Sunday, February 17, 1991
Sunday of Cheesefare: Expulsion of Adam from Paradise
Forgiveness Sunday
Tone 4. Fast day: no meat. What this means
The Epistle for Theodore Tyro
2 Timothy 2:1–10
You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. 5Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he isn’t crowned unless he has competed by the rules. 6The farmer who labors must be the first to get a share of the crops. 7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News, 9in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained. 10Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The Gospel
Matthew 6:14–21
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
19“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Commemorated today
- Greatmartyr Theodore Tyro
- Hieromartyr Germogen, Patriarch of Moscow
- Mariamne, Sister of Apostle Philip, and Equal to the Apostles
- Righteous Auxentius
- The Pious Rulers Marcian and Pulcheria
- Theodore the New Martyr of Byzantium
Hymns and lives of the saints are on the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.