Mark 16.9-20 (3rd Matins Gospel)

9A Isus ustavši rano u prvi dan nedjelje javi se najprije Mariji Magdalini, iz koje je istjerao sedam ðavola. 10A ona otide te javi onima što su bili s njim, koji plakahu i ridahu. 11I oni èuvši da je živ i da ga je ona vidjela ne vjerovaše. 12A potom javi se na putu dvojici od njih u drugome oblièju, kad su išli u selo. 13I oni otišavši javiše ostalima; i ni njima ne vjerovaše. 14A najposlije javi se kad njih jedanaestorica bijahu za trpezom, i prekori ih za njihovo nevjerje i tvrðu srca što ne vjerovaše onima koji su ga vidjeli da je ustao; 15I reèe im: idite po svemu svijetu i propovjedite jevanðelje svakome stvorenju. 16Koji uzvjeruje i pokrsti se, spašæe se; a ko ne vjeruje osudiæe se. 17A znaci onima koji vjeruju biæe ovi: imenom mojijem izgoniæe ðavole; govoriæe novijem jezicima; 18Uzimaæe zmije u ruke, ako i smrtno što popiju, neæe im nauditi; na bolesnike metaæe ruke, i ozdravljaæe. 19A Gospod pošto im izgovori uze se na nebo, i sjede Bogu s desne strane. 20A oni iziðoše i propovijedaše svuda, i Gospod ih potpomaga, i rijeè potvrðiva znacima koji su se potom pokazivali. Amin.

2 Corinthians 1.21-2.4 (Epistle)

21A Bog je koji nas utvrdi s vama u Hristu, i pomaza nas, 22Koji nas i zapeèati, i dade zalog Duha u srca naša. 23A ja za svjedoka Boga prizivam na svoju dušu da štedeæi vas ne doðoh više u Korint. 24Ne kao da mi vladamo vjerom vašom, nego smo pomagaèi vaše radosti; jer u vjeri stojite.

1Ovo pak sudih u sebi da opet ne doðem k vama u žalosti. 2Jer ako ja èinim žalost vama, ko je koji æe mene veseliti osim onoga koji prima žalost od mene? 3I pisah vam ovo isto, da kad doðem ne primim žalost na žalost, a za koje bi valjalo da se veselim nadajuæi se na sve vas da je moja radost sviju vas. 4Jer od brige mnoge i tuge srca napisah vam s mnogijem suzama, ne da biste se ožalostili nego da biste poznali ljubav koju imam izobilno k vama.

Matthew 22.1-14 (Gospel)

1I odgovarajuæi Isus opet reèe im u prièama govoreæi: 2Carstvo je nebesko kao èovjek car koji naèini svadbu sinu svojemu. 3I posla sluge svoje da zovu zvanice na svadbu; i ne htješe doæi. 4Opet posla druge sluge govoreæi: kažite zvanicama: evo sam objed svoj ugotovio, junci moji i hranjenici poklani su, i sve je gotovo; doðite na svadbu. 5A oni ne marivši otidoše ovaj u polje svoje, a ovaj k trgovini svojoj. 6A ostali uhvatiše sluge njegove, izružiše ih, i pobiše ih. 7A kad to èu car onaj, razgnjevi se i poslavši vojsku svoju pogubi krvnike one, i grad njihov zapali. 8Tada reèe slugama svojima: svadba je dakle gotova, a zvanice ne biše dostojne. 9Idite dakle na raskršæa i koga god naðete, dozovite na svadbu. 10I izišavši sluge one na raskršæa sabraše sve koje naðoše, zle i dobre; i stolovi napuniše se gostiju. 11Izišavši pak car da vidi goste ugleda ondje èovjeka neobuèena u svadbeno ruho. 12I reèe mu: prijatelju! kako si došao amo bez svadbenoga ruha? a on oæutje. 13Tada reèe car slugama: svežite mu ruke i noge, pa ga uzmite te bacite u tamu najkrajnju; ondje æe biti plaè i škrgut zuba. 14Jer su mnogi zvani, ali je malo izbranijeh.

Commemoration of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae (Chonae) (4th c.)

In Colossae in Phrygia there were a church and a holy spring dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Malicious pagans diverted the course of two rivers so that they would inundate the church. But the Archangel appeared, bringing with him an earthquake that shook the whole area and opened a fissure into which the waters plunged, sparing the church. The place was thereafter called “Chonae” Greek for “funnels” instead of Colossae.

Holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.), parents of St John the Forerunner.

The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the “Unia,” by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim’s farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the “Greek Catholic” training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there.

When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying “Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!” But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of “Greek Catholic” priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities).

Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim’s labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism.

In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said “My only politics is the Gospel” — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands.

Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim’s grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.