Aug. 14 – 9th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone 8
Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord (1164) . Holy Seven Maccabees, Martyrs Abimus, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus, and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar (166 B.C.). Celebration of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine (988).
1 Cor. 3:9-17; Mt. 14:22-34;
1 Cor. 1:18-24;
Jn. 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35
Heb. 11:33-12:2; Mt. 10:32-36; 11:1
The Beginning of the Dormition Fast
Tropar Resurrectional, Tone 8
You descended from on High, Merciful One. You accepted the three day burial to free us from our passions. Lord, our Life and Resurrection. Glory to You.
Tropar to Holy Cross, Tone 1
O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance. Grant victory to Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and by virtue of Your Cross, preserve Your community.
Tropar to Martyrs, Tone 1
Through the godly suffering Your Holy Ones endured, Loving Lord, we pray You to comfort and heal us in our distress.
Resurrectional Kondak, Tone 8
By rising from the tomb, You raised up the dead. Adam is risen and Eve exults in Your Resurrection. The entire world celebrates Your rising from the dead, Greatly Merciful One.
Glory …
Kondak to Martyrs, Tone 2
Most wise Maccabees, pillars numbering seven of the Wisdom of God, seven branched candlestick of Divine Light. Great-Martyrs before the Martyrs of Christ who later joined you: Ask the God of All to save those who praise you.
Now and Ever …
Kondak to Holy Cross, Tone 4
Christ God, as You were voluntarily raised on the Cross for our sake, be compassionate to those who are called by Your Name. Make all Your devout faithful glad through Your Power, granting them victories over their enemies by bestowing on them the invincible trophy, Your Weapon of Peace.
Instead of the Thrice-Holy Hymn
Before Your Cross we bow down, Master and Your Holy Resurrection we glorify.
Prokimens
Priest: Let us be attentive! Peace be with you all!
Reader: And with your spirit!
Deacon: Wisdom!
Reader: The Prokimen in Tone 6: O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance.
Choir: (repeats the prokimen)
Reader: Verse: To You, Lord, will I call: "My God, be not silent to me."
Choir: (repeats the prokimen)
Reader: The Second Prokimen in Tone 4: All my delight is in the Saints of His earth.
Choir: All my delight is in the Saints of His earth.
Epistles
Deacon: Wisdom!
Reader: The reading is from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
Deacon: Let us be attentive.
Reader: Brethren, 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. 10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Deacon: Wisdom!
Reader: The reading is from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
Deacon: Let us be attentive.
Reader: Brethren, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Reader: The reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews.
Deacon: Let us be attentive.
Reader: Brethren, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Priest: Peace be with you.
Reader: And with your spirit. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Verse: Remember Your congregation which You have gathered up from of old.
Verse: But God is our King of old, He has fashioned salvation in the midst of the earth.
Verse: The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them out of all their afflictions.
Communion Hymns
Illumine us, Lord, with the light of Your Countenance. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice in the Lord, you Righteous, praise befits the upright. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.