Sunday Readings
Apostolic Reading – 1 Cor 1:18-24
Gospel – John 19:6-11/13-20/25-28/30-35
Troparion of the Feast (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 Feast (Tone 4)
O Christ God, who chose by Your free volition to be elevated upon the holy cross, grant Your mercies to Your new people who are called by Your name. In Your power gladden the hearts of our public authorities. Strengthen them in every good deed so that Your true alliance may be for them a weapon of peace and a standard of victory.
Prokimenon
Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool, for He is holy.
Stichon
The Lord is reigning: let the peoples rage; He is enthroned upon the Cherubim: let the earth quake.
Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1:18-24)
Brethren, the doctrine of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but to those who are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the prudence of the prudent I will reject (Is. 29: 14; 33: 18).” Where is the “wise man,” where is the scribe? Where is the disputant of this world? Has not God turned into foolishness the “wisdom” of this world? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not come to know God by “wisdom,” it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save those who believe. For the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks ask for “wisdom” — but we for our part preach a crucified Christ, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Alleluia (Tone 1)
Remember Your congregation which You have acquired from the beginning: You redeemed the scepter of Your inheritance.
Stichon
God is our King forever: He brought about salvation in the midst of the earth.
The Holy Gospel According to St. John the Evangelist (19:6-11/13-20/25-28/30-35)
At that time the chief priests and the elders took counsel among themselves against Jesus to put Him to death. And they went to Pilate saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a Law, and according to that Law He must die, because He has made Himself Son of God.” Now when Pilate heard this statement, he feared the more. And he again went back into the praetorium, and asked Jesus. “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to Him, “Will You not speak to me? Do You not know I have power to release You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all over Me were it not given you from above.” Pilate therefore, when he heard these words, brought Jesus outside, and sat down on the judgment seat, at a place called Lithostrotos, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And he said the Jews, “Behold, your king!” But they cried out, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he handed Him over to them to be crucified. And so, they took Jesus and led Him away. And bearing the cross for Himself, He went forth to the place called the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the center. And Pilate also wrote an inscription and had it put on the cross. And there was written, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews therefore read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek and in Latin. Now there were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother and the disciple He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, Jesus, knowing all things were now accomplished, bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. The Jews therefore, since it was the Preparation Day, in order that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a solemn day), asked Pilate that their legs be broken, and that they be taken away. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other, who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers opened His side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water. And the one who saw it has borne witness, and his witness is true.