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 Plagal Four — Eighth 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 venerable Father Gerasimos of the Jordan, and our venerable father, the right-believing great Prince Daniel Alexandrovich of Moscow.

Epistle

For the blessed Prince:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

Gospel

For the blessed Prince:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 47]. The Lord said:

12 ³⁰“The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who gathereth not with Me scattereth. ³¹“On this account I say to you every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. ³²“And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming one. ³³“Either make the tree good and the fruit of it good, or make the tree rotten and the fruit of it rotten; for the tree is known from the fruit. ³⁴“O offspring of vipers, how are ye, being evil, able to speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ³⁵“The good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. ³⁶“But I say to you, that every idle word, whatsoever men shall speak, they shall render an account concerning it in the day of judgment. ³⁷“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

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)

March 17th – Civil Calendar
March 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Gerasimos (Gerasim).

This well-known saint first learned asceticism in the Egyptian Thebaid, but then went to the Jordan and there founded a community of about seventy monks which remains to this day. He formulated a particular rule for his monastery: the monks spent five days a week in their cells weaving baskets and mats; they were allowed no heat in their cells; five days they ate only a little dry bread and a few dates; the monks had to leave their cells open, even when they went out, so that anyone could, if he wanted something, take it from another’s cell. On Saturdays and Sundays they gathered in the monastery church, ate together boiled vegetables, and took a little wine in God’s praise. Then each monk brought and placed before the feet of the abbot the work he had done in the preceding five days. Each monk had only one garment. St. Gerasimos was an example to all. In the Great Fast he ate nothing but what he received in holy Communion. He once saw a lion which was roaring with pain, having a thorn in its paw. Gerasimos came near to it, crossed himself and pulled the thorn out. The lion was so tame that it followed the elder to the monastery and remained there until the latter’s death. When the elder died, the lion also succumbed to illness after him and died. St. Gerasimos was present at the Fourth Council in Chalcedon in 451, in the time of Marcian and Pulcheria, and though he at first inclined a little towards the Monophysite heresy of Eftyches and Dioscoros, he was at that council a great champion of Orthodoxy, having been turned from heresy by St. Efthymios. Of Gerasimos’ disciples, the best-known is St. Kyriakos the Solitary. St. Gerasimos entered into rest and into the eternal joy of his Lord in 475.

2. The Holy Martyrs Paul and Juliana.

Brother and sister from Ptolemais in Phoenicia, they were cruelly tortured for Christ under the Emperor Aurelian and were finally beheaded. Many miracles attended their martyrdom and many of the pagans, seeing them, were brought to the Faith. Several of them were beheaded in 273 and received martyrs’ wreaths.

3. St. Iakovos the Faster.

He lived in the sixth century. He was so perfected in godliness that he was able to heal the gravest illnesses by his prayers. But the enemy of the human race brought a heavy temptation on him. There was once sent to him a woman who had been corrupted by some mockers. She pretended to weep before him, but enticed him to sin. Seeing that he would fall into sin, Iakovos put his left hand into the fire and held it there until it was completely burned. Seeing this, the woman was filled with fear and horror, repented and reformed her life. But on a second occasion he did not resist and fell with a young girl whom her parents had brought to him to be healed of her madness. He indeed healed her, but then sinned with her, and in order to conceal the sin, killed her and threw her into a river. As always, the path from lust to murder was not very long. Iakovos spent ten years after that as a penitent, living in a grave. He learned after that that God had forgiven him, because, when he at one time prayed for rain in a time of great drought from which both men and cattle were suffering, it fell. Here is an example, similar to that of David, of how wicked the evil demon is; how, by the permission of God, the greatest spiritual giants can topple, and how again, by sincere repentance, God in His compassion will forgive the greatest sins and does not punish those who punish themselves.

FOR CONSIDERATION

If human philosophy can content a man, why did the philosophers Justin and Origen become Christians? Why did Basil and Chrysostom and Gregory, who had in Athens studied Hellenic philosophy in its fullness, receive Baptism? And St. Clement of Rome, who was very rich and very learned? And St. Catherine, who was of the royal house and learned in all the secular knowledge of Egypt? And Ioasaph, the heir of India, who was versed in the whole of Indian philosophy? And so many, many others who first sought an explanation for the enigmas of the world and light for their souls in philosophy, and then drew near to the Church and came to worship Christ the Lord.

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.