[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

Wed Nov 21 05:00:25 CST 2007

Scripture Readings and Saints for Wed Nov 21 2007

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Composite 17  - Exodus 40 (Vespers, 1st Reading)
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "On the first day of the first month
you shall set up the Tabernacle of the Testimony, and you shall put in
it the Ark and cover it with the veil. You shall bring in the table
and the lampstand; and you shall set _there_ a golden altar to burn
incense before the Ark of the Testimony. And you shall put a covering
on the door of the tabernacle of the Testimony.
"Then you shal take the oil of anointing and anoint the Tabernacle and
all that is in it, and consecrate it and all its vessels; and it shall
be holy. And you shall consecrate the Altar fo Burnt Offerings; [it]
shall be most holy"
And Moses did all that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel had
commanded him. And a cloud covered the Tabernacle of the Testimony and
the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses was not able to
enter the Tabernacle of the Testimony, because the cloud overshadowed
it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
Scripture Reading 1 of 7

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Composite 18  - 3 

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Luke 16:19-31
19 There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine
linen and fared sumptuously every day.
20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who
was laid at his gate,
21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to
Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'
25 But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received
your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is
comforted and you are tormented.
26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can
those from there pass to us.'
27 Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him
to my father's house,
28 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they
also come to this place of torment.'
29 Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them
hear them.'
30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the
dead, they will repent.'
31 But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'
Scripture Reading 3 of 7

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Luke 1:39-49, 56  (Matins Gospel)
39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with
haste, to a city of Judah,
40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.
41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that
the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit.
42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should
come to me?
44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my
ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of
those things which were told her from the Lord.
46 And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold,
henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His
name.
56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her
house.
Scripture Reading 4 of 7

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Hebrews 9:1-7  (Theotokos)
1 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine
service and the earthly sanctuary.
2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the
lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the
sanctuary;
3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is
called the Holiest of All,
4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on
all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna,
Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;
5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy
seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always
went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.
7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not
without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins
committed in ignorance;
Scripture Reading 5 of 7

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Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28  (Theotokos)
38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and
a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and
heard His word.
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him
and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve
alone? Therefore tell her to help me."
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are
worried and troubled about many things.
42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which
will not be taken away from her.
27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman
from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb
that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"
28 But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word
of God and keep it!"
Scripture Reading 6 of 7

