Mark 16.1-8 (2nd Matins Gospel)

1După ce a trecut ziua Sabatului, Maria Magdalena, Maria, mama lui Iacov, şi Salome au cumpărat miresme ca să se ducă să ungă trupul lui Isus. 2În ziua dintâi a săptămânii, s-au dus la mormânt dis-de-dimineaţă, pe când răsărea soarele. 3Femeile ziceau una către alta: „Cine ne va prăvăli piatra de la uşa mormântului?” 4Şi, când şi-au ridicat ochii, au văzut că piatra, care era foarte mare, fusese prăvălită. 5Au intrat în mormânt, au văzut pe un tinerel şezând la dreapta, îmbrăcat într-un veşmânt alb, şi s-au înspăimântat. 6El le-a zis: „Nu vă înspăimântaţi! Căutaţi pe Isus din Nazaret care a fost răstignit: a înviat, nu este aici; iată locul unde Îl puseseră. 7Dar duceţi-vă de spuneţi ucenicilor Lui şi lui Petru, că merge înaintea voastră în Galileea: acolo Îl veţi vedea, cum v-a spus.” 8Ele au ieşit afară din mormânt şi au luat-o la fugă, pentru că erau cuprinse de cutremur şi de spaimă. Şi n-au spus nimănui nimic, căci se temeau.

Colossians 3.12-16 (Epistle)

12Astfel, dar, ca nişte aleşi ai lui Dumnezeu, sfinţi şi preaiubiţi, îmbrăcaţi-vă cu o inimă plină de îndurare, cu bunătate, cu smerenie, cu blândeţe, cu îndelungă răbdare. 13Îngăduiţi-vă unii pe alţii, şi dacă unul are pricină să se plângă de altul, iertaţi-vă unul pe altul. Cum v-a iertat Hristos, aşa iertaţi-vă şi voi. 14Dar mai presus de toate acestea, îmbrăcaţi-vă cu dragostea, care este legătura desăvârşirii. 15Pacea lui Hristos, la care aţi fost chemaţi, ca să alcătuiţi un singur trup, să stăpânească în inimile voastre, şi fiţi recunoscători. 16Cuvântul lui Hristos să locuiască din belşug în voi în toată înţelepciunea. Învăţaţi-vă şi sfătuiţi-vă unii pe alţii cu psalmi, cu cântări de laudă şi cu cântări duhovniceşti, cântând lui Dumnezeu cu mulţumire în inima voastră.

Luke 18.18-27 (Gospel)

18Un fruntaş a întrebat pe Isus: „Bunule Învăţător, ce trebuie să fac ca să moştenesc viaţa veşnică?” 19„Pentru ce Mă numeşti bun?”, i-a răspuns Isus. „Nimeni nu este bun decât Unul singur: Dumnezeu. 20Ştii poruncile: „Să nu preacurveşti; să nu ucizi; să nu furi; să nu faci o mărturisire mincinoasă; să cinsteşti pe tatăl tău şi pe mama ta.” 21„Toate aceste lucruri”, I-a zis el, „le-am păzit din tinereţea mea.” 22Când a auzit Isus aceste vorbe, i-a zis: „Îţi mai lipseşte un lucru: vinde tot ce ai, împarte la săraci, şi vei avea o comoară în ceruri. Apoi, vino şi urmează-Mă.” 23Când a auzit el aceste cuvinte, s-a întristat de tot; căci era foarte bogat. 24Isus a văzut că s-a întristat de tot şi a zis: „Cât de anevoie vor intra în Împărăţia lui Dumnezeu cei ce au avuţii! 25Fiindcă mai lesne este să treacă o cămilă prin urechea acului decât să intre un om bogat în Împărăţia lui Dumnezeu.” 26Cei ce-L ascultau au zis: „Atunci cine poate fi mântuit?” 27Isus a răspuns: „Ce este cu neputinţă la oameni este cu putinţă la Dumnezeu.”

Our Holy Fathers Athanasius the Great (373) and Cyril (444), Patriarchs of Alexandria

Saint Athanasius, pillar of Orthodoxy and Father of the Church, was born in Alexandria in 275, to pious Christian parents. Even as a child, his piety and devotion to the Faith were so notable that Alexander, the Patriarch of the city, took Athanasius under his protection. As a student, he acquired a thorough education, but was more interested in the things of God than in secular learning, and withdrew for a time into the desert to sit at the feet of Saint Anthony (January 17), whose disciple he became and whose biography he later wrote. On returning to Alexandria, he was ordained to the diaconate and began his public labors for the Church. He wrote his treatise On the Incarnation, when he was only twenty. (It contains a phrase, still often quoted today, that express in a few words some of the depths of the Mystery of the Incarnation: God became man that man might become god.)

Just at this time Arius, a priest in Alexandria, was promoting his enticing view that the Son and Word of God is not of one essence with the Father, but a divine creation of the Father. This view, which (as Athanasius realized) strikes at the very possibility of mankind’s salvation, gained wide acceptance and seemed for a time to threaten the Christian Faith itself. In 325, the Emperor Constantine the Great convoked a Council of the Church at Nicaea to settle the turmoil that the Arian teaching had spread through the Church. Athanasius attended the Council, and defended the Orthodox view so powerfully that he won the admiration of the Orthodox and the undying enmity of the Arians. From that time forth his life was founded on the defense of the true consubstantiality (homoousia) of the Son with the Father.

In 326, not long before his death, Patriarch Alexander appointed Athanasius to be his successor, and Athanasius was duly elevated to the patriarchal throne. He was active in his pastoral role, traveling throughout Egypt, visiting churches and monasteries, and working tirelessly not only to put down the Arian heresy, but to resolve various schisms and moral declines that affected his territory.

Though the Arian heresy had apparently been condemned once and for all at Nicea, Arius had many powerful allies throughout the Empire, even in the Imperial court, and Athanasius was soon subjected to many kinds of persecution, some local, some coming from the Imperial throne itself. Though he was Patriarch of Alexandria for more than forty years, a large amount of that time was spent in hiding from powerful enemies who threatened him with imprisonment or death. Twice he fled to Rome for protection by the Pope, who in the early centuries of the Church was a consistent champion of Orthodoxy against its various enemies. From his various hiding places, Athanasius issued tracts, treatises and epistles which helped to rally the faithful throughout Christendom to the Orthodox cause.

In 366, the Emperor Valens, fearing a revolt of the Egyptians on behalf of their beloved Archbishop, officially restored Athanasius to favor, and he was able to spend the last seven years of his life in peace. Of his forty-seven years as Patriarch, about seventeen were spent in hiding or exile. He reposed in peace in 373, having given his entire adult life, at great suffering, to the defense of the Faith of Christ.

With St Athanasius, the Church commemorates St Cyril (Kyrillos), also Archbishop of Alexandria (412-44). His lot was to defend the Faith against the heretic Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who denied that Christ in his Incarnation truly united the divine with the human nature. Cyril attempted in private correspondence to restore Nestorius to the Christian faith, and when this failed he, along with Pope Celestine of Rome, led the defense of Orthodoxy against Nestorius’ teaching. Saint Cyril presided at the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, at which the Nestorian error was officially overthrown. After guiding his flock for thirty-two years, he reposed in 444.