1 Peter 2.21-3.9 (Epistle)

21Jer ste na to i pozvani, jer i Hristos postrada za nas, i nama ostavi ugled da idemo njegovijem tragom; 22Koji grijeha ne uèini, niti se naðe prijevara u ustima njegovijem; 23Koji ne psova kad ga psovaše; ne prijeti kad strada; nego se oslanjaše na onoga koji pravo sudi; 24Koji grijehe naše sam iznese na tijelu svojemu na drvo, da za grijehe umremo, i za pravdu živimo; kojega se ranom iscijeliste. 25Jer bijaste kao izgubljene ovce, koje nemaju pastira; no sad se obratiste k pastiru i vladici duša svojijeh.

1A tako i vi žene budite pokorne svojijem muževima, da ako koji i ne vjeruju rijeèi ženskijem življenjem bez rijeèi da se dobiju, 2Kad vide èisto življenje vaše sa strahom; 3Vaša ljepota da ne bude spolja u pletenju kose, i u udaranju zlata, i oblaèenju haljina; 4Nego u tajnome èovjeku srca, u jednakosti krotkoga i tihoga duha, što je pred Bogom mnogocjeno. 5Jer se tako nekad ukrašavahu i svete žene, koje se uzdahu u Boga i pokoravahu se svojijem muževima, 6Kao što Sara slušaše Avraama, i zvaše ga gospodarom; koje ste vi kæeri postale, ako èinite dobro, i ne bojite se nikakvoga straha. 7Tako i vi muževi živite sa svojijem ženama po razumu, i poštujte ih kao slabiji ženski sud, i kao sunašljednice blagodati života, da se ne smetu molitve vaše. 8A najposlije budite svi složni, žalostivi, bratoljubivi, milostivi, ponizni; 9Ne vraæajte zla za zlo, ni psovke za psovku; nego nasuprot blagosiljajte, znajuæi da ste na to pozvani da naslijedite blagoslov.

Mark 12.13-17 (Gospel)

13I poslaše k njemu neke od fariseja i Irodovaca da bi ga uhvatili u rijeèi. 14A oni došavši rekoše mu: uèitelju! znamo da si istinit, i da ne mariš ni za koga; jer ne gledaš ko je ko, nego zaista putu Božijemu uèiš; treba li æesaru davati haraè ili ne? Hoæemo li dati ili da ne damo? 15A on znajuæi njihovo licemjerje reèe im: što me kušate? Donesite mi novac da vidim. 16A oni donesoše. I reèe im: èij je obraz ovaj i natpis? A oni mu rekoše: æesarev. 17I odgovarajuæi Isus reèe im: podajte æesarevo æesaru, i Božije Bogu. I èudiše mu se.

Holy and Righteous Symeon the God-receiver and the Prophetess Anna

“There is an ancient tradition that the holy, righteous elder Symeon, who came from Egypt, was one of the Seventy learned Jews chosen in the days of the Pharoah Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) for the task of rendering the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and that to Symeon was assigned the translation of the book of the Prophet Isaiah. When he reached the famous passage where the Prophet foretells the virgin birth of Christ, saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14), he was so perplexed that he took a penknife to erase the word ‘virgin’ in order to replace it by ‘young woman’. At that moment, an angel of God appeared and prevented him from altering the sacred text, explaining that what seemed impossible to him was, in fact, a prophecy of the coming into this world of the Son of God. To confirm the truth of this, he promised that Symeon would not see death until he had seen and touched the Messiah born of the Virgin. When, after many long years, Christ was brought into the Temple at Jerusalem by the All-Holy Mother of God, the Holy Spirit revealed to the Elder Symeon that the time of fulfilment of the promise had come. He hurried to the Temple and, taking the Child in his arms, he was able to say wholeheartedly to God: Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). For indeed, the Elder Symeon was the living image of the ancient Israel of the Old Testament, which having awaited the coming of the Messiah was ready to fade away and give place to the light and truth of the Gospel. The relics of the holy and righteous Symeon were venerated at Constantinople in the church of St James, built at the time of the Emperor Justin.

“The prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was eighty-four years old. Since the early death of her husband, she had spent her whole life in the Temple in hope of the coming of the Saviour. She is the pattern for holy widows, virgins and monks, who have freed themselves of worldly cares in order to dwell always in the Temple, offering their fasts, hymns and prayers in eager expectation of the Lord’s coming. And when, like Anna and Symeon, they have seen the indwelling Christ with the eyes of their heart and touched Him through their spiritual senses, they proclaim with joy and assurance to all mankind that the Saviour is still coming into the world: A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32).” (Synaxarion)

The Synaxarion notes that the tradition that St Symeon was one of the Seventy is by no means universal among the Fathers. According to some, Symeon was the son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel, St Paul’s teacher. According to others, he was a righteous and devout Jew aged 112, neither a priest nor a Pharisee.

Our Father among the Saints, Nikolai (Nicholas), Archbishop and Enlightener of Japan (1912)

Born in Russia in 1836, he became one of the great Orthodox missionaries of modern times. As a boy, he resolved to become a missionary in the far East. With the counsel and blessing of Bishop Innocent of Siberia and Alaska, he went to Japan in 1861 and joined a small Russian mission there. Though the mission’s official purpose was to minister to the Russian consular community, the consul-general who invited Hieromonk Nikolai hoped to bring the light of the Orthodox Faith to the Japanese people as well. Realizing that he could only hope to convert the Japanese people if they understood one another well, Fr Nikolai immersed himself in the study of Japanese thought, culture and language. Over the course of his life he translated most of the Bible and most of the Orthodox services into Japanese, and became a fluent speaker of the language. He encountered much resistance: Preaching of Christian doctrine was officially banned in Japan, and a Samurai once approached him with the words “Foreigners must die!” It was this same Samurai who later became his first Japanese priest. In 1880 he was elevated to Bishop of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese war he remained in Japan and labored successfully to overcome nationalist strife that might have harmed or destroyed the Church in Japan. He encouraged all his Japanese faithful to pray for the Japanese armed forces, though he explained that as a Russian he could not do so, and excluded himself from all public services for the duration of the war. He sent Russian-speaking Japanese priests to the prison camps to minister to Russian prisoners of war. At the time of his repose in 1912, after forty-eight years in Japan, St Nikolai left a Cathedral, eight churches, more than 400 chapels and meeting houses, 34 priests, 8 deacons, 115 lay catechists, and 34,110 Orthodox faithful. The Church of Japan is now an autonomous Orthodox Church under the care of the Moscow Patriarchate.