7th SUNDAY OF PASCHA — Tone 6. Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Afterfeast of Ascension. Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him at Rome: Martyrs Justin, Chariton and his wife, Charity, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peon, Valerian, and Justus (ca. AD 166).
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 (Ascension)
You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, granting joy to Your Disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing, they were assured that You are the Son of God,// the Redeemer of the world!
Tone 8 Troparion (Fathers)
You are most glorious, O Christ our God! You have established the Holy Fathers as lights on the earth. Through them You have guided us to the true Faith.// O greatly compassionate One, glory to You!
Tone 8 Kontakion (Fathers)
The Apostles’ preaching and the Fathers’ doctrines have established one Faith for the Church. Adorned with the robe of truth, woven from heavenly theology,// It defines and glorifies the great mystery of piety.
Tone 6 Kontakion (Pentecostarion)
When You had fulfilled the dispensation for our sake, and united earth to heaven: You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love You, but remaining with them and crying:// “I am with you, and there is no one against you!”
Tone 4 Prokeimenon (Song of the Three Holy Children)
Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers, / and praised and glorified is Your Name forever! (Song of the Three Holy Children, v. 3)
V. For You are just in all that You have done for us! (v. 4)
Acts 20:16-18, 28-36 (Epistle)
For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me. I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
Tone 1
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. The Lord, the God of gods, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. (Ps. 49:1)
V. Gather to Me My venerable ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice! (Ps. 49:6)
John 17:1-13 (Gospel)
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, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 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.
Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 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. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
On the seventh Sunday of Pascha, we commemorate the holy God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.
The Commemoration of the First Ecumenical Council has been celebrated by the Church of Christ from ancient times. The Lord Jesus Christ left the Church a great promise, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18). Although the Church of Christ on earth will pass through difficult struggles with the Enemy of salvation, it will emerge victorious. The holy martyrs bore witness to the truth of the Savior’s words, enduring suffering and death for confessing Christ, but the persecutor’s sword is shattered by the Cross of Christ.
Persecution of Christians ceased during the fourth century, but heresies arose within the Church itself. One of the most pernicious of these heresies was Arianism. Arius, a priest of Alexandria, was a man of immense pride and ambition. In denying the divine nature of Jesus Christ and His equality with God the Father, Arius falsely taught that the Savior is not consubstantial with the Father, but is only a created being.
A local Council, convened with Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria presiding, condemned the false teachings of Arius. However, Arius would not submit to the authority of the Church. He wrote to many bishops, denouncing the decrees of the local Council. He spread his false teaching throughout the East, receiving support from certain Eastern bishops.
Investigating these dissensions, the holy emperor Constantine (May 21) consulted Bishop Hosius of Cordova (Aug. 27), who assured him that the heresy of Arius was directed against the most fundamental dogma of Christ’s Church, and so he decided to convene an Ecumenical Council. In the year 325, 318 bishops representing Christian Churches from various lands gathered together at Nicea.
Among the assembled bishops were many confessors who had suffered during the persecutions, and who bore the marks of torture upon their bodies. Also participating in the Council were several great luminaries of the Church: Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia (December 6 and May 9), Saint Spyridon, Bishop of Tremithos (December 12), and others venerated by the Church as holy Fathers.
With Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria came his deacon, Athanasius [who later became Patriarch of Alexandria (May 2 and January 18)]. He is called “the Great,” for he was a zealous champion for the purity of Orthodoxy. In the Sixth Ode of the Canon for today’s Feast, he is referred to as “the thirteenth Apostle.”
The emperor Constantine presided over the sessions of the Council. In his speech, responding to the welcome by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, he said, “God has helped me cast down the impious might of the persecutors, but more distressful for me than any blood spilled in battle is for a soldier, is the internal strife in the Church of God, for it is more ruinous.”
Arius, with seventeen bishops among his supporters, remained arrogant, but his teaching was repudiated and he was excommunicated from the Church. In his speech, the holy deacon Athanasius conclusively refuted the blasphemous opinions of Arius. The heresiarch Arius is depicted in iconography sitting on Satan’s knees, or in the mouth of the Beast of the Deep (Rev. 13).
