9Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
10She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
11When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they disbelieved.
12After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them as they walked, on their way into the country.
13They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.
14Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table; and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
17These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages;
18they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
20They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
Galatians 2.16-20
(Epistle, Sunday after Elevation)
16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
17But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.
19For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.
20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
2 Corinthians 1.21-2.4 (Epistle)
21Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God,
22who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
23But I call God for a witness to my soul, that to spare you, I didn’t come to Corinth.
24We don’t control your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.
1But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow.
2For if I make you grieve, then who will make me glad but he who is made to grieve by me?
3And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be shared by all of you.
4For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
Mark 8.34-9.1
(Gospel, Sunday after Elevation)
34He called the multitude to himself with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.
36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?
37For what will a man give in exchange for his life?
38For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
1He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death until they see God’s Kingdom come with power.”
Matthew 22.1-14 (Gospel)
1Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying,
2“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son,
3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
4Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’
5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise;
6and the rest grabbed his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy.
9Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’
10Those servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests.
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,
12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.
13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’
14For many are called, but few chosen.”
Commemorations
Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-Praised
She was born in Chalcedon to noble Christian parents. When Priscus, the locul Proconsul, celebrated a public sacrifice to Ares, forty-nine Christians including Euphemia hid themselves to avoid idolatry. Their absence was noticed, and they were found and brought before Priscus. After torturing all of them for eleven days, on the twelfth day he singled out Euphemia because of her beauty and began to flatter her, hoping in this way to draw her away from the Faith. When his efforts proved useless, he ordered her to be more savagely tortured than any of her fellow believers. She was miraculously preserved intact through many tortures, finally giving her soul into God’s hands when she was thrown to wild beasts. Her devout parents retrieved and buried her body. Her relics are preserved in the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The miracle wrought by her holy relics at the Council of Chalcedon is commemorated on July 11.
Holy Hieromartyr Cyprian of Carthage (258)
He was born to wealthy and noble parents in Carthage (north Africa), and became a prominent lawyer in that city. Around the year 246 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by the priest Caecilianus. Immediately he gave all his goods to the poor and retired to a quiet place in the country to devote himself to prayer and study of Christian writings. In 248 or 249 he was elected Bishop of Carthage by the insistence of the people, though some priests opposed the consecration of such a new Christian.
Soon after his election, the Emperor Decius began a terrible persecution of Christians, during which Cyprian, in hiding, upheld his flock by letters. During this time many Christians gave in to fear of death and either sacrificed to the idols or signed statements that they had done so. When the persecution ended, the problem arose of how to treat the apostates who wished to be received back into the Church. Rigorist groups such as the Novatians and Montanists held that these lapsi had removed themselves from all hope of salvation and could never re-enter the Church. Cyprian rejected this view (as well as the position of some who would immediately reconcile the apostates); he established the position, still standard in the Church, that apostates could be restored after confession and long penance. His position led to a schism in the Church at Carthage when Cyprian’s opponents set up Maximus the Montanist as a rival Bishop. The schism was only ended by a plague that swept the Empire and the city of Carthage in 253-254, together with a renewed persecution of Christians. Saint Cyprian’s tireless care for the suffering during this time won most of the schismatics back to his side. When peace returned, Cyprian called a series of Councils in Carthage to resolve the conflicts that had troubled the Church. He upheld the African (and Eastern) churches’ practice of reconciling heretics to the Church by Baptism rather than by laying on of hands, as was done in Rome; though Cyprian did not seek to impose this practice on other churches, Rome was not so tolerant and broke with the African church until the death of Pope Stephen.
In 256, yet another persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian. Cyprian was arrested and brought before the Proconsul of the region. He refused to defend himself, and when told that he was to be executed, said only Deo Gratias!(Thanks be to God!). At his execution the holy bishop ordered that twenty-five gold pieces be given to the executioner, and put on the blindfold with his own hands.
Note: St Cyprian is missing on this date from traditional martyrologies because he was once confused with St Cyprian of Antioch (October 2). Today is the date of his martyrdom and the date of his commemoration on the Latin calendar.
St Ninian, Enlightener of Scotland (432)
One of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles, he was born in Britain around the year 360. Though Britain was still mostly pagan, Ninian was born of Christian parents. He traveled to Rome as a young man, and spent several years there engaged in study and ascetic struggle. He was ordained in Rome and sent back as a missionary to Britain around the year 400. On the way he probably met St Martin of Tours: many of the churches he founded, including his cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honor of St Martin. He established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen and converted many more Britons to the Faith. He also converted many of the fierce Picts, inhabitants of today’s Scotland, to faith in Christ. He reposed in peace in Whithorn in 432.
Our Holy Father Dorotheos the Solitary of Egypt (4th c.)
He was one of the great company of Egyptian desert fathers of the fourth century. He lived alone in a cell in the Thebaid for sixty years, devoting himself to prayer, asceticism and renowned love of labor. He spent his days building cells for new monks, his nights making plaited mats, all the while immersed in prayer and psalmody.