14th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 5. Ven. Kyriakos the Anchorite (556).
Tone 5 Troparion (Resurrection)
Let us, the faithful, praise and worship the Word, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, born for our salvation from the Virgin; for He willed to be lifted up on the Cross in the flesh, to endure death, and to raise the dead// by His glorious Resurrection.
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 1 Troparion (St. Kyriakos)
O dweller of the wilderness and angel in the body, you were a wonderworker, O our God-bearing Father Cyriacus. You received heavenly gifts through fasting, vigil, and prayer, healing the sick and the souls of those drawn to you by faith. Glory to Him Who gave you strength! Glory to Him Who granted you a crown!// Glory to Him Who, through you, grants healing to all!
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Phocas)
By sharing in the ways of the Apostles, you became a successor to their throne. Through the practice of virtue, you found the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God; by teaching the word of truth without error, you defended the Faith, even to the shedding of your blood.// O Hieromartyr Phocas, entreat Christ God to save our souls!
Tone 4 Kontakion (Resurrection)
My Savior and Redeemer as God rose from the tomb and delivered the earth-born from their chains. He has shattered the gates of hell, and as Master,// He has risen on the third day!
Tone 5 Kontakion (Resurrection)
You descended into hell, O my Savior, shattering its gates as Almighty, resurrecting the dead as Creator, and destroying the sting of death. You have delivered Adam from the curse, O Lover of man,// and we cry to You: “O Lord, save us!”
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 8 Kontakion (St. Kyriakos)
The sacred Lavra honors you as a mighty champion and helper, and yearly celebrates your memory. As you have boldness before the Lord: preserve us from our enemies// so that we may sing: “Rejoice, thrice-blessed Cyriacus!”
Tone 4 Kontakion (Steadfast Protectress)
Steadfast Protectress of Christians, Constant Advocate before the Creator; despise not the cry of us sinners, but in your goodness come speedily to help us who call on you in faith. Hasten to hear our petition and to intercede for us, O Theotokos, for you always protect those who honor you!
Tone 5 Prokeimenon (Resurrection)
You, O Lord, shall protect us / and preserve us from this generation forever. (Ps. 11:7)
V. Save me, O Lord, for there is no longer any that is godly! (Ps. 11:1a)
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4 (Epistle)
Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand. But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me? And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.
Tone 5
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. I will sing of Your mercies, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your truth from generation to generation. (Ps. 88:1-2)
V. For You have said: Mercy will be established forever; Your truth will be prepared in the heavens. (Ps.88:3)
Luke 6:31-36 (Gospel)
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
The Venerable Cyriacus
The Recluse Cyriacus was born in Corinth, to John and Eudoxia. His father John was a presbyter and Peter, Bishop of Corinth, was his kinsman. In his early youth, the bishop ordained Cyriacus a reader in the cathedral church. Reading the Holy Scripture, the young Cyriacus marveled at God’s providence: how God glorified all His true servants and how He arranged the salvation of the human race. At age eighteen, Cyriacus’s desire for the spiritual life led him to Jerusalem. There, he entered the monastery of a godly man Eustorgius, who gave him his first instruction in the monastic life. After that, he went to St. Euthymius, who foresaw that he would be a great spiritual father. He clothed him in the schema and sent him to St. Gerasimus at the Jordan, where Cyriacus spent nine years. Following the death of Gerasimus, he returned to the Monastery of St. Euthymius, where he remained in stillness for ten years. Then, fleeing the praise of men, he moved from place to place. He finally lived a life of asceticism in the community of St. Chariton, where he ended his earthly sojourn of 109 years. A celebrated ascetic and miracle-worker, St. Cyriacus was massive and strong in body, and remained such in deep old age, despite strict fasts and vigils.
In the wilderness, he sometimes ate only raw greens for years. He was very zealous for the Orthodox Faith, denouncing all heresies, especially that of Origen. He said of himself that, since he became a monk, the sun had neither seen him eat nor become angry with anyone. According to the Rule of St. Chariton, the monks ate only once a day, after the setting of the sun. Cyriacus was a great light, a pillar of Orthodoxy, the adornment of monks, a mighty healer of the sick, and a gentle comforter of the sorrowful. Having lived long for the benefit of many, he took up his habitation in the eternal joy of his Lord in the year 557.
— Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid. Sebastian Press Publishing House.
On knowing the Father through the Son
O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee (John 17:25)
An equal knows his equal best. The lower does not know the higher, or the mortal the immortal. The Old Testament prophets and some of the wise men of ancient times knew God as the Creator and the Provider, but no one knew Him as the Father of the Son. Those who knew Him in ancient times knew Him through creation, and not through birth. Through creation they knew something of the righteousness, wisdom and power of God; but they did not know His love, for love is known through birth. A father knows the mystery of the one born, and the one born knows the love of the parent. It could be put this way: “The world hath not known Thee, for the world looked at Thee as Lord and itself as a slave; But I have known Thee, for I see Thee as Father and feel Thine inexpressible love. The world looks at Thee through the veil of Thy works; but I look at Thee face to face, in the eternal beauty of Thy love.” The Lord brought this illuminating flame of eternal filial and paternal love among men, so that men could see God in this flame, in this new and hitherto unknown light. The Lord passed this new knowledge of God’s love to His apostles, and through them to us. Oh, may this flame of divine eternal love burn in us! May we thus know God as our Father, and ourselves as His children, adopted through the sacrifice of the Only-begotten Son of God. O God of Triune Flame, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: illumine us also, darkened as we are by sin, with the eternal glory of Thy love. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
-Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid. Sebastian Press Publishing House.
From: Acquiring the Mind of Christ: Fr. Sergius Bowyer
Our task is to acquire the Mind of Christ, not by imitation, but through an impartation and participation. This only happens through the Church by grace, informing our heart so that we understand the world in and through Christ. The only way to acquire this is through living the Liturgy. Our personal interior prayer life must be strong and joined to dedicated regular attendance at all of the services. We will never have time for the Church and the things of God unless we make time, prioritizing our life so as to put God first. If we say that we love God, that means, says St. Silouan the Athonite, that we pray. There are two sides of the life of prayer which are inseparably bound: personal and corporate. We need both if we are to make progress, for they both nourish each other, strengthening and reinforcing each other respectively.
Today is the day of salvation and the time is far spent. It is time to awake from the slumber of the world and to put on Christ, beseeching Him to grant us a continual renewal of our repentance and of our life in the Church. It is time to put spiritual capital into our bank account in eternity, so that when we fail, we will be received into the eternal habitations. The Church’s Liturgy and a life of personal prayer prepare us to live in God’s presence, to endure God’s presence, and to love God’s presence. We must make this preparation in this world, otherwise, in the world to come, there will be no more time for us to make the appropriate adjustment to that which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” (i Cor. 2:9).
We may not ever find the perfect prayer that a few in a generation will reach. However, the Liturgy is perfect hypostatic prayer. Elder Zacharias of Essex tells us that the energy of this prayer upholds the universe. We need not despair of our lack of perfection in prayer, but rather hasten to enter into the Church’s perfect hypostatic prayer, which saves us and the world. Our work as Orthodox is liturgical: serving and living the Liturgy, and through this, bringing the world into the Church. We can never underestimate the power of the Liturgy and its ability to transform and inform the heart.
Our primary tool for evangelism to those inside and outside the Church is serving the Liturgy and the services of the Church. It is this which constitutes the sanctification of the world and grants us an opportunity to participate in the holiness of God Himself. Therefore, we must always remember that the Church and its Liturgy are the Kingdom, the world to come, present in our midst today.
We must beware of supposing that heaven is something that only is in the future. As Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos states: We Orthodox are not waiting for the end of history and the end of time, but through living in Christ we are running to meet the end of history and thus already living the life expected after the Second Coming.
This is what the saints show us. This is what the monastics remind us. This is what we are called to. In the Church, the Kingdom is present and revealed, but yet to be consummated. This is the Church. This is the Liturgy. This is our new life in Christ which He calls us to: “Come, all things have been prepared….” Our task is to do what we can and leave the rest to God. Our part may be a small offering, but it might very well be the widow’s two mites which purchase for us the Kingdom.
— Bowyer, Sergius. Acquiring the Mind of Christ: Embracing the Vision of the Orthodox Church. St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press.
Sunday Bulletin September 22, 2024