2 Peter 2.9-22 (Epistle)

9Zna Gospod pobožne izbavljati od napasti, a nepravednike muèeæi èuvati za dan sudni; 10A osobito one koji idu za tjelesnijem željama neèistote, i ne mare za poglavarstvo, i koji su bezobrazni i samovoljni, i ne drkæu huleæi na slavu. 11Kad anðeli, koji veæu snagu i silu imaju, ne izgovaraju na njih pred Gospodom hulnoga suda; 12A oni, kao nerazumna životinja, koja je od prirode na to stvorena da se hvata i kolje, hule na ono što ne razumiju, i u pogibli svojoj propašæe 13Primajuæi platu nepravde. Oni misle da je slast èastiti se svaki dan; oni su sramota i grijeh, koji se hrane svojijem prijevarama, jeduæi s vama; 14Imaju oèi pune preljuboèinstva i neprestanoga grijeha; prelašæuju neutvrðene duše; imaju srce nauèeno lakomstvu, djeca kletve; 15Ostavivši pravi put, zaðoše, i idu putem Valaama Vosorova, kome omilje plata nepravedna; 16Ali bi pokaran za svoje bezakonje: skot nijemi progovorivši glasom èovjeèijim zabrani bezumlje prorokovo. 17Ovo su bezvodni izvori, i oblaci i magle koje progone vjetrovi, za koje se èuva mrak tamni vavijek. 18Jer govoreæi ponosite i lažljive rijeèi prelašæuju na neèistote tjelesnijeh želja one koji otskora bježe od onijeh što žive u prijevari. 19I obeæavaju im slobodu a sami su robovi pogibli; jer koga ko nadvlada onaj mu i robuje. 20Jer ako odbjegnu od neèistote svijeta poznanjem Gospoda i spasa našega Isusa Hrista, pa se opet zapletu u njih i budu nadvladani, bude im pošljednje gore od prvoga; 21Jer im bješe bolje da ne poznaše puta pravde, negoli kad poznaše da se vrate natrag od svete zapovijesti koja im je predana. 22Jer im se dogodi istinita pripovijest: pas se povraæa na svoju bljuvotinu, i: svinja okupavši se, u kaljužu.

Mark 13.14-23 (Gospel)

14A kad vidite mrzost opušæenja, za koju govori prorok Danilo, da stoji gdje ne treba koji èita da razumije): tada koji budu u Judeji neka bježe u gore; 15I koji bude na krovu da ne silazi u kuæu, niti da ulazi da uzme što iz kuæe svoje; 16I koji bude u polju da se ne vraæa natrag da uzme haljinu svoju. 17Ali teško trudnima i dojilicama u te dane! 18Nego se molite Bogu da ne bude bježan vaša u zimu. 19Jer æe u dane te biti nevolja kakova nije bila od poèetka stvorenja koje je Bog stvorio dosad, i neæe ni biti. 20I da Gospod ne skrati dane niko ne bi ostao; ali izbranijeh radi, koje izbra, skratio je dane. 21Tada ako vam ko reèe: evo ovdje je Hristos; ili: eno ondje; ne vjerujte. 22Jer æe iziæi lažni hristosi i lažni proroci, i pokazaæe znake i èudesa da bi prevarili, ako bude moguæe, i izbrane. 23Ali vi se èuvajte: eto vam sve kazah naprijed.

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.