7th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 6. Afterfeast of the Transfiguration. Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Euplus (Eupius) of Catania (304).
Tone 6 Troparion (Resurrection)
The Angelic Powers were at Your tomb; the guards became as dead men. Mary stood by Your grave, seeking Your most pure body. You captured hell, not being tempted by it. You came to the Virgin, granting life. O Lord, Who rose from the dead,// glory to You.
Tone 4 Troparion (Feast)
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, revealing Your glory to Your Disciples as far as they could bear it. Let Your everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners, through the prayers of the Theotokos!// O Giver of Light, glory to You!
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Nicholas)
The truth of your deeds has revealed you to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of self-control; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you.// O Father Bishop Nicholas, pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Euplus)
Your holy martyr Euplus, O Lord, through his sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, and shattered the powerless boldness of demons.// Through his intercession, save our souls
Tone 6 Kontakion (Resurrection)
When Christ God, the Giver of Life, raised all of the dead from the valleys of misery with His mighty hand, He bestowed resurrection on the human race.// He is the Savior of all, the Resurrection, the Life, and the God of all.
Tone 3 Kontakion (St. Nicholas)
You proved yourself to be be a holy priest, O Nicholas. You served God in Myra and lived the gospel of Christ. You offered your life for your people, And rescued the innocent from death. Therefore God has glorified you as a trustworthy guide of things divine.
Tone 1 Kontakion (St. Euplus)
With the love of Christ as your only defense, you stood in the midst of your ^fight and said: “I endure this struggle willingly and with confidence!” You rejoiced, O Euplus, to offer your head to the sword// and so you completed your course.
Tone 7 Kontakion (Feast)
On the mountain You were transfigured, O Christ God, and Your Disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold You crucified, they would understand that Your suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world// that You are truly the Radiance of the Father.
Tone 6 Prokeimenon (Resurrection)
O Lord, save Your people, / and bless Your inheritance! (Ps. 27:9a)
V. To You, O Lord, will I call. O my God, be not silent to me! (Ps. 27:1a)
Tone 4 Prokeimenon (Feast)
O Lord, how manifold are Your works; / in wisdom have You made them all. (Ps. 103:26)
Romans 15:1-7(Epistle)
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
Tone 6
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the heavenly God. (Ps. 90:1)
V. He will say to the Lord: “My Protector and my Refuge; my God, in Whom I trust.” (Ps. 90:2)
Tone 8
V. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours! (Ps. 88:11a)
Matthew 9:27-35 (Gospel)
When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.” But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.” Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Martyr and Archdeacon Euplus of Catania
The Martyr Archdeacon Euplus suffered in the year 304 under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311). He served in the Sicilian city of Catania. Always carrying the Gospel with him, Saint Euplus preached constantly to the pagans about Christ.
Once, while he read and explained the Gospel to the gathered crowd, they arrested him and took him to the governor of the city, Calvisianus. Saint Euplus confessed himself a Christian and denounced the impiety of idol-worship. For this they sentenced him to torture.
They threw the injured saint into prison, where he remained in prayer for seven days. The Lord made a spring of water flow into the prison for the martyr to quench his thirst. Brought to trial a second time, strengthened and rejoicing, he again confessed his faith in Christ and denounced the torturer for spilling the blood of innocent Christians.
The judge commanded that the saint’s ears be torn off, and that he be beheaded. When they led the saint to execution, they hung the Gospel around his neck. Having asked time for prayer, the archdeacon began to read and explain the Gospel to the people, and many of the pagans believed in Christ. The soldiers beheaded the saint with a sword.
His holy relics are in the village of Vico della Batonia, near Naples.
Homily on the awesome vision of the Prophet Isaiah
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1)
Here is the vision of visions! Here is the glory of glories and the majesty of majesties! God showed great mercy to all of mankind, in that He gave them to see the great starry firmament, the work of His hands. He showed an even greater mercy in allowing some to see the eternal and wondrous angelic world. He showed the greatest mercy to a small number of His chosen ones, whom He allowed to see Himself—the Lord of Sabaoth, the Only Uncreated One, and Creator of both worlds. How can mortal man see the Immortal God? Did not God Himself say to Moses: For there shall no man see Me and live (Exodus 33:20)? And does not the Gospel say: No man has seen God at any time (John 1:18)? Truly, no mortal can see the face of God—His Essence. But, by His condescension and infinite goodness and power, God can reveal—to some extent and in some form—how accessible He is to men. In a particular form and appearance, He appeared to Moses, Elias, Daniel and John the Theologian. He did not reveal His Essence, but a particular form and appearance. Isaiah saw Him on a throne high and lifted up—as the Judge raised above all the judges and all the earthly courts. The six-winged Seraphim stood around Him and cried one to another: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 6:3). The Lord did not allow Himself to be seen alone, but rather as the King in His Invisible Kingdom, surrounded by the most exalted of beings, who were created by His power. Around Him are the foremost orders of the heavenly hierarchy, the chief commanders of His innumerable immortal hosts, the foremost lampstands of His light and His unendurable radiance. This is the wondrous vision of Isaiah, the Son of Amoz, the prophet of God. O Holy, Holy, Holy Lord—Thrice Holy—have mercy on us and save us, impure and sinful as we are. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
— Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid. Sebastian Press Publishing House.
From Mother Melania
Dear Friends,
The other day, I came across a video of color-blind people who were given glasses that allowed them to see colors for the first time. It was a beautiful video, but the particular thing that struck me was a young man who was seeing a sunset in color for the first time. In his wonder at its beauty, he said “You all see this every day?!” That made me realize, “No, I hardly ever see sunsets.” I am so used to BEING ABLE to see a sunset that I almost never make an effort actually to see one. This is the next stage of last month’s reflection on little brown birds. In that case, I had never bothered to look at them and thus had never seen their beauty. With the sunsets, though, I have no such excuse. I KNOW that they are beautiful. I have just taken that level of beauty for a given and only notice one when it’s more spectacular than usual. On a deeper level, it’s a reminder that I’m spiritually color blind and my sins make me unable to see the beauty in every person around me. When I stop to consider the people in my life, though, it doesn’t take long to see that each one has their own particular beauty in which I am lacking. Thanks be to God that I don’t have to wait for somebody to develop special glasses. I already have at least two pairs – repentance and thankfulness. I think I’ll start there, and I suspect that the more I use them, the more deeply I will realize the stunning beauty that is around me ALL the time. May Christ, Who is the Light, grant us all this grace!
with love in Christ,
Mother Melania & the sisters
In our modern American society, many things about the way we live and how we learn are antithetical to Orthodox Christian spirituality. What is it that epitomizes the world if not the frenzy and busyness of day-to-day life? Counter to this, what is it that characterizes Orthodox spiritual ethos and experience if not hesychia(2) or stillness? Indeed, the root of healing, of freedom from the passions, and the beginning of the knowledge of God is to be found in the Psalmist’s words: “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 45:11 lxx). It is hesychia which leads us to the knowledge of God, and concurrently to a knowledge of ourselves; it provides the remedy for the insanity of our modern world. The Church provides the oasis in the liturgical life for her members to be still and know. (2)Hesychia: an inner stillness of thoughts related to the practice of pure prayer of the heart.
— Bowyer, Sergius. Acquiring the Mind of Christ: Embracing the Vision of the Orthodox Church. St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press.
Sunday Bulletin August 4, 2024