn will see in what condemnation the offender will be, just as here the rich man saw Lazarus, and this one again the rich.

Luke 16:27. Then he said: So I beseech you, father, send him to my father's house,
Luke 16:28. for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment.
   
The unfortunate rich man, having not received relief from his lot, encloses a request for others. See how, through punishment, he came to sympathize with others, and while before he despised Lazarus, who lies at his feet, now he cares for others who are not with him, and begs to send his father Lazarus from the dead to the house, not just someone from the dead, but Lazarus, so that those who formerly saw him sick and dishonored may now see him crowned with glory and healthy, and those who witnessed his squalor themselves become beholders of his glory. For it is obvious that he would have appeared to them in glory, if it were necessary for him to be a preacher worthy of probability. What did Abraham say?

Luke 16:29. Abraham told him; they have Moses and the prophets; let them listen.

You, - he says, - do not care about the brothers as much as God, their Creator. He assigned countless mentors to them.

Luke 16:30. He said: No, Father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead comes to them, they will repent.

And the rich man says: “No, father!” For just as he himself, when he heard the Scriptures, did not believe and considered their words to be fables, so he also assumed about his brothers and, judging by himself, says that they will not listen to the Scriptures, like he himself, but if someone rises from the dead, they will believe.

Luke 16:31. Then: Abraham said to him: If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe.
   
There are people like that today who say: who has seen what is happening in hell? Who came from there and told us? Let them listen to Abraham, who says that if we do not listen to the Scriptures, then we will not believe those who would come to us from hell. This is evident from the example of the Jews. They, since they did not listen to the Scriptures, did not believe even when they saw the dead risen, they even thought of killing Lazarus (John 12:10). In the same way, after many of the dead were resurrected at the Crucifixion of the Lord (Matt. 27:52), the Jews breathed on the apostles even more murder. Moreover, if this resurrection of the dead were useful for our faith, the Lord would do it often. But nothing is so useful today as a careful study of the Scriptures (John 5:39). Even the devil would have illusoryly managed to raise the dead (although), and therefore he would have misled the unreasonable, planting among them the doctrine of hell, worthy of his malice. And with our sound study of the Scriptures, the devil cannot invent anything like that. For they (the Scriptures) are a lamp and a light (2 Pet. 1:19), by the radiance of which the thief is revealed and revealed. So, the Scriptures must be believed, and not demanded the resurrection of the dead.

This parable can also be understood in a figurative sense, for example, in such a way that the face of the rich man denotes the Jewish people. He was just rich before, enriched with all knowledge and wisdom, and the sayings of God, which are more honest than gold and precious stones (Prov. 3:14-15). He dressed in purple and linen, having a kingdom and a priesthood, and being himself a royal priesthood to God (Ex. 19:6). The porphyry alludes to the kingdom, and the linen to the priesthood. For the Levites used vestments of fine linen during their sacred rites. He rejoiced brilliantly for all days, for every day, morning and evening, he offered sacrifices that also bore the name of infinity, that is, continuity.

Lazarus was the pagans, a people poor in divine gifts and wisdom, and lying at the gate. For the Gentiles were not allowed to enter the house of God; their entry there was considered a defilement, as can be seen from the book of Acts. The Jews of Asia shouted indignantly at Paul that he had brought the Gentiles into the temple and defiled it. Holy place(Acts 21:27-28). The pagans were wounded by fetid sins and with their wounds they fed shameless dogs, demons; for our (spiritual) ulcers are a pleasure to them. The pagans desired to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; for they had no part in the bread that strengthens the heart (Ps. 103:15), and needed food of the finest, little and reasonable, just as a Canaanite woman, being a pagan, wants to be fed with crumbs (Matt. 15:22, 26-27) . What's next? The Jewish people died to God, and their bones became dead, because they did not make any movement towards good. And Lazarus, who is a pagan people, died to sin. The Jews, who died in their sins, are burned with the flame of envy, jealous, as the apostle says, that the Gentiles have been accepted into the faith (Rom. 11:11). And the pagans, formerly a poor and inglorious people, justly live in the bowels of Abraham, the father of the pagans. Abraham, being a pagan, believed in God and moved from serving idols to the knowledge of God. Therefore, those who became participants in his conversion and faith rightly rest in his depths, inheriting the same fate, abode and perception of blessings as he did. The Jewish people desire at least one drop of the former lawful sprinklings and cleansings, so that their tongue would cool down and be able to boldly say something against us in favor of the power of the Law, but they do not receive it. For the Law is only up to John (Matt. 11:13). “Sacrifices,” it is said, “and you did not want offerings” and further (Ps. 39: 7). And Daniel foretold: “the vision and the prophet were sealed, and the Holy of Holies was anointed” (Dan. 9:24), that is, they ceased and were concluded.

Can you morally understand this parable. Namely: being rich in evil, do not leave your mind to endure hunger, and when it was created to aspire to heaven, do not cast it down and do not force it to lie at the gate, but bring it inside, and do not stand outside, do not wander, do not lie down, but act. This will serve you as a beginning for rational activity, and not only carnal pleasure. And the other parts of the parable are conveniently understood in favor of morality.

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