From The Greek Orthodox Arch-Diocese of America:
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Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Saturday, December 4, 2010
Fast Day (Fish Allowed)
Readings for today:
Matthew 25:1-13
St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5
Mark 5:24-34
Feasts and Saints celebrated today:
Barbara the Great Martyr
John the Righteous of Damascus
New Hieromartyr Seraphim, bishop of the Phanar in Greece
Juliana the Martyr of Heliopolis
Alexander Hotovitzky, New Hieromartyr of Russia, Missionary to America
Orthros Gospel Reading
The reading is from Matthew 25:1-13
The Lord said this parable, "The kingdom of heaven shall be compared
to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish
took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks
of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all
slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold, the
bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed
their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your
oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, 'Perhaps
there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers
and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom
came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast;
and the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying,
'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not
know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour
in which the Son of man will come."
(C) 2010 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Epistle Reading
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5
BRETHREN, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under
restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian
until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that
faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus
you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for
you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you
are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the
heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is
the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees
until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we
were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the
time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, to redeem those who were
under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
(C) 2010 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Gospel Reading
The reading is from Mark 5:24-34
At that time, a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And
there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who
had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she
had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the
reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his
garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I shall be made
well." And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body
that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself
that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the
crowd, and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to
him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who
touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman,
knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell
down before him, and told him the whole truth. And he said to her,
"Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your
disease."
(C) 2010 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Barbara the Great Martyr
Reading from the Synaxarion:
Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the
reign of Maximian.
She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When
Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly
believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a
bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to
certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build
a third window in addition to the two her Father had commanded. She
also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble
of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the
marble as if it had been done with an iron too. (When the Synaxarion of
Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross
inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were
worked there.) When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window
had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the
Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured
Barbara inhumanely, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he
beheaded her with his own hands, in the year 290.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Let us honor the holy Barbara for, with the aid of the Cross as her
weapon, she crushed the snares of the enemy, and was rescued from them
like a bird.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O noble Champion, following God who is reverently praised in
Trinity, you abandoned the temples of idols. Struggling amid suffering, O
Barbara, you were not overwhelmed by the threats of the tyrants, O brave
One, even singing aloud, "I worship the Trinity, the one Godhead."
Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Narthex Press
John the Righteous of Damascus
Reading from the Synaxarion:
Saint John was born in Damascus about the year 675, the son of wealthy
and pious parents, of the family of Mansur. He was reared together
with Saint Cosmas (see Oct. 14). who had been adopted by John's father
Sergius, a man of high rank in the service of the Caliph of Damascus. Both
of these young men were instructed by a certain monk, also named
Cosmas, who had been taken captive in Italy by the Arabs and later
ransomed by John's Father. Saint John became a great philosopher and
enlightener of the age in which he lived, and was honoured by the Caliph with
the dignity of counsellor.
When Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741) begin his war on the
holy icons, John wrote epistles defending their veneration. Since the
Saint, being under the Caliph of Damascus, was beyond Leo's power, the
Iconoclast Emperor had a letter forged in John's handwriting which invited
Leo to attack Damascus, saying the city guard was then weak; Leo then
sent this letter to the Caliph, who in his fury punished John's
supposed treason with the severing of his right hand. The Saint obtained
the Caliph's Permission to have his severed hand again, and that
night prayed fervently to the most holy Theotokos before her icon. She
appeared to him in a dream and healed his hand, which, when he awoke, he
found to be healed in truth. This Miracle convinced the Caliph of his
innocence, and he restored John to his office as counsellor. The Saint,
however, with many pleadings obtained his permission to withdraw from the
world to become a monk. He assumed the monastic habit in the Monastery
of Saint Sabbas. Then he had as elder a very simple and austere monk
who commanded him neither to write to anyone, nor to speak of the
worldly knowledge he had acquired, and John faithfully obeyed. A monk
grieving over his brother's death, however, after insisting vehemently,
prevailed upon John to write a funeral hymn to console him for his
brother's death. When John's elder learned of his transgression of the rule
he had given him, he cast him out of his cell, and would only accept
him back after John had humbly, with much self-condemnation and
without murmuring consented to clean all the latrines in the lavra. After
his elder had received him back, our Lady appeared to the elder and
sternly charged him not to hinder John any longer from his writings and
composition of hymns.
In his writings he fought courageously against the Iconoclasts Leo
the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus. He was also the
first to write a refutation of Islam. The time he had spent as a
counsellor in the courts of the Moslems of Damascus had given him
opportunity to learn their teachings at first hand, and he wrote against
their errors with a sound understanding of their essence. Saint John
was surnamed Chrysorroas ("Golden-stream") because of the eloquence
of his rhetorical style and the great abundance of his writings;
this name - Chrysorroas was also the name of the river that flows by
Damascus. In his writings he set forth the Orthodox Faith with exactness
and order. In his old age, after his foster-brother Cosmas had been
made Bishop of Maiuma, John also was ordained presbyter by the
Patriarch of Jerusalem. Having lived eighty-four years, he reposed in peace
in 760. In addition to his theological writings, he adorned the
Church of Christ with metrical and prose hymns and composed many of the
prosomia used as the models for the melodies of the Church's liturgical
chant; he also composed many of the sacred hymns for the feasts of the
Lord Saviour and the Theotokos. The life of Saint John of Damascus was
written by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem. See also June 28.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a
luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise John,
you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of
the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our
souls.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Come, O ye faithful, let us praise the hymn-writer, the Church's
luminary and wise instructor, the hallowed John, who cast down all her
enemies; for since he took up the Cross of the Lord as a weapon, he drave
off the heresies, with their every delusion. And as our fervent
champion with God, he granteth all the forgiveness of trespasses.
Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
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