Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sunday of the Cheesefare or Sunday of Forgiveness, the Sunday Before the Great Fast on Which We Commemorate the Casting Out of Adam From Paradise.

Mode Four — Fourth Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 112]. Brethren:

13 ¹¹Now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. ¹²The night is advanced, and the day hath drawn near. Let us therefore put away from ourselves the works of darkness, and let us put on the weapons of light. ¹³Let us walk becomingly, as in the day, not in revellings and drunkenness, not in acts of unlawful intercourse and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy. ¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and cease taking forethought for the flesh, in regard to the lusts thereof.

14 ¹Now the one who is weak in the faith, be taking to yourselves, but not for passing judgments upon his opinions. ²One, on the one hand, hath faith to eat all things; but one, on the other hand, who is weak, eateth herbs. ³Let not the one who eateth despise him who eateth not, and let not the one who eateth not judge him who eateth; for God hath taken him to Himself. ⁴Who art thou who judgeth Another’s household slave? To his own Lord he standeth or falleth; but he shall be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 17]. The Lord said:

6 ¹⁴“If ye forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵“but if ye forgive not men their transgressions, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

¹⁶“And whenever ye are fasting, cease being as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they artificially disfigure their faces, in such a manner that they might appear to men fasting. Verily I say to you that they have their reward. ¹⁷“But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, ¹⁸“so that thou mightest not appear to men fasting, but to thy Father Who is in secret; and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, shall reward thee in the open.

¹⁹“Cease treasuring up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal; ²⁰“but be treasuring up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth spoil, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal. ²¹“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy Father Martinian, monk of Cæsarea in Palestine.

No readings given.

Synaxarion Readings

Cheesefare Sunday

Let all the earth weep bitterly with the fathers of our race, for it is fallen with those who tasted the sweet fruit of the tree.

On this day we commemorate the fall of Adam the first-created from partaking of the fruit of Paradise, which our holy and divine fathers have appointed for the Sunday before Great Lent in order to demonstrate the great healing effect of the fast upon human nature and the great harm of intemperance and disobedience. Setting aside the countless instances of these vices in the world, the fathers have put forth a vivid example in first-created Adam, who suffered great harm in his total failure to fast and brought this harm upon our nature. He did not keep the first commandment of a beneficial fast which God had required of mankind, but yielding to the desires of his belly and of the serpent through Eve, he not only did not become godlike, but he gave rise to death, bringing perdition upon all our race. For the sake of Adam’s intemperance the Lord fasted for forty days and was obedient. It was for this reason that the holy apostles conceived this present forty-day fast, so that as Adam forfeited incorruption through his intemperance, we may regain it through abstinence. Also, as was stated earlier, it was the intent of the holy fathers through the Triodion to relate in a condensed form all of God’s acts from the beginning to the end of the world. Since Adam’s transgression and fall through the eating of the fruit of the tree is the principal cause of the state of mankind, the fathers exhort us who are observing this commemoration to avoid Adam’s sin and to shun intemperance in all things.

Now it was on the sixth day that Adam was created by the hand of God after His own image and through His life-giving breath. Receiving God’s commandment, he lived in Paradise up until the sixth hour, when he disobeyed God’s command and was driven out. And as he stretched out his hand at the sixth hour to touch the fruit, so the new Adam, Christ, at the sixth day and hour stretched out his hands upon the Cross, annulling the sentence of perdition brought about by the former Adam. For he was created in the midst of corruption and incorruption through providence, with the freedom of choice. God could have made Adam sinless, yet His providence was to provide for reparation. For this cause He gave His commandment that Adam might partake of all in the garden, save the one tree. Does this not mean that Adam was meant to understand the essence of all created things by the divine power but was not to attempt to understand the essence of the Godhead? That is to say, God commanded Adam to concern himself with all other elements and qualities, reasoning with his mind to the glory of God; for this is true nourishment. But he was not to search for the divine essence: God, Who He is, where He is, and how He brought all things into being out of nothingness. Yet to his own harm Adam, having no care for the other things, sought to examine God and to determine His essence; and since he was not perfect but still a simple child, he failed in his undertaking, when through Eve Satan planted in him the desire of becoming like God.

Some say that the tree of disobedience was a fig tree, and becoming aware of their nakedness, Adam and Eve used its leaves to cover themselves. For this reason Christ cursed the fig tree as the cause of that disobedience, attributing to it a sort of resemblance to sin. For having transgressed becoming clothed in mortal flesh and receiving the curse, Adam was driven from Paradise. And at God’s command a flaming sword guarded its gates. Adam sat before the gates of Paradise and lamented the many blessings he had lost in his failure to observe a timely fast. And through him the entire race shared in that sentence, until our Creator, taking pity on our nature which because of Satan was perishing, was born of the holy Virgin and lived an exceptional life, showing us the path away from the devil, that is abstinence and humility, and valiantly gaining the victory over the deceiver, returned us to our former state.

In their desire to lay all these events before us, the God-bearing fathers have begun with the Old Testament: the creation of the world, the fall of Adam through the eating of the fruit, which we commemorate today, and later on the words of Moses and the prophets and the poetry of David, which impart grace. Afterwards in order, the events of the New Testament, of which the first is the Annunciation, which always occurs during the Great Fast through God’s ineffable providence, the raising of Lazarus, Palm Sunday, the reading of the sacred Gospels during Holy Week, and the profound texts of the holy and saving Passion of Christ. After this the Resurrection and the rest up to the descent of the Holy Spirit read in the Book of Acts, how this event became a proclamation that assembled all the saints together, for in the Book of Acts the Resurrection is confirmed through signs and wonders.

