Saturday, February 11, 2012

Greek Orthodox Church in America Daily Scripture Readings for Sunday, 12 February 2012

From goarch.com:

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Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Sunday, February 12, 2012

Readings for today:

    Mark 16:1-8
    St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:12-20
    Luke 15:11-32

Feasts and Saints celebrated today:

      Sunday of Prodigal Son 
    Meletios, Archbishop of Antioch
    Antonius, Archbishop of Constantinople
    Christos the New Martyr


Orthros Gospel Reading

The reading is from Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus.  And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen.  And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?"  And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back, for it was very large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed.  And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you."  And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

    (c) 2012 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Epistle Reading

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:12-20

Brethren, "all things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful.  "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything.  "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" -- and God will destroy both one and the other.  The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?  Never!  Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her?  For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh."  But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  Shun immorality.  Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?  You are
  not your own; you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to God. 

    (c) 2012 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Gospel Reading

The reading is from Luke 15:11-32

The Lord said this parable: "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.'  And he divided his living between them.  Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.  And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want.  So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine.  And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of yo
ur hired servants.'  And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.'  And they began to make merry.  Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant.  And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.'  But he was angry and refused to go in.  His father came out and entreat
ed him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!'  And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

    (c) 2012 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America


Sunday of Prodigal Son 

Reading from the Synaxarion:

Through the parable of today's Gospel, our Saviour has set forth three things for us: the condition of the sinner, the rule of repentance, and the greatness of God's compassion.  The divine Fathers have put this reading the week after the parable of the Publican and Pharisee so that, seeing in the person of the Prodigal Son our own wretched condition -- inasmuch as we are sunken in sin, far from God and His Mysteries -- we might at last come to our senses and make haste to return to Him by repentance during these holy days of the Fast.

Furthermore, those who have wrought many great iniquities, and have persisted in them for a long time, oftentimes fall into despair, thinking that there can no longer be any forgiveness for them; and so being without hope, they fall every day into the same and even worse iniquities.  Therefore, the divine Fathers, that they might root out the passion of despair from the hearts of such people, and rouse them to the deeds of virtue, have set the present parable at the forecourts of the Fast, to show them the surpassing goodness of God's compassion, and to teach them that there is no sin -- no matter how great it may be -- that can overcome at any time His love for man.

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Second Tone
When You descended unto death, O Lord who yourself are immortal Life, then did You mortify Hades by the lightning flash of Your Divinity. Also when You raised the dead from the netherworld, all the Powers of the heavens were crying out: O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory be to You.


Kontakion in the Third Tone
O Father, foolishly I ran away from Your glory, and in sin, squandered the riches You gave me.  Wherefore, I cry out to You with the voice of the Prodigal, "I have sinned before You Compassionate Father.  Receive me in repentance and take me as one of Your hired servants."


Seasonal Kontakion in the Third Tone
O Father, foolishly I ran away from Your glory, and in sin, squandered the riches You gave me.  Wherefore, I cry out to You with the voice of the Prodigal, "I have sinned before You Compassionate Father.  Receive me in repentance and take me as one of Your hired servants."


Resurrectional Kontakion in the Second Tone
You rose from the tomb, O Savior all-powerful, * and Hades beheld the marvel and was struck with fear, * and the dead were rising up, and creation beholds and rejoices with You, * and Adam is also exultant; O my Savior, and the world ever sings Your praise.


This content is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved:
    Reading (c) Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA 
    Resurrectional Apolytikion (c) Fr. Seraphim Dedes 
    Kontakion (c) Narthex Press 
    Seasonal Kontakion (c) Narthex Press 
    Resurrectional Kontakion (c) Fr. Seraphim Dedes 


Meletios, Archbishop of Antioch

Reading from the Synaxarion:

This holy Father, who was from Meletine of Armenia, was a blameless man, just, reverent, sincere, and most gentle.  Consecrated Bishop of Sebaste in 357, he was later banished from his throne and departed for Beroea of Syria (this is the present-day Aleppo).  After the Arian bishop of Antioch had been deposed, the Orthodox and the Arians each strove to have a man of like mind with themselves become the next Bishop of Antioch.  Meletios was highly esteemed by all, and since the Arians believed him to share their own opinion, they had him raised to the throne of Antioch.  As soon as he had taken the helm of the Church of Antioch, however, he began preaching the Son's consubstantiality with the Father.  At this, the archdeacon, an Arian, put his hand over the bishop's mouth; Meletios then extended three fingers towards the people, closed them, and extended one only, showing by signs the equality and unity of the Trinity.  The embarrassed archdeacon then seized his hand, but rele
ased his mouth, and Meletios spoke out even more forcibly in defense of the Council of Nicea.  Shortly after, he was banished by the Arian Emperor Constantius, son of Saint Constantine the Great.  After the passage of time, he was recalled to his throne, but was banished again the third time by Valens.  It was Saint Meletios who ordained Saint John Chrysostom reader and deacon in Antioch (see Nov. 13).  He lived until the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 (which was convoked against Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, the enemy of the Holy Spirit), over which he presided, being held in great honor as a zealot of the Faith and a venerable elder hierarch.

Some time before, when the Emperor Gratian had made the Spanish General Theodosius commander-in-chief of his armies in the war against the barbarians, Theodosius had a dream in which he saw Meletios, whom he had never met, putting upon him the imperial robe and crown.  Because of Theodosius's victories, Gratian made him Emperor of the East in Valens's stead in 379.  When, as Emperor, Saint Theodosius the Great convoked the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople two years later, he forbade that anyone should tell him who Meletios was; and as soon as he saw him, he recognized him, ran to him with joy, embraced him before all the other bishops, and told him of his dream.

While at the Council, Saint Meletios fell ill and reposed a short while after.  Saint Gregory of Nyssa, among others, gave a moving oration at his funeral; bewailing the loss of him whom all loved as a father, he said, "Where is that sweet serenity of his eyes?  Where that bright smile upon his lips?  Where that kind right hand, with fingers outstretched to accompany the benediction of the mouth?" (PG 46:8-6).  And he lamented, "Our Elias has been caught up, and no Elisseus is left behind in his place." (ibid., 860).  The holy relics of Saint Meletios were returned to Antioch and were buried beside Saint Babylas the Martyr (see Sept. 4), in the Church dedicated to the Martyr which Meletios, in his zeal for the Martyr's glory, had helped build with his own hands.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Meletios, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.


Kontakion in the Plagal of the Second Tone
Fearing thy spiritual boldness, the apostate Macedonius doth flee; and as we accomplish the service wherein we seek thine intercessions, we, thy servants, hasten to thee with longing, O Meletios, thou equal of the Angels, thou fiery sword of Christ our God which doth utterly slay all the godless.  We praise thee, the luminary which doth illumine all.


This content is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved:
    Reading (c) Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA 
    Apolytikion (c) Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA 
    Kontakion (c) Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA 

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