Acquiring Joy

Saturday December 23, 2017 / December 10, 2017
29th Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). Fish Allowed

Martyrs Menas the Melodius, Hermogenes, and Eugraphus of Alexandria (310).
St. Ioasaph, bishop of Belgorod (1754).
New Hieromartyr Jacob and Alexander priests, Hieromartyr Eugraph and his son (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Anatolius, Alexander, Eugine, Constantine, Nicholas priests and with them Martyrs Peter, Michael, Dorotheus, Laurentius, Gregory and Virgin-martyrs Alexandra and Tatiana, New Hieromartyr Michael priest, New Hieromartyr Sergius (1937).
Virgin-martyr Eudocia (after 1937).
New Hieromartyrs Nicholas and Alexis priests (1938).
Virgin-martyrs Anna and Tatiana confessors (1948).
Virgin-martyr Thecla confessor (1954).
Venerable Anna confessor (1958).
Martyr Gemellus of Paphlagonia (361).
Venerable Thomas of Bithynia (10th c.).
Blessed John, king of Serbia (1503), and his parents Stephen(1468) and Angelina Brancovich (16th c.).
Hieromartyr Theotecnus (Greek).
Martyr Marianus (Greek).
Martyr Eugene (Greek).

The Scripture Readings

John 10:9-16

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep,and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Ephesians 2:11-13

Brought Near by His Blood

11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Luke 13:18-29

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven

20 And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

The Narrow Way

22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”

And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.