Nativity Fast, day 11
Leavetaking of the Entry
Saints commemorated
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Holy Great Martyr and Most Wise Catherine of Alexandria and those with her (305)
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Great Martyr Mercurius (ca. 259)
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Clement of Ohrid
Clement of Ohrid (c. 840 – 916) was the chief of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, the first bishop of the Slavs to preach, serve and write in the Slavonic tongue, and the founder of the Ohrid Literary School. Driven out of Great Moravia after Methodius's death in 885, he came down into Bulgaria, was set by prince Boris I over the region of Kutmichevitsa in south-western Macedonia, and there in some seven years is said to have taught three and a half thousand pupils, of whom the ablest were ordained. In 893 Tsar Symeon made him bishop of Drembica (Velitsa) — the first Slav to hold a Bulgarian see. He built the monastery of St Panteleimon at Ohrid, wrote the first original body of Slavonic Christian literature — sermons, panegyrics, lives, and hymns — and reposed there on 27 July 916, in a coffin he had made with his own hands. With Naum, Gorazd, Sabbas and Angelar, and with the two brothers themselves, he is one of the Seven Enlighteners of the Slavs, the Sedmochislenitsi.
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Clement of Rome
Clement was bishop of Rome at the end of the first century (episcopate c. 92–101) and one of the Apostolic Fathers — the generation taught directly by the Apostles. The tradition makes him a disciple of the Apostle Peter, who is said to have ordained him, and reckons him the third or fourth bishop of the Roman church. His enduring monument is the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Clement, c. 96), written in the name of the Roman church to quell a schism at Corinth: the earliest datable Christian writing outside the New Testament, and for centuries read aloud in the churches. A later passio relates that Trajan exiled him to the marble quarries of Chersonesus in the Crimea and had him drowned with an anchor about his neck; his relics, recovered there by Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century, were carried in part to Rome and in part to Kyiv. He is commemorated on November 25.
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Peter of Alexandria
Peter was archbishop of Alexandria from about 300 until his martyrdom in 311, the last of the great bishop-martyrs of the Egyptian church under the Roman persecutions — the tradition names him "the seal and the completion of the martyrs." Trained in and then head of the famous catechetical school of Alexandria, he governed his church through the fiercest years of the Great Persecution, largely from hiding, and left in his Canonical Epistle the Church's classic measure for restoring those who had lapsed under torture. He was the first to condemn and excommunicate the deacon Arius, before the Arian controversy had fully broken; the tradition tells of his vision of Christ as a boy in a torn robe, warning him not to receive the heretic back. Beheaded at Alexandria on November 25, 311, at the very spot of Saint Mark's martyrdom, he is venerated as a champion of Orthodoxy and a theologian whose writings were still cited at the Ecumenical Councils.
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
A rule of faith and an icon of gentleness, a teacher of self-restraint: so did the truth of things show thee to thy flock. Therefore hast thou gained by lowliness the things on high, and riches by poverty. O father and hierarch Clement, intercede with Christ our God, that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a branch of the divine Vine you were shown forth, all-holy Clement, bearing the clusters of true worship and distilling upon us the sweetness of salvation; therefore we honour your all-venerable memory, and we cry to you: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 4
O unshakeable and God-minded towers of the Church, and truly firm pillars of the true worship, all-praised Clement and Peter: by your intercessions preserve us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever deal with us according to Your forbearance: take not Your mercy from us, but by the supplications of the holy hierarchs Clement and Peter, govern our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever deal with us according to Your forbearance: take not Your mercy from us, but by the supplications of the holy hierarchs Clement and Peter, govern our life in peace.
Readings
Epistle
2 Thessalonians 1.10-2.2
10When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 11Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Hebrews 9.1-7 (Theotokos)
1Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. 6Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
Gospel
Luke 17.26-37
26And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 31In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 32Remember Lot’s wife. 33Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 34I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 35Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 36Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 37And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28 (Theotokos)
38Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. 27And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.