Hebrews 3.5-11, 17-19 (Epistle)

5Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, 6but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. 7Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, 8don’t harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of the trial in the wilderness, 9where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. 10Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’ 11As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’” 17With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

Luke 19.37-44 (Gospel)

37As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, 38saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”

39Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”

41When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days will come on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, 44and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”

Prophet Malachi

He is the last of the twelve Minor Prophets and the last of all the Prophets of the Old Testament. His name means ‘My Angel’ or ‘My Messenger.’ He returned with the exiled Jews from Babylon and took part in the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. His prophecy announces to the ear of faith that the Lord will soon bring the Hebrew priesthood to an end in the coming of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2), the eternal Priest.

Holy Martyr Gordius of Caesarea (4th c.)

“The Martyr Gordius, who was from Caesarea of Cappadocia, was a centurion by rank. Unable to bear the impiety of the heathen, he withdrew to the wilderness to purify himself through prayer and fasting. After he perceived that his ascetical training had prepared him sufficiently, he came down from the mountains when a certain pagan festival was held in Caesarea, attended by all, and presented himself to the multitude. Although the spectacles of the festival continued, no one paid them any heed, but all eyes were turned upon him. From his sojourn in the mountains, his look was wild, his beard was long, his raiment squalid, his body like a skeleton; yet a certain grace shone round about him. He was recognized, and a loud shout and tumult was made, as his fellow Christians rejoiced, and the enemies of the truth cried out for his death. He boldly professed his faith before the Governor, and after torments was beheaded, in the reign of Licinius in the year 314. Saint Basil the Great delivered a homily on Saint Gordius, mentioning that some of those in his audience had been present at the Saint’s martyrdom.” (Great Horologion)

Our Holy Mother Genevieve of Paris (ca. 502)

She was born near Paris to a family of wealthy landowners. When she was about ten years old St Germanus of Auxerre (July 31), passing through the region on his way to Britain, discerned a special divine purpose for her, and told her parents that she had been chosen for the salvation of many. “He asked her that day, and early the next, if she would consecrate herself to holy virginity for Christ and, on both occasions, she answered that it was her dearest wish. Then he blessed her and gave her a copper coin inscribed with the Cross to wear around her neck, telling her never to wear gold, silver or pearls, but to elevate her mind above the small beauties of this world in order to inherit eternal and heavenly adornments.” (Synaxarion)

Convents were unknown at that time in Gaul, so Genevieve lived as a solitary, in a cell in her own house, first with her parents then, after their death, with her godmother in Paris. She devoted herself to the poor, giving away everything that came into her hands, except the small amount that she needed to feed herself on bread and beans. (When she passed the age of fifty, she was commanded by the bishops to add some fish and milk to her diet). She kept Lent from Theophany to Pascha, during which time she never left her house. She was never afraid to rebuke the powerful for their oppression of the weak and the poor, and thus earned many powerful enemies; but the people’s love for her, and the support of the Church, kept her from persecution.

It became her custom to walk to church on Sundays in procession with her household and many pious laypeople. Once the candle borne at the front of the procession (it was still dark) blew out in a rainstorm. The Saint asked for the candle and, when she took it in her hand, it re-lit and stayed lighted until they reached the church. At several other times, candles lit spontaneously in her hand; for this reason her icon shows her holding a candle.

She traveled throughout Gaul (modern-day France) on church business, being greeted with all the honors usually accorded a bishop. Several times she saved the city of Paris from the assaults of barbarian tribes through her prayers, by pleading with barbarian chieftains, and once by organizing a convoy to bring grain to the besieged city.

Saint Genevieve reposed in peace at the age of eighty. Through the centuries since then, she has shown her holy protection of the city of Paris countless times, and her relics in the Church of Saint Genevieve have wrought innumerable healings. Her relics were many times carried in huge processions in times of war, pestilence or other national trial. These relics were mostly burned and thrown into the River Seine by the godless Revolutionaries in 1793, but, as the Synaxarion concludes, “those who continue to invoke Saint Genevieve with faith, find her to be well and truly alive.”