Since we have so suffered from Adam’s failure to keep the fast, this event is commemorated today at the beginning of Great Lent, so that keeping in mind the enormous evil brought about by Adam’s intemperance, we may make joyful haste to accept and keep the fast. And as Adam sinned in his desire to become godlike, we may thereby receive godliness through fasting, tears, and humility until God visits us; for without these it is impossible to regain that which we have lost. It should be also noted that the holy forty-day fast is the tenth part of the entire year. Since out of indolence we are not willing to fast constantly or to rid ourselves of evil habits, the apostles and divine fathers have passed down the Fast to us as a sort of first offering of the harvest of our lives. And as we have acted inappropriately for the entire year, we may now cleanse our souls through fasting, contrition, and humility. We should keep the Great Fast with the utmost care. For as there are four seasons in the year, so there are four fasts. Yet the divine apostles have entrusted Lent to us as the greatest of the fasts, since it honors the Holy Passion of Christ, His fast, and His glorification. Moses also fasted forty days before he received the Law, also Elias, Daniel, and all who found favor in God’s sight. Adam illustrates for us the benefit of the fast as opposed to intemperance. For this reason Adam’s banishment from Paradise was appointed by the holy fathers to be commemorated on this day.

In Thine ineffable compassion, O Christ our God, make us worthy of the nourishment of Paradise, and have mercy on us, as Thou alone lovest mankind. Amen.

Translated from Triodion, siest ‘Tripesnets: Triod’ Postnaya, Moscow, 1904, by Robert Parent.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 26th – Civil Calendar
February 13th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Simeon the Myrrh-Streamer.

Stefan Nemanja, the great ruler of the Serbian people, unifier of the Serbian lands, creator of an independent Serbian government, defender of Orthodoxy, driver-out of heresy, was first baptized in the Latin Church when he was a child, but later received a real Baptism and became a member of the Orthodox Church. In its organization, Serbia was at first dependent on Greece, but later shook off this dependence and became completely autonomous. When he had strengthened the state and the Orthodox Church within the state, he then, following the example of his son Sava, received the monastic schema at the monastery of Studenica in 1195, being given the name Simeon. His wife Anna also received the monastic schema and the name Anastasia, and retired to a women’s monastery. After two years’ monasticism at Studenica, Simeon went to the Holy Mountain. There, he stayed at first in the monastery of Vatopedi together with Sava. Father and son spent days and nights in prayer. There they built six chapels: to the Savior, the Unmercenaries, St. George, St. Theodore, the Forerunner and St. Nicholas. They bought the ruins of Hilandar and built a beautiful monastery, in which Simeon lived only eight months before his death. When he was at his last breath, Sava, according to his wish, placed him on a simple rush mat. With his eyes fixed on the icon of the Mother of God with the Savior, the blessed elder pronounced these words: ‘Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.’ And he went to the Lord, on February 13th, 1200.

2. Our Holy Father Martinian.

The life of this saint is wonderful beyond measure and is worth reading in full. What did he not endure to fulfill the law of God? At the age of eighteen, he went off into a mountain in Cappadocia called ‘the Ark’ and there spent 25 years in fasting, vigils and prayer, and struggling with manifold temptations. When a woman came to tempt him and he saw that he would fall into sin with her, he leapt barefoot into the fire and stood in it until the pain brought forth tears from his eyes and he had killed all lust within himself. When other temptations arose, he fled to a lonely rock in the sea and lived there. When, though, in a shipwreck, a woman swam to the rock, he leapt into the sea. But a dolphin took him upon its back and brought him, by God’s providence, to the shore. He then decided to make nowhere his permanent home but to travel incessantly. Thus he passed through 164 towns in two years, exhorting and advising the people. He finally arrived in Athens, where he died in 422.

3. Saints Zoe and Photine.

Zoe (Zoa) at first tempted St. Martinian to immorality, but when she saw this hermit leap into the fire to kill all lust in himself, she repented bitterly, went to a monastery in Bethlehem and lived there in heroic asceticism as a hermit and anchorite. Repenting of all her sins, she received the gift of wonder-working from the Lord. St. Photine (Photinia) was thrown by the sea onto the island where St. Martinian was living in solitude. Martinian immediately left the island, but Photine remained there to the end of her days in fasting and prayer.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The great Stefan Nemanja, whose authoritative word was unreservedly heeded by all, at whom peoples and kings trembled, became a monk and served the monks of the Holy Mountain as a model example of meekness, humility, goodness and prayer. And his death was the death of a truly godly man and spiritual guide. He took to his bed on February 7th, called St. Sava to him, placed his hands on him and blessed him, saying: ‘My beloved child, light of my eyes, comfort and guardian of my old age, the time for us to part has come; the Lord is letting me go forth in peace. But do not grieve, my child, for our parting; this is common to all. Here we part; but we shall meet again hereafter, where there is no more parting.’ On February 12th St. Simeon told Sava to dress him in his burial habit, spread rushes for him on the ground, put a stone for his head and thus lay him there. Then he called together all the monks and asked their forgiveness. At dawn on the 13th, while the monks were singing the morning office in the church, their voices reaching the dying man’s cell, St. Simeon’s face lit up once more and he gave his soul to God.

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.