Sunday of the Prodigal Son
Sunday February 16, 2025 / February 3, 2025
Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Tone one.
Synaxis of All Saints of Perm Metropolia (movable holiday on the Sunday after January 29th).
Holy and Righteous Symeon the God-receiver and Anna the Prophetess (1st c.).
St. Nicholas, enlightener of Japan (1912).
New Hieromartyr John, Timothy, Adrian priests and Martyrs Vladimir, Michael (1938).
St. Romanus, prince of Uglich (1285).
St. Symeon, first bishop of Tver and Polotsk (1289).
St. Ignatius of Mariupol in Crimea, metropolitan of Gothia and Kafa (1786).
Prophet Azarias (10th c.B.C.).
Martyrs Papias, Diodorus, and Claudianus at Perge in Pamphylia (250).
Martyrs Adrian and Eubulus, at Caesarea in Cappadocia (310).
Martyr Blaise of Caesarea in Cappadocia (3rd c.).
St. Ansgar, bishop of Hamburg, enlightener of Denmark and Sweden (865).
St. Laurence of Canterbury, bishop (619) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Werburga of Chester, abbess (700) (Celtic & British).
St. Ia, virgin of St. Ives.
St. James, archbishop of Serbia (1292) (Serbia).
Martyr Paul the Syrian, who suffered under Diocletian (4th c.).
St. Sviatoslav-Gabriel and his son St. Dimitry of Yuriev (1253).
St. Sabbas of Ioannina (15th c.).
Greek New Martyrs Stamatius and John, brothers, and Nicholas their companion, in Chios (1822).
The Scripture Readings
Matthew 28:16-20 (1st Matins Gospel)
16
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.
17
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
18
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
12
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
13
Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14
And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
15
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!
16
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”
17
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
11
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
12
And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.
13
And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
14
But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
15
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16
And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17
But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18
‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19
and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. ‘
20
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
21
And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23
‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24
‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
25
Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26
So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27
And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
28
But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
29
So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30
‘But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31
And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
32
‘It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ “