7th Week of Holy Cross Readings Tuesday

1 Corinthians 10:14-24
Therefore, my beloved, avoid idolatry. I am speaking as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I mean that what they sacrifice, (they sacrifice) to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger? Are we stronger than he? “Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds up. No one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbor.

Matthew 13:47-53
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. “Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

Prayer of the Faithful, vol. III
MORNING PRAYER – THIRD PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
Lord of might,
we beg you to hear our prayer and petitions.
Restore our consciences that have been deformed by sin,
dress our wounds,
and pour upon us the oil of your kindness.
Thus, walking calm and secure amid the waves of this world’s
ocean,
we shall offer you at all times the fruits of thanksgiving pleasing to you.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to you be glory,
now and forever.
Amen.

Saint of the Day: Pope Saint Anicetus (born in Emesa {modern Homs}, Syria, died 167 in Rome) was bishop of Rome in the mid-second century. In his time, the early papacy began to take on a more definite historical character compared to that of most of his predecessors.
Anicetus was involved in upholding the Roman tradition of celebrating Easter on Sunday rather than in relation to the day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, although he did not insist that other churches follow the Roman custom. In connection with this issue, he received a visit from the venerable Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, who supported the Eastern tradition of keeping the Easter feast on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan.

Meditation:
I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love. Nay, what is so bitter and vehement as the torment of love?
I mean that those who have become conscious that they have sinned against love suffer greater torment from this than from any fear of punishment.
For the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against love is more poignant than any torment. It would be improper for a man to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God.
Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all. The power of love works in two ways. It torments sinners, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend.
But it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties.
Thus I say that this is the torment of Gehenna: bitter regret. But love inebriates the souls of the sons of Heaven by its delectability.
– St. Isaac the Syrian, “Homily 72: On the Vision of the Nature of Incorporeal Beings, in Questions and Answers,”