Friday, March 31, 2062
St Innocent, enlightener of Alaska and Siberia (1879); Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (326); St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow (1461)
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Tone 2. Lenten Fast: strict. What this means
The Epistle for St Innocent
Hebrews 7:26–8:2
For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.
1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.
The Gospel for St Innocent
John 10:9–16
I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture. 10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.
Commemorated today
- Theophilos the Martyr and those with him
- Akakios the Confessor
- St Innocent, enlightener of Alaska and Siberia (1879)
- Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (326)
- St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow (1461)
Hymns and lives of the saints are on the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.