Sunday Readings
Apostolic Reading – 1 Corinthians 4:9-16
Gospel – Luke 18:18-27
Troparion of the resurrection (Tone 8)
You descended from on high O compassionate One, and consented to burial for three days that You might free us form suffering. O Lord, our life and our resurrection, glory to You!
Troparion of the Holy Apostle Andrew (Tone 3)
O Holy Apostle Andrew, intercede with God all-merciful that He may grant us the remission of our sins.
Troparion of the Holy Cross (Tone 1)
O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance, granting peace to the world. And preserve your community by the power of your Cross.
Kondakion of the Preparation of the Nativity of our Lord (Tone 3)
Today the Virgin is on her way to the cave where she will give birth to the Eternal Word of God in an ineffable manner. Rejoice, therefore, O universe, when you hear this news, and glorify with the angels and the shepherds Him who shall appear as a new Child, being God from all eternity.
Prokimenon
May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in you.
Stichon
Exult, you just, in the Lord; praise from the upright is fitting.
Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (4:9-16)
I think God has set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death, so that we would become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are without honor! To this very hour, we hunger and thirst, and we are naked and buffeted and have no fixed home. And we labor, working with our own hands. We are reviled and we bless, we are persecuted and we bear with it, we are maligned and we console; we have become as the refuse of this world, the scum of all until this present time. I write these things, not to put you to shame, but to admonish you as my dearest children. For although you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you have not many fathers. Therefore, I beg you, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Alleluia
O God, you granted me retribution and made peoples subject to me and saved me from my raging enemies.
Stichon
Therefore, I will proclaim you, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name.
The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the Evangelist (18:18-28). The Rich Young Man.
At that time a certain man approached Jesus and asked him, saying, “Good Master, what shall I do to gain eternal life?” But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but only God. You know the commandments; ‘Thou shat not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and mother.” And he said, “All these I have kept ever since I was a child.” But when Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing is still lacking to you; sell everything you own, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When he heard these things, he was much grieved, for he was very rich. But Jesus, seeing him become sad, said, “With what difficulty will the wealthy enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” He said to them, “Things men cannot do alone, they can do with God’s help.”