No Fast
16A jedanaest uèenika otidoše u Galileju u goru kuda im je kazao Isus. 17I kad ga vidješe, pokloniše mu se; a jedni posumnjaše. 18I pristupivši Isus reèe im govoreæi: dade mi se svaka vlast na nebu i na zemlji. 19Idite dakle i nauèite sve narode krsteæi ih va ime oca i sina i svetoga Duha, 20Uèeæi ih da sve drže što sam vam zapovijedao; i evo ja sam s vama u sve dane do svršetka vijeka. Amin.
12Sve mi je slobodno, ali nije sve na korist; sve mi je slobodno, ali neæu da što oblada mnome. 13Jela su za trbuh, i trbuh je za jela; ali æe Bog i ova i onoga pokvariti. A tijelo nije za kurvarstvo, nego za Gospoda, i Gospod za tijelo. 14A Bog i Gospoda podiže, i nas æe podiæi silom svojom. 15Ne znate li da su tjelesa vaša udi Hristovi? Hoæu li dakle uzeti ude Hristove i od njih naèiniti ude kurvine? Bože saèuvaj! 16Ili ne znate da ko se s kurvom sveže jedno tijelo s njom postane? Jer, reèe, biæe dvoje jedno tijelo. 17A ko se Gospoda drži jedan je duh s Gospodom. 18Bježite od kurvarstva; jer svaki grijeh koji èovjek èini osim tijela je; a koji se kurva on griješi svome tijelu. 19Ili ne znate da su tjelesa vaša crkva svetoga Duha koji živi u vama, kojega imate od Boga, i nijeste svoji? 20Jer ste kupljeni skupo. Proslavite dakle Boga u tjelesima svojijem i u dušama svojijem, što je Božije.
11I reèe: jedan èovjek imaše dva sina, 12I reèe mlaði od njih ocu: oèe! daj mi dio od imanja što pripada meni. I otac im podijeli imanje. 13I potom do nekoliko dana pokupi mlaði sin sve svoje, i otide u daljnu zemlju; i onamo prosu imanje svoje živeæi besputno. 14A kad potroši sve, postade velika glad u onoj zemlji, i on se naðe u nevolji. 15I otišavši pribi se kod jednoga èovjeka u onoj zemlji; i on ga posla u polje svoje da èuva svinje. 16I željaše napuniti trbuh svoj rošèiæima koje svinje jeðahu, i niko mu ih ne davaše. 17A kad doðe k sebi, reèe: koliko najamnika u oca mojega imaju hljeba i suviše, a ja umirem od gladi! 18Ustaæu i idem ocu svojemu, pa æu mu reæi: oèe! sagriješih nebu i tebi, 19I veæ nijesam dostojan nazvati se sin tvoj: primi me kao jednoga od svojijeh najamnika. 20I ustavši otide ocu svojemu. A kad je još podaleko bio, ugleda ga otac njegov, i sažali mu se, i potrèavši zagrli ga i cjeliva ga. 21A sin mu reèe: oèe, sagriješih nebu i tebi, i veæ nijesam dostojan nazvati se sin tvoj. 22A otac reèe slugama svojijem: iznesite najljepšu haljinu i obucite ga, i podajte mu prsten na ruku i obuæu na noge. 23I dovedite tele ugojeno te zakoljite, da jedemo i da se veselimo. 24Jer ovaj moj sin bješe mrtav, i oživlje; i izgubljen bješe, i naðe se. I stadoše se veseliti. 25A sin njegov stariji bijaše u polju, i dolazeæi kad se približi kuæi èu pjevanje i podvikivanje. 26I dozvavši jednoga od slugu zapita: šta je to? 27A on mu reèe: brat tvoj doðe; i otac tvoj zakla tele ugojeno, što ga je zdrava vidio. 28A on se rasrdi i ne šæadijaše da uðe. Tada iziðe otac njegov i moljaše ga. 29A on odgovarajuæi reèe ocu: eto te služim toliko godina, i nikad ne prestupih tvoje zapovijesti, pa meni nikad nijesi dao jareta da bih se proveselio sa svojijem društvom; 30A kad doðe taj tvoj sin koji ti je imanje prosuo s kurvama, zaklao si mu tele ugojeno. 31A on mu reèe: sine! ti si svagda sa mnom, i sve je moje tvoje. 32Trebalo se razveseliti i obradovati, jer ovaj brat tvoj mrtav bješe, i oživlje; i izgubljen bješe i naðe se.
“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.
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.