1 Peter 4.12-5.5 (Epistle)

12Ljubazni! ne èudite se vruæini koja vam se dogaða za kušanje vaše, kao da vam se što novo dogaða; 13Nego se radujte što stradate s Hristom, da biste, i kad se javi slava njegova, imali radost i veselje. 14Ako bivate ukoreni za ime Hristovo, blago vama! jer Duh slave i Boga poèiva na vama: oni dakle hule na nj, a vi ga proslavljate. 15Samo da ne postrada koji od vas kao krvnik, ili kao lupež, ili kao zloèinac, ili kao onaj koji se miješa u tuðe poslove; 16A ako li kao hrišæanin, neka se ne stidi, veæ neka slavi Boga u ovom dogaðaju. 17Jer je vrijeme da se poène sud od kuæe Božije; ako li se najprije od vas poène, kakav æe biti pošljedak onima što se protive Božijemu jevanðelju? 18I kad se pravednik jedva spase, bezbožnik i grješnik gdje æe se javiti? 19Zato i koji stradaju po volji Božijoj neka mu kao vjernome tvorcu predadu duše svoje u dobrijem djelima.

1Starješine koje su meðu vama molim koji sam i sam starješina i svjedok Hristova stradanja, i imam dijel u slavi koja æe se javiti: 2Pasite stado Božije, koje vam je predato, i nadgledajte ga, ne silom, nego dragovoljno, i po Bogu, niti za nepravedne dobitke, nego iz dobra srca; 3Niti kao da vladate narodom; nego bivajte ugledi stadu; 4I kad se javi poglavar pastirski, primiæete vijenac slave koji neæe uvenuti. 5Tako vi mladi slušajte starješine; a svi se slušajte meðu sobom, i stecite poniznost; jer se Bog ponositima suproti, a poniženima daje blagodat.

Mark 12.38-44 (Gospel)

38I govoraše im u nauci svojoj: èuvajte se književnika koji idu u dugaèkijem haljinama, i traže da im se klanja po ulicama, 39I prvijeh mjesta po zbornicama, i zaèelja na gozbama. 40Ovi što jedu kuæe udovièke, i lažno se mole Bogu dugo, biæe još veæma osuðeni. 41I sjedavši Isus prema Božijoj hazni gledaše kako narod meæe novce u Božiju haznu. I mnogi bogati metahu mnogo. 42I došavši jedna siromašna udovica metnu dvije lepte, koje èini jedan kodrant. 43I dozvavši uèenike svoje reèe im: zaista vam kažem: ova siromašna udovica metnu više od sviju koji meæu u Božiju haznu. 44Jer svi metnuše od suviška svojega; a ona od sirotinje svoje metnu sve što imaše, svu hranu svoju.

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.