READING 7
December 8th / November 25th, 2002 - Tevet 2nd, 5763
CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX READINGS
24th "Week after Pentecost. Tone 7
Matins: The Epistle to the Hebrews 2
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark 16:1-8
Divine Liturgy: a] In Jerusalem: The Feast of Saint and Holy Martyr Ekaterina
The Epistle to the Ephesians 6:10-17
The Holy Gospel accordint to Saint Luke 21:12-19
b] Closure of the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of our
Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary
The Epistle to the Hebrews 9:1-7
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke 10:38-42, 27-28
c] Current reading of the 27th Week:
The Epistle to the Ephesians 6:10-17
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke 13:10-17
Friday, December 13th/November 30th, 2002
Feast of the Saint and Holy Apostle Andrew [Andreas], the First to be Called
Divine Liturgy: The First Epistle to the Corinthians 4:9-16
The Holy Gospel according to Saint John 1:35-51
Different readings are proposed this week, especially within the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, since it commemorates the Day of Saint Ekaterina [305 - 313], the young maiden who was martyred in the 4th, century. This feast is quite important in the Middle-East because of the great spiritual influence of this young and very capable virgin who was killed for her faith and refused to live according to the world. The Monastery of Hagia Ekterina located in the Sinai desert is linked to our Patriarchate of Jerusalem although it is rather autonomous and shelters a magnificent library with very ancient manuscripts and books known throughout the Christian world. The site itself is exceptional, not very far, in the Paran area, from the place where Moses received the Gift of the Torah [Matan Toratenu], though it should be noted that until now, this is the only place in the Orthodox world where the Gospel according to Saint John is not proclaimed in the Hebrew language during the Paschal Liturgy ...
Many tourists, God-searchers and pilgrims can reach the place directly from abroad and find spiritual assistance, especially a large number of faithful from the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the Russian and Slavic traditions, Saint Ekaterina's Day is celebrated on Saturday, December 7th/November 24th.
This is also the end of the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. She bore the Light to the world and the Word took flesh in her body in order to save and enlighten the Heathens and the Gentile world. On this day, the Jewish Community leaves the Light of Hanukkah and continues its way with God's help as we have shown last week [Reading 6].
We shall focus on the current reading of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke, which allows a better and thorough understanding over the weeks of the specific Gospel according to this unique Evangelist, since he was a proselyte and wanted to pave the way of salvation to the Gentiles by an inside comprehensiveness of the birth and life of Our Savior.
Jesus teaches in a synagogue on a shabbat. And a woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; she was bowed together and could not lift up herself. Jesus calls her and tells her: "You are loosed from your infirmity" [Luke 13,12]. He lays his hands on her and she was immediately made straight and glorified God.
But the ruler of the synagugue is angry at Jesus because He did a saving act on the shabbat day. The argument is interesting: there are six days in which people ought to work, please will you come on these days to be healed - if possible - but closed on shabbat. The Lord answers that everybody does loose animals to feed them and get some water. Then it is normal to loose a woman who had been tied by satan all these eighteen years.
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