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The Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple
According to Holy Tradition, the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into
the Temple took place in the following manner. The parents of the
Virgin Mary, Sts Joachim and Anna, praying for an end to their
childlessness, vowed that if a child were born to them, they would
dedicate it to the service of God.
When the Most Holy Virgin reached the age of three, the holy parents
decided to fulfill their vow. They gathered together their relatives
and acquaintances, and dressed the All-Pure Virgin in Her finest
clothes. Singing sacred songs and with lighted candles in their hands,
virgins escorted Her to the Temple (Ps. 44/45:14-15). There the High
Priest and several priests met the handmaiden of God. In the Temple,
fifteen high steps led to the sanctuary, which only the priests and
High Priest could enter. (Because they recited a Psalm on each step,
Psalms 119/120-133/134 are called "Psalms of Ascent.") The child Mary,
so it seemed, could not make it up this stairway. But just as they
placed Her on the first step, strengthened by the power of God, She
quickly went up the remaining steps and ascended to the highest one.
Then the High Priest, through inspiration from above, led the Most
Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest
entered once a year to offer a purifying sacrifice of blood.
Therefore, all those present in the Temple were astonished at this
most unusual occurrence.
After entrusting their child to the Heavenly Father, Joachim and Anna
returned home. The All-Holy Virgin remained in the quarters for
virgins near the Temple. According to the testimony of Holy Scripture
(Exodus 38; 1 Kings 1: 28; Luke 2: 37), and also the historian
Josephus Flavius, there were many living quarters around the Temple,
in which those who were dedicated to the service of God dwelt.
The earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos from Her infancy until She
was taken up to Heaven is shrouded in deep mystery. Her life at the
Jerusalem Temple was also a secret. "If anyone were to ask me," said
St Jerome, "how the Most Holy Virgin spent the time of Her youth, I
would answer that that is known to God Himself and the Archangel
Gabriel, Her constant guardian."
But there are accounts in Church Tradition, that during the All-Pure
Virgin's stay at the Temple, She grew up in a community of pious
virgins, diligently read the Holy Scripture, occupied Herself with
handicrafts, prayed constantly, and grew in love for God. From ancient
times, the Church has celebrated the Feast of the Entry of the Most
Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Indications that the Feast was
observed in the first centuries of Christianity are found in the
traditions of Palestinian Christians, which say that the holy Empress
Helen (May 21) built a church in honor of the Entry of the Most Holy
Theotokos into the Temple.
St Gregory of Nyssa, in the fourth century, also mentions this Feast.
In the eighth century Sts Germanus and Tarasius, Patriarchs of
Constantinople, delivered sermons on the Feast of the Entry.
The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple
foretells God's blessing for the human race, the preaching of
salvation, the promise of the coming of Christ.
DISCOURSE ON THE FEAST OF THE ENTRY OF OUR MOST PURE LADY THEOTOKOS
INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES by Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of
Thessalonica
If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (Mt.
7:17; Luke 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who
bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good,
whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and
identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He
Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His
unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image,
that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged
down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and
raise it to the heights of Heaven. For this purpose, He had to assume
a flesh that was both new and ours, that He might refashion us from
out of ourselves. Now He finds a Handmaiden perfectly suited to these
needs, the supplier of Her own unsullied nature, the Ever-Virgin now
hymned by us, and Whose miraculous Entrance into the Temple, into the
Holy of Holies, we now celebrate. God predestined Her before the ages
for the salvation and reclaiming of our kind. She was chosen, not just
from the crowd, but from the ranks of the chosen of all ages, renowned
for piety and understanding, and for their God-pleasing words and
deeds.
In the beginning, there was one who rose up against us: the author of
evil, the serpent, who dragged us into the abyss. Many reasons
impelled him to rise up against us, and there are many ways by which
he enslaved our nature: envy, rivalry, hatred, injustice, treachery,
slyness, etc. In addition to all this, he also has within him the
power of bringing death, which he himself engendered, being the first
to fall away from true life.
The author of evil was jealous of Adam, when he saw him being led from
earth to Heaven, from which he was justly cast down. Filled with envy,
he pounced upon Adam with a terrible ferocity, and even wished to
clothe him with the garb of death. Envy is not only the begetter of
hatred, but also of murder, which this truly man-hating serpent
brought about in us. For he wanted to be master over the earth-born
for the ruin of that which was created in the image and likeness of
God. Since he was not bold enough to make a face to face attack, he
