15th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 6. Leavetaking of the Elevation of the Cross. Sunday after Elevation. Apostle Quadratus of the Seventy (ca. 130).
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 1 Troparion (Feast)
O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance! Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and by virtue of Your Cross,// preserve Your habitation!
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 4 Kontakion (Feast)
As You were voluntarily raised upon the Cross for our sake, grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God; make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power, granting them victories over their adversaries// by bestowing on them the invincible trophy, Your weapon of peace!
Tone 6 (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 7 Prokeimenon (Feast)
Extol the Lord our God: / worship at His footstool for He is holy! (Ps. 98:5)
V. The Lord reigns, let the people tremble! (Ps. 98:1a)
2 Corinthians 4:6-15 (Epistle)
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Galatians 2:16-20 (Epistle, Sunday After)
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
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 1
V. Remember Your congregation, which You have gotten of old! (Ps. 73:2)
Matthew 22:35-46 (Gospel)
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
Mark 8:34-9:1 (Gospel, Sunday After)
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”
Uncovering of the relics of Saint Demetrius (Dmitri), Metropolitan of Rostov
In 1702, Saint Demetrios, Metropolitan of Rostov, arrived at the Rostov cathedral and also visited the monastery of Saint James, Bishop of Rostov (November 27 and May 23). He served the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral church of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos, after which he indicated to those present the site of his future burial on the right side of the temple. “Behold my resting place,” he said, “here I will settle for eternity.” Saint Demetrios reposed on October 28, 1709. Contrary to the Saint’s wishes, which he had expressed in his will, the clergy and people of Rostov asked the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Stephen Yavorsky of Ryazan, who had come for the funeral, to conduct the burial at the city’s cathedral church. Metropolitan Stephen insisted on burying the body of his deceased friend beside Saint Joasaph, who was Saint Demetrios’s predecessor. However, a grave was not prepared until the arrival of Metropolitan Stephen, even though about a month had passed since the Saint’s death. Due to the urgent departure of Metropolitan Stephen from Rostov, a hastily constructed wooden frame was placed into the grave, in which the body of the Saint was buried on November 25. This circumstance, foreseen by the Providence of God, led to a quick uncovering of the relics.
In 1752 repairs were being made in the cathedral church of the monastery, and on September 21, the incorrupt body of Saint Demetrios was discovered. The place of burial had been affected by dampness, the oaken coffin and the writing on it were decayed, but the body of the Saint, and even his omophorion, sakkos, mitre and silken prayer rope were preserved undamaged.
After the discovery of his relics, Saint Demetrios began to heal many illnesses, and performed many miracles. When the Holy Synod was informed of these facts, it sent a Committee: Metropolitan Sylvester of Suzdal and Archimandrite Gabriel of Simonov Monastery, to examine the relics of Bishop Demetrios and to verify the miraculous cures. Upon the Committee’s recommendation, a decree was issued by the Holy Synod on April 29, 1757 numbering Saint Demetrios, Metropolitan of Rostov among the saints, and designating the dates of his commemoration as October 28 (the day of his repose) and September 21 (the uncovering of his relics).
The Church of Russia also commemorates the Hierarchs Demetrios of Rostov, Metrophanes and Tikhon of Voronezh on July 19.
On the divinity of the Son and His unity of Essence with the Father
He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father (John 14:9)
Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us (John 14:8). To these words, the Lord Jesus replied: Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father (John 14:9). Thus replied the Lord to His disciple. Philip wanted to see God with his bodily eyes. Yet, for three years he looked upon Christ, and did not recognize Him as God. Why? Because, before the descent of the Holy Spirit, Philip looked with the body at the body. In other words, he perceived with bodily eyes, and saw the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. He still had not seen the divinity in the Son of God Incarnate, and yet he sought to see God the Father! He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. By this the Lord did not want to say that He was God the Father, but that He and the Father are of one Essence. Insofar as God could reveal Himself to men, He revealed Himself through the Son, who appeared to men as a man. God the Father did not become incarnate; God the Holy Spirit did not become incarnate; but God the Son did become incarnate. How then, could He show His Father to the bodily eyes of a mortal man? This is precisely why the Son became incarnate, to reveal Himself to men—Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit: consubstantial unity, in three Persons. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Here, the Lord speaks of His divine nature. In that, he is completely equal and of one Essence with the Father. So it is that, had Philip perceived the divine nature of Christ, he would not have made the request: Show us the Father. Naturally, he could not have seen the divine nature, as it is spiritual and invisible; but he could see—and see clearly—the great works of Christ as a manifestation of His divine nature. Brethren, even today, some men say: “Show us God and we will believe!” We should say to them: “Behold, we show you the Lord Jesus—believe!” “I have been with you for nineteen centuries, O men, and have you not recognized Me?” Nineteen centuries filled with His glory, miracles, power, grace, mercy, saints and martyrs! And there are still imbeciles who ask: “Where is God?” O Lord Christ our God, open the spiritual eyes of those who still do not see, that they may see the majesty of Thy glory. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
— Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid.
Sunday Bulletin September 14, 2025