John 21.1-14 (10th Matins Gospel)

1Poslije toga opet se javi Isus uèenicima svojijem na moru Tiverijadskom. A javi se ovako: 2Bijahu zajedno Simon Petar i Toma koji se zvaše Blizanac, i Natanailo iz Kane Galilejske, i sinovi Zevedejevi, i druga dvojica od uèenika njegovijeh. 3Reèe im Simon Petar: idem da lovim ribu. Rekoše mu: idemo i mi s tobom. Onda iziðoše i odmah sjedoše u laðu, i onu noæ ne uhvatiše ništa. 4A kad bi jutro, stade Isus na brijegu; ali uèenici ne poznaše da je Isus. 5A Isus im reèe: djeco! eda što imate za jelo? Odgovoriše mu: nemamo. 6A on im reèe: bacite mrežu s desne strane laðe, i naæi æete. Onda baciše, i veæ ne mogahu izvuæi je od mnoštva ribe. 7Onda uèenik onaj koga ljubljaše Isus reèe Petru: to je Gospod. A Simon Petar kad èu da je Gospod, zapreže se košuljom, jer bješe go, i skoèi u more. 8A drugi uèenici doðoše na laði, jer ne bješe daleko od zemlje nego oko dvjesta lakata, vukuæi mrežu s ribom. 9Kad dakle izljezoše na zemlju, vidješe oganj naložen, i na njemu metnutu ribu i hljeb. 10Isus im reèe: prinesite od ribe što sad uhvatiste. 11A Simon Petar uðe i izvuèe mrežu na zemlju punu velikijeh riba sto i pedeset i tri; i od tolikoga mnoštva ne prodrije se mreža. 12Isus im reèe: hodite objedujte. A nijedan od uèenika ne smedijaše da ga pita: ko si ti? videæi da je Gospod. 13A doðe i Isus, i uze hljeb, i dade im, tako i ribu. 14Ovo se veæ treæi put javi Isus uèenicima svojijem pošto ustade iz mrtvijeh.

Hebrews 1.10-2.3 (Epistle)

10I opet: ti si, Gospode, u poèetku osnovao zemlju, i nebesa su djela ruku tvojijeh: 11Ona æe proæi, a ti ostaješ: i sva æe ostarjeti kao haljina, 12I saviæeš ih kao haljinu, i izmijeniæe se: a ti si onaj isti, i tvojijeh godina neæe nestati. 13A kome od anðela reèe kad: sjedi meni s desne strane dok položim neprijatelje tvoje podnožje nogama tvojima? 14Nijesu li svi službeni duhovi koji su poslani na službu onima koji æe naslijediti spasenije?

1Toga radi valja nam veæma paziti na rijeèi koje slušamo, da kako ne otpadnemo. 2Jer ako je ono što je govoreno preko anðela utvrðeno, i svaki prestupak i oglušak pravednu platu primio: 3Kako æemo pobjeæi na marivši za toliko spasenije? koje poèe Gospod propovijedati, i oni koji su èuli potvrdiše meðu nama,

Hebrews 7.26-8.2 (Epistle, St Gregory)

26Jer takov nama trebaše poglavar sveštenièki: svet, bezazlen, èist, odvojen od grješnika, i koji je bio više nebesa; 27Kojemu nije potrebno svaki dan, kao sveštenicima, najprije za svoje grijehe žrtve prinositi, a potom za narodne, jer on ovo uèini jednom, kad sebe prinese. 28Jer zakon postavlja ljude za sveštenike koji imaju slabost; a rijeè zakletve koja je reèena po zakonu, postavi sina vavijek savršena.

1A ovo je glava od toga što govorimo: imamo takovoga poglavara sveštenièkoga koji sjede s desne strane prijestola velièine na nebesima; 2Koji je sluga svetinjama i istinitoj skiniji, koju naèini Gospod, a ne èovjek.