resorted to cunning and deceit. This truly terrible and malicious
plotter pretended to be a friend and useful adviser by assuming the
physical form of a serpent, and stealthily took their position. By his
God-opposing advice, he instills in man his own death-bearing power,
like a venomous poison.
If Adam had been sufficiently strong to keep the divine commandment,
then he would have shown himself the vanquisher of his enemy, and
withstood his deathly attack. But since he voluntarily gave in to sin,
he was defeated and was made a sinner. Since he is the root of our
race, he has produced us as death-bearing shoots. So, it was necessary
for us, if he were to fight back against his defeat and to claim
victory, to rid himself of the death-bearing venomous poison in his
soul and body, and to absorb life, eternal and indestructible life.
It was necessary for us to have a new root for our race, a new Adam,
not just one Who would be sinless and invincible, but one Who also
would be able to forgive sins and set free from punishment those
subject to it. And not only would He have life in Himself, but also
the capacity to restore to life, so that He could grant to those who
cleave to Him and are related to Him by race both life and the
forgiveness of their sins, restoring to life not only those who came
after Him, but also those who already had died before Him. Therefore,
St Paul, that great trumpet of the Holy Spirit, exclaims, "the first
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45).
Except for God, there is no one who is without sin, or life-creating,
or able to remit sin. Therefore, the new Adam must be not only Man,
but also God. He is at the same time life, wisdom, truth, love, and
mercy, and every other good thing, so that He might renew the old Adam
and restore him to life through mercy, wisdom and righteousness. These
are the opposites of the things which the author of evil used to bring
about our aging and death.
As the slayer of mankind raised himself against us with envy and
hatred, so the Source of life was lifted up [on the Cross] because of
His immeasurable goodness and love for mankind. He intensely desired
the salvation of His creature, i.e., that His creature would be
restored by Himself. In contrast to this, the author of evil wanted to
bring God's creature to ruin, and thereby put mankind under his own
power, and tyrannically to afflict us. And just as he achieved the
conquest and the fall of mankind by means of injustice and cunning, by
deceit and his trickery, so has the Liberator brought about the defeat
of the author of evil, and the restoration of His own creature with
truth, justice and wisdom.
It was a deed of perfect justice that our nature, which was
voluntarily enslaved and struck down, should again enter the struggle
for victory and cast off its voluntary enslavement. Therefore, God
deigned to receive our nature from us, hypostatically uniting with it
in a marvelous way. But it was impossible to unite that Most High
Nature, Whose purity is incomprehensible for human reason, to a sinful
nature before it had been purified. Therefore, for the conception and
birth of the Bestower of purity, a perfectly spotless and Most Pure
Virgin was required.
Today we celebrate the memory of those things that contributed, if
only once, to the Incarnation. He Who is God by nature, the
Co-unoriginate and Coeternal Word and Son of the Transcendent Father,
becomes the Son of Man, the Son of the Ever-Virgin. "Jesus Christ the
same yesterday and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8), immutable in His
divinity and blameless in His humanity, He alone, as the Prophet
Isaiah prophesied, "practiced no iniquity, nor deceit with His lips"
(Is. 53: 9). He alone was not brought forth in iniquity, nor was He
conceived in sin, in contrast to what the Prophet David says
concerning himself and every other man (Ps. 50/51: 5). Even in what He
assumes, He is perfectly pure and has no need to be cleansed Himself.
But for our sake, He accepted purification, suffering, death and
resurrection, that He might transmit them to us.
God is born of the spotless and Holy Virgin, or better to say, of the
Most Pure and All-Holy Virgin. She is above every fleshly defilement,
and even above every impure thought. Her conceiving resulted not from
fleshly lust, but by the overshadowing of the Most Holy Spirit. Such
desire being utterly alien to Her, it is through prayer and spiritual
readiness that She declared to the angel: "Behold the handmaiden of
the Lord; be it unto Me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38), and that
She conceived and gave birth. So, in order to render the Virgin worthy
of this sublime purpose, God marked this ever-virgin Daughter now
praised by us, from before the ages, and from eternity, choosing Her
from out of His elect.
Turn your attention then, to where this choice began. From the sons of
Adam God chose the wondrous Seth, who showed himself a living heaven
through his becoming behavior, and through the beauty of his virtues.
That is why he was chosen, and from whom the Virgin would blossom as
the divinely fitting chariot of God. She was needed to give birth and
to summon the earth-born to heavenly sonship. For this reason also all
the lineage of Seth were called "sons of God," because from this
lineage a son of man would be born the Son of God. The name Seth
signifies a rising or resurrection, or more specifically, it signifies
the Lord, Who promises and gives immortal life to all who believe in
Him.
And how precisely exact is this parallel! Seth was born of Eve, as she
herself said, in place of Abel, whom Cain killed through jealousy
(Gen. 4:25); and Christ, the Son of the Virgin, was born for us in
