Orthodox Calendar

Friday, December 7, 2012
Friday of the 27th week after Pentecost

Nativity Fast — Abstain from meat, fish, dairy, eggs, wine, and oil

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

2 Timothy 1.1-2, 8-18 (Epistle)

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, 2to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 11For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

12For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

13Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 14That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

15This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, 17but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently and found me 18(the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.

Philippians 3.20-4.3 (Epistle, Hieromartyrs Clement & Peter)

20For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

1Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

2I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord. 3Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Luke 19.12-28 (Gospel)

12He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13He called ten servants of his and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come.’ 14But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’

15“When he had come back again, having received the kingdom, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business. 16The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.’

17“He said to him, ‘Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’

18“The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.’

19“So he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’

20Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, 21for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn’t lay down, and reap that which you didn’t sow.’

22“He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn’t lay down and reaping that which I didn’t sow. 23Then why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank, and at my coming, I might have earned interest on it?’ 24He said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to him who has the ten minas.’

25“They said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ 26‘For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him. 27But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’” 28Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Commemorations

Hieromartyr Clement, Pope of Rome

He was instructed in the Faith of Christ by St Peter himself, and may be the Clement mentioned by the Apostle Paul as a fellow-worker in Philippians 4:3. He was consecrated Bishop of Rome about the year 91; some traditions call him the first Bishop of Rome, others the third after Sts Linus and Anacletus. (This is not necessarily inconsistent: in the Apostolic age, the offices of Elder and Bishop were not strictly distinguished, and the three bishops may have served at the same time or by turns.) He is the author of the Epistle of Clement, which was so highly esteemed in the early Church that it is often found in early versions of the New Testament. The holy Bishop effected countless conversions in Rome, even bringing the Prefect Sisinius and his wife Theodora to the Faith after miraculously healing them of blindness. The bishop’s success so angered the Emperor Trajan that he had Clement exiled to the Crimea, on the far eastern frontier of the Empire. There the holy bishop continued to work wonders of evangelism, founding seventy-five churches in one year and bringing countless pagans to faith in Christ. Finally, to put a stop to the Saint’s work, the Governor of the region had him cruelly tortured, then thrown into the Black Sea with an anchor around his neck. More than 700 years later, in 860, St Cyril (commemorated May 11) arrived in the Crimea, sent by St Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople. He found the relics of St Clement faithfully preserved there and brought part of them back to Constantinople.

Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria

Saint Peter was Bishop of Alexandria for twelve years. It was he who excommunicated Arius. When some of Arius’ followers appealed to the Bishop to restore Arius to the communion of the Church, they were surprised by the bishop’s vehement refusal, for the heretic had not yet clearly and publicly made known his blasphemous teaching that the Son is a creation of the Father. The holy bishop then revealed to these followers a vision he had seen, in which Christ appeared to him as a child wearing a garment torn in half from head to foot. When St Peter asked the Lord who had rent His garment, he said that it was Arius, who must not be received back into communion. The holy bishop was beheaded during the reign of Maximinus. He is called the “Seal of the Martyrs” because he was the last Bishop of Alexandria to suffer martyrdom under the pagan Emperors.