The Fathers of the Council declined to accept a Symbol of Faith (Creed) proposed by the Arians. Instead, they affirmed the Orthodox Symbol of Faith. Saint Constantine asked the Council to insert into the text of the Symbol of Faith the word “consubstantial,” which he had heard in the speeches of the bishops. The Fathers of the Council unanimously accepted this suggestion.
In the Nicean Creed, the holy Fathers set forth and confirmed the Apostolic teachings about Christ’s divine nature. The heresy of Arius was exposed and repudiated as an error of haughty reason. After resolving this chief dogmatic question, the Council also issued Twelve Canons on questions of churchly administration and discipline. Also decided was the date for the celebration of Holy Pascha. By decision of the Council, Holy Pascha should not be celebrated by Christians on the same day with the Jewish Passover, but on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox (which occurred on March 22 in 325).
The First Ecumenical Council is also commemorated on May 29.
Ascension
Jesus did not live with His disciples after His resurrection as He had before His death. Filled with the glory of His divinity, He appeared at different times and places to His people, assuring them that it was He, truly alive in His risen and glorified body.
To them He presented Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God (Acts 1.3).
On the fortieth day after His passover, Jesus ascended into heaven to be glorified on the right hand of God (Acts 1.9–11; Mk 16.19; Lk 24.51). The ascension of Christ is His final physical departure from this world after the resurrection. It is the formal completion of His mission in this world as the Messianic Saviour. It is His glorious return to the Father Who had sent Him into the world to accomplish the work that He had given him to do (Jn 17.4–5). . . . and lifting His hands He blessed them. While blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Lk 24.51–52).
The Church’s celebration of the ascension, as all such festal celebrations, is not merely the remembrance of an event in Christ’s life. Indeed, the ascension itself is not to be understood as though it were simply the supernatural event of a man floating up and away into the skies. The holy scripture stresses Christ’s physical departure and His glorification with God the Father, together with the great joy which His disciples had as they received the promise of the Holy Spirit Who was to come to assure the Lord’s presence with them, enabling them to be His witnesses to the ends of earth (Lk 24.48–53; Acts 1.8–11; Mt 28.20; Mk 16.16–14).
In the Church the believers in Christ celebrate these very same realities with the conviction that it is for them and for all men that Christ’s departure from this world has taken place. The Lord leaves in order to be glorified with God the Father and to glorify us with himself. He goes in order to “prepare a place” for and to take us also into the blessedness of God’s presence. He goes to open the way for all flesh into the “heavenly sanctuary . . . the Holy Place not made by hands” (see Hebrews 8–10). He goes in order send the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father to bear witness to Him and His gospel in the world, making Him powerfully present in the lives of disciples.
Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him at Rome
The Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher was born around 114 at Sychem, an ancient city of Samaria. Justin’s parents were pagan Greeks. From his childhood the saint displayed intelligence, love for knowledge and a fervent devotion to the knowledge of Truth. When he came of age he studied the various schools of Greek philosophy: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, and he concluded that none of these pagan teachings revealed the way to knowledge of the true God.
Once, when he was strolling in a solitary place beyond the city and pondering about where to seek the way to the knowledge of Truth, he met an old man. In the ensuing conversation he revealed to Justin the essential nature of the Christian teaching and advised him to seek the answers to all the questions of life in the books of Holy Scripture. “But before anything else,” said the holy Elder, “pray diligently to God, so that He might open to you the doors of Light. No one is able to comprehend Truth, unless he is granted understanding from God Himself, Who reveals it to each one who seeks Him in prayer and in love.”
In his thirtieth year, Justin accepted holy Baptism (between the years 133 and 137). From this time Saint Justin devoted his talents and vast philosophical knowledge to preaching the Gospel among the pagans. He began to journey throughout the Roman Empire, sowing the seeds of faith. “Whosoever is able to proclaim Truth and does not proclaim it will be condemned by God,” he wrote.
Justin opened a school of Christian philosophy. Saint Justin subsequently defended the truth of Christian teaching, persuasively confuting pagan sophistry (in a debate with the Cynic philosopher Crescentius) and heretical distortions of Christianity. He also spoke out against the teachings of the Gnostic Marcian.