Mark 2.1-12 (Gospel)

1I uðe opet u Kapernaum poslije nekoliko dana; i èu se da je u kuæi. 2I odmah skupiše se mnogi tako da ne mogahu ni pred vratima da se sprate; i kazivaše im rijeè. 3I doðoše k njemu s uzetijem koga nošaše èetvoro. 4I ne moguæi približiti se k njemu od naroda otkriše kuæu gdje on bijaše, i prokopavši spustiše odar na kome uzeti ležaše. 5A Isus vidjevši vjeru njihovu reèe uzetome: sinko! opraštaju ti se grijesi tvoji. 6A ondje sjeðahu neki od književnika i pomišljahu u srcima svojima: 7Šta ovaj tako huli na Boga? Ko može opraštati grijehe osim jednoga Boga? 8I odmah razumjevši Isus duhom svojijem da oni tako pomišljaju u sebi, reèe im: što tako pomišljate u srcima svojijem? 9Što je lakše? reæi uzetome: opraštaju ti se grijesi? ili reæi: ustani i uzmi odar svoj, i hodi? 10No da znate da vlast ima sin èovjeèij na zemlji opraštati grijehe, reèe uzetome:) 11Tebi govorim: ustani i uzmi odar svoj, i idi doma. 12I usta odmah, i uzevši odar iziðe pred svima tako da se svi divljahu i hvaljahu Boga govoreæi: nigda toga vidjeli nijesmo.

John 10.9-16 (Gospel, St Gregory)

9Ja sam vrata; ko uðe kroza me spašæe se, i uæi æe i iziæi æe, i pašu æe naæi. 10Lupež ne dolazi ni za što drugo nego da ukrade i ubije i pogubi; ja doðoh da imaju život i izobilje. 11Ja sam pastir dobri; pastir dobri dušu svoju polaže za ovce, 12A najamnik, koji nije pastir, kome nijesu ovce svoje, vidi vuka gdje ide, i ostavlja ovce, i bježi: i vuk razgrabi ovce i raspudi ih; 13A najamnik bježi, jer je najamnik i ne mari za ovce. 14Ja sam pastir dobri i znam svoje, i moje mene znaju. 15Kao što mene zna otac i ja znam oca; i dušu svoju polažem za ovce. 16I druge ovce imam koje nijesu iz ovoga tora, i one mi valja dovesti; i èuæe glas moj, i biæe jedno stado i jedan pastir.

St Hilarion the New, abbot of Pelecete, Confessor (754)

He took up the monastic life when very young, and lived as a recluse for many years, and gained the grace to heal sicknesses and drive out demons by his prayers. Later he became abbot of the Monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia. During the reign of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, he and his monastery steadfastly upheld the holy icons, and were fiercely persecuted. Hilarion and his forty monks were exiled to a prison near Ephesus, where the Saint reposed.

Repose of Gerontissa Gavrilia (1992) (March 15 OC)

Mother Gavrilia, who was known to many who are still alive, has not been officially glorified by the Church, but is considered by many to be a Saint of our time. Her fine biography, Ascetic of Love, has been translated into English and several other languages. The account below is excerpted from that on the web site of St Gregory Palamas Monastery.

“The Gerontissa Gabrielia was born in Constantinople a hundred years ago on October 2/15, 1897. She grew up in the City until her family moved to Thessalonika in 1923. She went to England in 1938 and stayed there throughout the Second World War. She trained as a chiropodist and physiotherapist. In 1945 she returned to Greece where she worked with the Friends Refugee Mission and the American Farm School in Thessalonika in early post-war years. Later she opened her own therapy office in Athens until 1954. In March of that year her mother died and the office was closed. Sister Lila left Greece and traveled overland to India where she worked with the poorest of the poor, even the lepers, for five years.

