13 Bashans 1747
Readings for Wednesday of sixth of of the Holy Fifty Days
Vespers Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 23 : 5
| 5 | You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Mark 9 : 33 - 37
| 33 | Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" |
| 34 | But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. |
| 35 | And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." |
| 36 | Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, |
| 37 | "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me." |
Glory be to God forever.
Matins Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 23 : 1 - 3
| 1 | The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. |
| 2 | He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. |
| 3 | He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Mark 9 : 38 - 42
| 38 | Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." |
| 39 | But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. |
| 40 | For he who is not against us is on our side. |
| 41 | For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. |
| 42 | "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. |
Glory be to God forever.
Divine Liturgy
Pauline Epistle
Paul, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed to the Gospel of God. A reading from the Epistle of our teacher Paul to the Romans.
May his blessings be with us. Amen.
Romans 7 : 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10
| 1 | Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? |
| 2 | For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. |
| 3 | So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. |
| 4 | Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. |
| 5 | For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. |
| 6 | But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. |
| 7 | What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." |
| 8 | But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. |
| 10 | And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. |
The grace of God the Father be with you all. Amen.
Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle of St. John . May his blessings be upon us. Amen.
1 John 5 : 13 - 18
| 13 | These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. |
| 14 | Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. |
| 15 | And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. |
| 16 | If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. |
| 17 | All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. |
| 18 | We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. |
Do not love the world or the things in the world. The world passes away, and its desires; but he who does the will of God abides forever. Amen.
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us. Amen.
Acts 19 : 6 - 10
| 6 | And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. |
| 7 | Now the men were about twelve in all. |
| 8 | And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. |
| 9 | But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. |
| 10 | And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. |
The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God. Amen.
Divine Liturgy Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 40 : 13,17
| 13 | Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! |
| 17 | But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint John the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
John 17 : 1 - 8
| 1 | Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, |
| 2 | as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. |
| 3 | And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. |
| 4 | I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. |
| 5 | And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. |
| 6 | "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. |
| 7 | Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. |
| 8 | For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. |
Glory be to God forever.
Not to be read in the Church during this time of the year.
Synaxarium
Day 13 of the Blessed Coptic Month of Bashans.
May God make it always received, year after year, with reassurance and tranquility, while our sins are forgiven by the tender mercies of our God my fathers and brothers. Amen.
The Thirteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Bashans
Departure of St.Arsanius, the Tutor of the Emperor's Children
On this day, of the year
445 A.D., the ascetic, fighter, and wise father St. Arsanius departed.
He was born in Rome from a very rich Christian parents. They taught him
church subjects and ordained him a deacon. He was highly knowledgeable
in the Greek culture and endowed with great Christian values. When Emperor
Theodosius the Great sought for a good and wise man to teach his sons Honorius
and Arcadius, he could not find a better person than Arsanius. He brought
him to his palace and entrusted the teaching of his sons to him. St. Arsanius
taught them and admonished them, as was fitting. Since he devoted much
exertion and toil in teaching them, he inflicted them once with painful
beatings. When Emperor Theodosius their father died, Honorius reigned over
Rome and Arcadius reigned over Constantinople. The Saint remembered that
he once beat them, and that Honorius desired to do him harm. While he was
thinking of this, a voice came from the Lord saying: "O Arsani, get out
from this world and you shall be saved." Once he heard this voice, he did
not tarry, changed his clothing, and came to the city Alexandria. Then
he went to the wilderness of St. Macarius (Sheahat - Scete), where he fought
a great fight with fasting, prayer and long vigils. At the beginning of
his monastic life, he reviewed his thoughts to a simple monk for advice.
The monks were surprised and said to him: "Does someone like Arsanius who
is very well versed in Greek and Roman culture, need the advice of this
simple monk?" He told them that the Coptic Alpha Beta of this monk had
not been mastered by Arsanius. He meant by this the virtues of that monk.
A messenger came from Rome carrying a will of one of St. Arsanius' relatives
who had departed, granting all his possessions to the Saint. The Saint
asked: "When did this man die?" The messenger answered: "One year ago."
The Saint said: "I have died eleven years ago, and those who died to the
world can not inherit others who died."
One of the noble women of Rome came to visit him because she heard of his righteousness. After she visited with him for a short while, she asked him to remember her in his prayer. He said to her: "May God erase all your memory from my mind." She returned sorrowful and complained to the Pope in objection to this statement. Pope Theophylus clarified to her what he meant, that he was afraid, that the devil might use her memory to tempt him. When Arsanius started his monastic life, he used to select for himself the white beans for his food. When the Abbot of the monastery noticed, he gently struck the monk, who was sitting beside Arsanius saying: "It is not right that you distinguish yourself from your brethren by selecting the white beans." Arsanius said: "This stroke is directed to you, O Arsanius!" Arsanius mastered the virtue of silence. When he was asked about that, he said: "Many times I regretted that I have spoken, but I have never regretted on being silent." He was a very humble and modest man, who lived from selling the works of his hands by pleating palm leaves, and giving the rest to the poor. He put down many useful sayings and teachings. Whenever he entered the church, he hid behind a pillar of the church so no one would see him. His appearance was good, his face was bright and very cheerful. He was tall in stature, but he became bowed because of his age. He visited Jerusalem when he was seventy years old, to be blessed by the holy places, and then he returned to Sheahat. When he departed, he was ninety-five years old: He spent forty years in Rome, forty years in the wilderness of St. Macarius, ten years in Mount Torah, three years in the monasteries of Alexandria, then he returned to Mount Torah and lived there for two years.
He had commanded his disciples
to throw his body on a certain mountain, so that wild beasts and vultures
would eat him. However, fear gripped him, just before his soul departed
from his body and his disciples said to him: "Is someone like Arsanius
fearing death?" He replied: "Since I had become a monk, I dreaded this
hour." He became calm, his soul was comforted, and a peaceful look covered
his face as if he was saying: " Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me" (Psalms
23:4). He departed in peace in the year 445 A.D. When Theodosius II, the
son of Arcadius, knew of his death, he brought his body to Constantinople.
He built a monastery on the same place where he departed, which was known
in history as the monastery of El-Kosair.
From his sayings:
An old monk was sitting in his cell, heard a voice saying to him: "Go out
so I might show you the deeds of people." When he went out, he saw a man
cutting wood. When he tried to carry it, he could not, and instead of reducing
his load, he increased it, and tried to carry it again, but failed, and
did this again and again. Then he walked away and saw another man getting
water from a well and pouring it in a pot with a hole in it, and the man
could not fill it. Then he saw two men riding on two horses, carrying a
pole from each side. When they came to the door, their pride prevented
that one would stay behind in order to get the pole in, and therefore they
remained outside.
St. Arsanius explained this vision to them, saying: "The wood cutter was a man with a multitude of sins. Instead of repenting, he added more and more to his sins. The man who wanted to fill the pot with water was a charitable man who gave alms from what he earned unjustly, and his reward was lost. The two men carrying the pole were carrying the burden of our Lord Christ, but with great pride, and therefore they both stayed outside the kingdom.
May his prayers be with us and glory be to God forever. Amen.
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