In the year 155, when the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) started a persecution against Christians, Saint Justin personally gave him an Apology in defense of two Christians innocently condemned to execution, Ptolemy and Lucias. The name of the third remains unknown.
In the Apology he demonstrated the falseness of the slander against Christians accused unjustly for merely having the name of Christians. The Apology had such a favorable effect upon the emperor that he ceased the persecution. Saint Justin journeyed, by decision of the emperor, to Asia Minor where they were persecuting Christians with particular severity. He proclaimed the joyous message of the imperial edict throughout the surrounding cities and countryside.
The debate of Saint Justin with the Rabbi Trypho took place at Ephesus. The Orthodox philosopher demonstrated the truth of the Christian teaching of faith on the basis of the Old Testament prophetic writings. Saint Justin gave an account of this debate in his work Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.
A second Apology of Saint Justin was addressed to the Roman Senate. It was written in the year 161, soon after Marcus Aurelius (161-180) ascended the throne.
When he returned to Italy, Saint Justin, like the Apostles, preached the Gospel everywhere, converting many to the Christian Faith. When the saint arrived at Rome, the envious Crescentius, whom Justin always defeated in debate, brought many false accusations against him before the Roman court. Saint Justin was put under guard, subjected to torture and suffered martyrdom in 165. The relics of Saint Justin the Philosopher rest in Rome.
In addition to the above-mentioned works, the following are also attributed to the holy martyr Justin the Philosopher:
- An Address to the Greeks
- A Hortatory Address to the Greeks
- On the Sole Government of God
Saint John of Damascus preserved a significant part of Saint Justin’s On the Resurrection, which has not survived. The church historian Eusebius asserts that Saint Justin wrote books titled
- The Singer
- Denunciation of all Existing Heresies and
- Against Marcian
In the Russian Church the memory of the martyr is particularly glorified in temples of his name. He is invoked by those who seek help in their studies.
The holy martyrs Justin, Chariton, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peonus, Valerian, Justus and the martyr Charito suffered with Saint Justin the Philosopher in the year 166. They were brought to Rome and thrown into prison. The saints bravely confessed their faith in Christ before the court of the prefect Rusticus. Rusticus asked Saint Justin, whether he really thought that after undergoing tortures he would go to heaven and receive a reward from God. Saint Justin answered, “Not only do I think this, but I know and am fully assured of it.”
The prefect proposed to all the Christian prisoners that they offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. When they refused he issued a sentence of death, and the saints were beheaded.
Important Counsel from St. John Chrysostom on Church Attendance
On Church Attendance
Published by Pemptousia Partnership
Saint John Chrysostom
In many of his homilies, Saint John Chrysostom emphasized the great importance of attending church on Sundays, and what a great sin it is to avoid doing so.
He said that the Jews had to give a tithe of their income as an offering to the Temple (i.e. to God) (Mal. 3, 8). ‘I give a tithe of all I possess’, said the Pharisee (Luke, 18, 22).
In order to get them to pay their ‘tenth’, the Lord ordered them to pay much more than they actually gave: ‘I will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe’, says the Lord Almighty. ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land’ (Mal. 3, 10-12) .
Saint John Chrysostom goes on to say that Christians have the same blessing when they offer to the Lord their own tithe: a day a week, the Lord’s day, which he made his own (Ex. 20, 8-12). They do so by going to his ‘home’ in order to worship and praise him. ‘Go to church for two hours (by going to the liturgy on Sundays) and you’ll bring the benefits of a thousand days to your family’ (P. G. 49, 364).
When the Jews held back their tithe, the Lord condemned them as thieves: ‘You have taken the whole of the payment [tithe] into the [i. e. your] storehouses; it will be plunder in the [i. e your]. house’ (Mal. 3, 10) [Septuagint].
The same charge, says Saint John, can be leveled at those Christians who disregard the Lord’s day.
‘And we, too, snatch from his hands this one day and arbitrarily make it our own. What charge do we deserve for this? We’re like those who steal sacred and holy things (desecrators) (P. G. 49, 364).
The Lord threatened the Jews who had stolen the tithe from him: ‘You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away’ (Haggai 1, 9).
