July 7, 2013

The Week Leading Up to… Sunday, July 13th, 2013

The Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils

from Wikipedia Commons, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/THE_FIRST_COUNCIL_OF_NICEA.jpg

During the Sundays of the Church year, we each Sunday move through a repeating cycle of eight Tones, with different music and hymns for each tone, which celebrate the resurrection of Christ. This Sunday falls on Tone 2. Here is the Sunday troparion (hymn) of the Resurrection for this Sunday:

When Thou didst submit Thyself unto death,
O Thou deathless and immortal One,
then Thou didst destroy hell with Thy Godly power.
And when Thou didst raise the dead from beneath the earth,
all the powers of Heaven did cry aloud unto Thee:
O Christ, Thou giver of life, glory to Thee.
Click here to listen to this troparion being sung, and here for sheet music.

The Epistle
Titus 3:8-15 (Holy Fathers)
Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our Fathers.
For thou art just in all that thou hast done to us.
The Reading is from St. Paul’s Letter to Titus
TITUS, my son, the saying is sure. I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful he is self-condemned.
When I send Artemas or Tychicos to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not to be unfruitful.
All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all. Amen.
The Gospel
Matthew 5:14-19 (Holy Fathers)
The Reading of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
The Lord said to his disciples: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.