place of Adam, whom the author of evil also killed through jealousy.
But Seth did not resurrect Abel, since he was only a type of the
resurrection. But our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected Adam, since He is
the very Life and the Resurrection of the earth-born, for whose sake
the descendents of Seth are granted divine adoption through hope, and
are called the children of God. It was because of this hope that they
were called sons of God, as is evident from the one who was first
called so, the successor in the choice. This was Enos, the son of
Seth, who as Moses wrote, first hoped to call on the Name of the Lord
(Gen. 4:26).
In this manner, the choice of the future Mother of God, beginning with
the very sons of Adam and proceeding through all the generations of
time, through the Providence of God, passes to the Prophet-king David
and the successors of his kingdom and lineage. When the chosen time
had come, then from the house and posterity of David, Joachim and Anna
are chosen by God. Though they were childless, they were by their
virtuous life and good disposition the finest of all those descended
from the line of David. And when in prayer they besought God to
deliver them from their childlessness, and promised to dedicate their
child to God from its infancy. By God Himself, the Mother of God was
proclaimed and given to them as a child, so that from such virtuous
parents the all-virtuous child would be raised. So in this manner,
chastity joined with prayer came to fruition by producing the Mother
of virginity, giving birth in the flesh to Him Who was born of God the
Father before the ages.
Now, when Righteous Joachim and Anna saw that they had been granted
their wish, and that the divine promise to them was realized in fact,
then they on their part, as true lovers of God, hastened to fulfill
their vow given to God as soon as the child had been weaned from milk.
They have now led this truly sanctified child of God, now the Mother
of God, this Virgin into the Temple of God. And She, being filled with
Divine gifts even at such a tender age, ... She, rather than others,
determined what was being done over Her. In Her manner She showed that
She was not so much presented into the Temple, but that She Herself
entered into the service of God of her own accord, as if she had
wings, striving towards this sacred and divine love. She considered it
desirable and fitting that she should enter into the Temple and dwell
in the Holy of Holies.
Therefore, the High Priest, seeing that this child, more than anyone
else, had divine grace within Her, wished to set Her within the Holy
of Holies. He convinced everyone present to welcome this, since God
had advanced it and approved it. Through His angel, God assisted the
Virgin and sent Her mystical food, with which She was strengthened in
nature, while in body She was brought to maturity and was made purer
and more exalted than the angels, having the Heavenly spirits as
servants. She was led into the Holy of Holies not just once, but was
accepted by God to dwell there with Him during Her youth, so that
through Her, the Heavenly Abodes might be opened and given for an
eternal habitation to those who believe in Her miraculous birthgiving.
So it is, and this is why She, from the beginning of time, was chosen
from among the chosen. She Who is manifest as the Holy of Holies, Who
has a body even purer than the spirits purified by virtue, is capable
of receiving ... the Hypostatic Word of the Unoriginate Father. Today
the Ever-Virgin Mary, like a Treasure of God, is stored in the Holy of
Holies, so that in due time, (as it later came to pass) She would
serve for the enrichment of, and an ornament for, all the world.
Therefore, Christ God also glorifies His Mother, both before, and also
after His birth.
We who understand the salvation begun for our sake through the Most
Holy Virgin, give Her thanks and praise according to our ability. And
truly, if the grateful woman (of whom the Gospel tells us), after
hearing the saving words of the Lord, blessed and thanked His Mother,
raising her voice above the din of the crowd and saying to Christ,
"Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps Thou hast sucked"
(Luke 11:27), then we who have the words of eternal life written out
for us, and not only the words, but also the miracles and the Passion,
and the raising of our nature from death, and its ascent from earth to
Heaven, and the promise of immortal life and unfailing salvation, then
how shall we not unceasingly hymn and bless the Mother of the Author
of our Salvation and the Giver of Life, celebrating Her conception and
birth, and now Her Entry into the Holy of Holies?
Now, brethren, let us remove ourselves from earthly to celestial
things. Let us change our path from the flesh to the spirit. Let us
change our desire from temporal things to those that endure. Let us
scorn fleshly delights, which serve as allurements for the soul and
soon pass away. Let us desire spiritual gifts, which remain
undiminished. Let us turn our reason and our attention from earthly
concerns and raise them to the inaccessible places of Heaven, to the
Holy of Holies, where the Mother of God now resides.
Therefore, in such manner our songs and prayers to Her will gain
entry, and thus through her mediation, we shall be heirs of the
everlasting blessings to come, through the grace and love for mankind
of Him Who was born of Her for our sake, our Lord Jesus Christ, to
Whom be glory, honor and worship, together with His Unoriginate Father
and His Coeternal and Life-Creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages
of ages. Amen.
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