Fifth Sunday of Lent

Saints commemorated

Ven. John Climacus

John Climacus (c. 579 – c. 649) — "John of the Ladder" — was a monk of Mount Sinai who, after forty years of hidden ascetic labour, was made abbot of the great monastery there, and who at the request of another abbot composed the Ladder of Divine Ascent (Greek Klimax), the most influential handbook of Orthodox ascetic and monastic life. Its thirty "steps," one for each year of the Lord's hidden life, lead the soul from the renunciation of the world through the struggle against the passions to the summit of dispassion and love. The Church keeps his memory on March 30 and, above all, on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, setting him before the faithful as a guide in the ascent of the Fast.
Commemoration of an Uncondemning Monk
John the Silent

John the Silent, called the Hesychast (c. 454–558), was a bishop who became a hidden monk. Consecrated Bishop of Colonia in Armenia while still a young man, he fled the quarrels of the world, concealed his episcopal rank, and entered the Great Lavra of Sabbas the Sanctified near Jerusalem as a simple novice. When his secret was revealed and he could no longer be ordained, the Patriarch bade him live in silence — and in silence he remained for the rest of an extraordinarily long life, in his cell, in the desert (where a lion is said to have guarded him from the Saracens), and again at the Lavra, where he stood among the defenders of Orthodoxy against Origenism. He reposed at the age of 104 and is commemorated on December 3.
Sophronius of Irkutsk

Sophronius, Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk — in the liturgical style "of Irkutsk and all Siberia" — was one of the great missionary hierarchs of the eighteenth-century Russian Church, a Ukrainian monk of the Poltava country who was sent in 1753 to a diocese the size of a continent and governed it for seventeen years, founding its seminary, ordaining and disciplining a scattered and half-trained clergy, and travelling to Nerchinsk, Kirensk and Yakutsk. He reposed on 30 March 1771, in Bright Week; and because the Holy Synod took six months to decide where he should be buried, his body lay unburied through a Siberian summer and was found undecayed — the beginning of a veneration that examinations in 1833, 1854, 1870 and 1909 did nothing to check. A fire in the Theophany Cathedral at Irkutsk on 18 April 1917 consumed the shrine and left only his bones; a year later the Local Council of the Russian Church glorified him, and the glorification was solemnly completed on 30 June 1918, which is the day this collection keeps as the second of his feasts.
Sosthenes, Apollos, and Companions of the Seventy

On December 8 the Church commemorates a company of apostles of the Seventy, all named in the letters of the New Testament: Sosthenes, once ruler of the synagogue at Corinth and afterwards a bishop; Apollos, the eloquent Alexandrian of the Book of Acts; Cephas of Colophon; Tychicus, Paul's trusted messenger; Epaphroditus, whom Paul called his fellow-soldier; and Caesar, bishop of Dyrrhachium — together with the Apostle Onesiphorus, who is commemorated with them but whose principal feast and full entry stand under his own name. Chosen and sent by Christ among the Seventy (Luke 10), they laboured beside the Apostle Paul and became shepherds of the young Churches. Their memory is kept also on March 30 and, with all the Seventy, on January 4.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Osburga of Coventry, virgin (c.1015)
St. Fergus, bishop of Downpatrick (6th C)
St. Tola, bishop of Disert Tola in Meath (c.733)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 4

On the height of true abstinence the Lord established thee as a true and unerring star, giving light to the ends of the earth, O John our guide and father.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable, proper to Sinai)

With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barren desert, and by thy deep sighings thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by miracles, O John our venerable father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8

O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of monastics: O wise John, by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, thou harp of the Spirit. Intercede with Christ our God, that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

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 Sophronius, guide our life in peace.

Troparion — Tone 3

Holy Apostles, intercede with the merciful God, that he grant to our souls the forgiveness of offences.

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 9.11-14

¹¹But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; ¹²Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. ¹³For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: ¹⁴How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Galatians 3.23-29 (St Mary)

²³But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. ²⁶For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Gospel

Mark 10.32-45

³²And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, ³³Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: ³⁴And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again. ³⁵And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. ³⁶And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? ³⁷They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. ³⁸But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? ³⁹And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: ⁴⁰But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. ⁴¹And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. ⁴²But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. ⁴³But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: ⁴⁴And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Luke 7.36-50 (St Mary)

³⁶And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. ³⁷And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, ³⁸And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. ⁴⁰And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. ⁴¹There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. ⁴²And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? ⁴³Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. ⁴⁴And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. ⁴⁵Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. ⁴⁶My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. ⁴⁸And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. ⁴⁹And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.