Sunday, April 7, 2097
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 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
Mark 8:34–9:1
He called the multitude to himself with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. 36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37For what will a man give in exchange for his life? 38For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
1He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death until they see God’s Kingdom 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.