“It was not until 1959 that she went to the Monastery of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun. When she arrived she asked Fr. Theodosius the chaplain for a rule of prayer. Fr. Theodosius was somewhat surprised to find that she could read even ancient Byzantine Greek. Fr. Theodosius said, “The great elders that we hear about no longer exist. I certainly am not one. You came here to save your soul. If I start giving you rules, you will lose you soul and I will as well. But here is Fr. John. He will be your elder.” So for her first year in the monastery he set her to reading only the Gospels and St. John Climacus. (It should be noted that at that time the Ladder had not been published in modern Greek.)

“She was three years in Bethany. In April, 1962, word came that Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople sought to send an Orthodox monastic to Taize in France. Sister Gabrielia went by way of Taize (she spoke fluent French from childhood) to America.

“In 1963 she was back in Greece. The Gerontissa was tonsured to the Small Schema by Abbot Amphilochios (Makris) on Patmos in the Cave of St. Anthony under the Monastery of Evangelismos just before she and the nun Tomasina left again for India. Elder Amphilochios was enthusiastic at the idea a nun who would be open to the an active outreach in the world. In India she was for three year in Nani Tal in Uttar Pradesh where Fr. Lazarus Moore was the priest and where he consulted the Gerontissa in his translations of the Psalter and the Fathers. Between 1967 and 1977 the Gerontissa traveled in the Mission field of East Africa, in Europe including visiting old friends and spiritual fathers Lev Gillet and Sophrony of Essex, again to America, and briefly in Sinai where Archbishop Damianos was attempting to reintroduce women’s monasticism. She traveled extensively, with much concern and broad love for the people of God. Some of her spiritual children found her in Jerusalem beside the Tomb of Christ; others found her on the mission field of East Africa. For years beginning in about 1977, she lived hidden in a little apartment, the “House of the Angels” in Patissia in the midst of the noise and smog and confusion of central Athens. A little place, a hidden place, a precious place to those who knew her there.

“In 1989 she moved to Holy Protection hermitage on the island of Aegina, close by the shrine of St. Nectarios. There she called the last two of her spiritual children to become monastics near her, and there she continued to receive many visitors. At the start of Great Lent in 1990 she was hospitalized for lymphatic cancer. She was forty days in the hospital, leaving during Holy Week and receiving communion of Pascha. And to the puzzlement of the doctors, the cancer disappeared. It was not yet her time.

“The Gerontissa finally withdrew to quiet. With only one last nun she moved for the last time in this life, to the island of Leros. There they established the hesychastirion of the Holy Archangels. Only in this last year of her life did she accept the Great Schema at the hands of Fr. Dionysious from Little St. Anne’s Skete on Athos. He came to give her the Schema in the Chapel of the Panaghia in the Kastro on the top of Leros.

“Gerontissa Gabrielia passed from this world on March 28, 1992, having never built a monastery. Over the years, six of her spiritual children did become monastics, but never more that one or two were with her at a time. Only the angels could count the number of lives that God touched and changed through her. Her biography and collected writings were published in Greek in 1996, through the work of her last monastic daughter and the contribution of many, many others who held the Gerontissa dear. An English translation is in process [Note: it has now been published].

“Anyone who knew the Gerontissa realized that God has not left us without His saints, even down to the present day. The few words recorded here scarcely suggest the clarity and love of her soul. Words are only the tools of this world; the wonder of the Gerontissa was wrapped in the mystery of the silence of the world to come.

“She never sought a reputation. She never allowed anything about her to be published during her long life and only allowed her children to take photographs in her very last years. Those whom God touched through her called her Gerontissa; she never made herself anything but the nun Gabrielia.

“She was humility and love incarnate.”

The Gerontissa embodied an ‘ecumenism’ that might serve as a model for many in our time: she was completely loving and open to all people of all faiths, yet while working freely with protestants and Hindus in service to man, she never compromised any aspect of her Orthodox faith. Once, some protestant fellow-workers suggested that they pray together; Mother Gavrilia thanked them lovingly, but said ‘I only pray in church or alone.’