Spiritual Reading
In addition to the Scriptures and lives of the saints, the reading of spiritual books is extremely important for our lives as Christians.
Constantly inundated by false ideas and suggestive advertising, it is critical that we nourish our souls with Godly material on a daily basis. Spiritual reading is most effective as part of our daily prayer rule, when our hearts are warm and receptive to the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
Saints Remembered Today
In the Orthodox Church there are saints commemorated every day.
The Prologue of Ohrid
One of the most accessible collections of these daily lives of saints is called the Prologue of Ohrid. Each day holds a few brief accounts of the saints remembered, a hymn, a homily, and a spiritual reflection. The Prologue is available in the following formats:
Here is the reading from The Prologue for today:
Translation of the Relics (847) of St Nicephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople (827)
His main commemoration is on June 2; today we commemorate the return of his holy relics to Constantinople.
Nicephoros was Patriarch during the time of the iconoclasts, and openly opposed the Emperor Leo the Armenian’s heretical policies. For this he was exiled to a monastery on the island of Prochonis, which he himself had built when Patriarch. After living there for thirteen years, he reposed around 827. In time, the iconoclast Emperors died, and the Emperor Michael, with his mother Theodora, came to the Imperial throne in 842; they appointed Methodios, a defender of the icons, as Patriarch. In 846, the incorrupt relics of St Nicephoros were returned to Constantinople and placed first in the Hagia Sophia, then in the Church of the Holy Apostles. The saint had been driven from Constantinople on March 13, and his relics were returned there on March 13, nineteen years later to the day.