Sunday, April 7, 2024
Third Sunday of Lent
Veneration of the Precious Cross
Repose St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, Enlightener N. America
Tone 3. Lenten Fast: wine and oil allowed. What this means
The Epistle for St Tikhon
Hebrews 7:26–8:2
For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
The Gospel
Mark 8:34–9:1
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
1And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
Commemorated today
- Gerasimos the God-Bearer of Byzantium
- St Justin (Popovic) of Chelije in Serbia (1979) (March 25 OC)
- Holy Martyr Calliopius, with his mother Theoclea (304)
- St George the Confessor, bishop of Mitylene (ca. 820)
- St Nilus (Nil Sorsky), abbot of Sora (1508)
- Saint Savvas the New of Kalymnos (1948) (March 25 OC)
Hymns and lives of the saints are on the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.