He didn’t merely take away the tithe, but everything they’d stored that year. The same’s true for Christians who disregard church attendance on Sundays.
‘If you disdain God, he has his ways to relieve you of all your money at a stroke… Imagine losing the gains of long years of labor simply because you don’t go to church (P. G. 49, 364).
In other words, Saint John tells us: Don’t expect to prosper in life if you disregard the day of the Lord, that is Sunday: ‘God delays, but he does not forget’.
It was Saint Constantine the Great who established this particular day as a day of rest. Not, of course, so that Christians could enjoy a longer sleep, but so that without the hindrance of work, they could attend the Sunday Liturgy of the Resurrection.
Since then, this day of rest has remained in force in all Christian countries, although in many it is partly unobserved by shops remaining open.
Q&A
Q: Recently I read something about the Divine Liturgy that struck me as rather odd. The author said something to the effect that the Divine Liturgy is “long” so as to allow the faithful to “come and go” as convenient, to light candles and say their prayers, and to depart at will. Any thoughts on this?
I too have seen this opinion expressed on occasion, and it is indeed “odd,” to say the least. A few considerations here…
As the late Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko wrote, “The word liturgy means common work or common action. The Divine Liturgy is the common work of the Orthodox Church. It is the official action of the Church formally gathered together as the chosen People of God. The word church, as we remember, means a gathering or assembly of people specifically chosen and called apart to perform a particular task.” In the case of the Divine Liturgy, then, the “particular task” is to gather with the angels and the saints, who surround the throne of God, to offer thanks corporately to God for all that has been accomplished for our sake and salvation; to express our thanks through the celebration and reception of the Eucharist, His very Body and Blood; and to anticipate His second and glorious coming, when His eternal Kingdom—already fully present in the life of the Church—will be fully revealed to us. As such, we are called, first and foremost, to be a “worshipping people,” called to join “with one mind and heart” with the angels and saints who have gone before us in worshipping Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with Whom we enter into a “common union” through the reception of Holy Communion—as a community, and not as isolated individuals.
Since the Liturgy is the “common action” of the People of God, it is not something merely “performed” by the clergy for the benefit of a “passive audience,” so to speak. While the bishop or priest, as the “president of the Eucharistic Assembly,” certainly has a central function in the Liturgy, so do all of the members of the Church—including children, whose “holy noise” is a joyous sign of the ongoing life of the Church as it “marches through time”—especially through the singing of the liturgical responses and hymns, the various actions and gestures expressed in worship, and the collective offering of ourselves—as a worshipping community—to carry on the Lord’s work after the Liturgy formally ends. As some have said, the Liturgy only truly ends when the next Liturgy begins.
Given these realities, it is hardly the practice of the Church to conduct lengthy services for the purpose of accommodating the faithful in “dropping in as convenient” to light a candle or offer private, personal prayers during public worship. [The very public Liturgy of the Church is not the time to offer personal prayers “in secret.”] To truly “make” the Liturgy “happen,” the entire community should be gathered together and participate in—from the very beginning of the Liturgy through its end [and beyond!]—the Liturgy. This means that from the very opening doxology—“Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…”—to the final blessing the faithful should be present “with one mind” and heart and voice to celebrate their common faith, hope and love for God and one another through worship.
There are, of course, bound to be occasions in which arriving late or having to leave early may be unavoidable, but this is never the “norm.” For example, an unexpected snow storm may cause the occasional late arrival, or the need for a physician parishioner to heed an emergency call may be cause to leave a bit early—absences that, as one of our prayers notes, “are worthy of a blessing.” But these are the exception, and not the “norm.”
So, as the “common work” of the People of God, one who simply “drops by” to light a candle and offers a few personal prayers is not “liturgizing,” and the length of the Liturgy has nothing to do with making such “drop bys” more convenient, any more than hosting a formal dinner party at one’s home would be designed to allow those who just wish to drop by for sweets and a cup of coffee to do so. Contributing to the common work of the Liturgy involves everyone, from beginning to end, from “Blessed is the Kingdom” to the final “Amen” and “Many years”—and ultimately, eternally beyond in “the never ending day of the Lord’s Kingdom” itself.
Sunday Bulletin May 25, 2025