Nativity Fast, day 3
Saints commemorated
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St Gregory the Wonderworker
Gregory the Wonderworker (c. 213 – c. 270), bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, was the great missionary hierarch of third-century Asia Minor and the most celebrated miracle-worker of the ante-Nicene Church, whose very epithet — Thaumaturgus, "the Wonderworker" — became his name. A pagan lawyer converted under Origen at Caesarea, he returned to his native city as its first bishop and, by preaching and by an unbroken chain of miracles, all but converted the whole region: tradition holds that he found seventeen Christians in Neocaesarea and left only seventeen pagans at his death. To him belongs the first recorded apparition of the Theotokos, who appeared with John the Theologian to give him a creed of the Holy Trinity, and the famous wonders of the moved mountain and the dried marsh.
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Ven. Nikon of Radonezh
Nikon of Radonezh (c. 1352–1426) was the disciple, chosen successor, and second abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the foremost monastery of Russia. Called by his brethren a "zealot of obedience," he took up the governance of the community six months before the repose of its founder, Sergius of Radonezh, rebuilt it from the ashes after the Tatar raid of Edigei in 1408, uncovered the incorrupt relics of Sergius in 1422, and raised over his master's grave the stone Trinity Cathedral for which Andrei Rublev painted his icon of the Holy Trinity. He is venerated among the wonderworkers of Radonezh and commemorated on November 17.
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Our Holy Father Longinus (4th or 5th c.)
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Our Holy Mother Hilda, Abbess of Whitby (680)
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Gennadius I of Constantinople
Gennadius was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 458 to 471, in the reign of Leo I the Great, in the difficult generation after Chalcedon when the settlement of 451 was being contested across the East. A learned exegete before he was a bishop — a commentator on Daniel, on Genesis and on the Pauline epistles, of the Antiochene school — he is remembered chiefly as a pastor and a disciplinarian of extraordinary mildness and extraordinary firmness together: he held a synod at Constantinople that condemned simony, refused to ordain any man who did not know the Psalter by heart, and left a reputation for gentleness that survives in the anecdotes John Moschus gathered a century and a half later. He received the Robe of the Theotokos into the shrine at Blachernae, climbed the ladder of Daniel the Stylite to ordain him priest on top of his pillar, and died in 471 having warned that the Church would be troubled after him — as, under his successor Acacius, it was.
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Lazarus the Iconographer
Lazarus the Iconographer (c. 810 – c. 857) was a monk, priest, and painter of holy images at Constantinople who confessed the veneration of icons through torture in the last iconoclast persecution. Under the emperor Theophilus his painting hands were seared with red-hot iron, and he was saved from death only by the intervention of the empress Theodora; after the restoration of the icons in 843 he returned to his art, and he died while returning from an embassy to Rome. He is honoured as one of the confessor-iconographers of the Triumph of Orthodoxy and is venerated as a patron of icon-painters.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
Thou wast shown a shepherd of the flock of Christ, meek to the penitent and unbending to the corrupt, and thou didst drive the traffic in holy things from the sanctuary, O father Gennadius; wherefore we honour thee as a true hierarch of the Church of Christ.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having received the power to work wonders, by fearful signs thou didst put the demons to flight and drive away the diseases of men, O all-wise Gregory; wherefore thou art named the Wonderworker, having taken thy title from thy deeds.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to thy gentleness: take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of thy hierarch Gennadius guide our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 8
Vigilant in prayers and steadfast in the works of wonders, thou didst take thy very name from thy deeds; therefore intercede with Christ our God, O Father Gregory, to enlighten our souls, that we may never sleep unto death.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the image faithfully preserved: for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; therefore with the angels, O venerable Lazarus, thy spirit rejoices.
Troparion — Tone 1
A good zealot of obedience wast thou, O ever-memorable Nikon; taking up the staff of Sergius, thy shepherd and guide, thou didst tend well the flock entrusted to thee, and didst bring it unharmed after him to Christ the Shepherd. Entreat Him to grant us peace and great mercy.
Readings
10th Matins Gospel
John 21.1-14
1After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 2There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 3Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. 8And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 9As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 10Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. 12Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 14This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.
Epistle
Galatians 2.16-20
16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gospel
Luke 12.16-21
16And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.