Great Lent, day 7 · 42 days until Pascha
Sunday of Orthodoxy
Saints commemorated
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St James the Confessor of Catania
Jacob (James) the Confessor was a monk from his youth who, raised to the episcopate, endured imprisonment, hunger and exile for the veneration of the holy icons during the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm in the early ninth century. He did not die a martyr's death but is numbered among the confessors, having borne much affliction for the faith and lived out his days in ascetic labour. In the Greek synaxaria he is associated with the church of Catania in Sicily.
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Our Holy Father Serapion (366)
Serapion (c. 300 – after 362) was bishop of Thmuis in the Egyptian Delta, a monk of the Nitrian desert before his consecration, the intimate friend and staunch ally of Athanasius the Great in the struggle against Arianism, and one of the recipients of the letters of Antony the Great. He is remembered above all for the Euchologion (Sacramentary) that bears his name — the earliest substantially surviving collection of Egyptian liturgical prayers — and for his treatise Against the Manichaeans. He is numbered among the confessors of the Nicene faith.
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Serapion the Sindonite
Serapion the Sindonite is the Egyptian ascetic who owned nothing at all but a single coarse linen cloth — the sindōn that gave him his name — and who twice sold himself into slavery in order to convert his masters. Known from the Lausiac History of Palladius, he lived without roof or possessions "like the birds of the air," gave away even his cloth and his Gospel-book, walked from Egypt to Rome, and made of destitution an instrument of mission rather than a private discipline. Because his freedom from property extended to his own body and his own reputation, he stands at the head of a line that runs to the fools-for-Christ; and his few recorded sayings — above all his rebuke to a Roman recluse who thought herself dead to the world — are among the sharpest words in the desert literature.
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Thomas of Constantinople
Thomas (†610) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 607 until his death, holding the see through the troubled last years of the emperor Phocas. A deacon and the sakellarios (treasurer) of the Great Church before his elevation, he was esteemed for gentleness and for his care of the Church's order; the tradition recalls a portent of processional crosses clashing of their own accord, which he took, with the counsel of the holy John the Faster's disciple, as an omen of the divisions and calamities soon to fall upon the empire.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Enda of Inishmore, abbot of Aran (530)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailingly that which is according to the image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Serapion, thy spirit rejoices with the angels.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of an ascetic)
Having nothing upon the earth, thou didst possess Christ alone; and selling even thy own freedom, thou didst purchase souls for God. Wherefore, O Serapion, teach us to be poor, that we may be rich in Him.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable confessor)
In thee, O Father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to God's image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Jacob, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Serapion guide our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Thomas guide our life in peace.
Readings
8th Matins Gospel
John 20.11-18
11But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, 12And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. 14And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. 18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Epistle
Hebrews 11.24-26, 32-12.2
24By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 32And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gospel
John 1.43-51
43The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. 44Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. 50Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 51And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.