The forty holy martyrs, martyred at Sebaste in Armenia on a frozen lake. They were comrades , not in blood, but in faith and obedience to the will of their heavenly Father. At the time of the emperor Licinius, after binding and savage tortures, the martyrs were ordered to pass the night naked at the coldest time of winter in a swamp in the open air. They consummated their martyrdom by the breaking of their legs at crucifixion. The forty martyrs are: Cyrion(or Quirio), Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunocius(or Eunicus), Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthius, Helianus, Sisinius, Aggais, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Leontuis, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, Aglaius, and Meliton.
O forty soldiers of Christ and honorable martyrs, you went through fire and water, O mighty warriors, and have come to live with the angels. Join them in praying to Christ for those who praise you. Glory to Him who strengthened you! Glory to Him who crowned you! Glory to Him who heals us through you!
You left the crowds of this world and joined the Master in heaven, O forty martyrs. Passing through fire and water, you reaped glory and honor in heaven, O blessed saints.
Hebrews 12: 1-10
Brothers and sisters: Since we for our part are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead; let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith. For the sake of the joy which lay before him he endured the cross, heedless of its shame. He has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Remember how he endures the opposition of sinners; hence do not grow despondent or abandon the struggle. In your fight against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Moreover, you have forgotten the encouraging words addressed to you as sons: “My sons, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord nor lose heart when he reproves you; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he receives.” Endure your trials as the disciples of God, who deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you do not know the discipline of sons, you are not sons but bastards. If we respected our earthly fathers who corrected us, should we not all the more submit to the Father of spirits, and live? They disciplined us as seemed right to them, to prepare us for the short span of mortal life; but God does so for our true profit, that we may share his holiness.
Matthew 20: 1-16
The Lord told this parable: “The reign of God is like the case of the owner of an estate who went out at dawn to hire the workman for his vineyard. After reaching an agreement with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them out to his vineyard. He came out about midmorning and saw other men standing around the marketplace without work, so he said to them, ‘You too go along to my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is fair.’ At that they went away. He came out again around noon and did the same. Finally, going out in late afternoon he found others standing around. To these he said, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ‘No one has hired us,’ they told him. He said, ‘You go to the vineyard too.’
When evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workmen and give them their pay, but begin with the last group and end with the first.’ When those hired late in the afternoon came up they received a full day’s pay, and when the first group appeared they supposed they would get more; yet they received that same daily wage. Thereupon they complained to the owner, ‘This last group did only an hour’s work, but you have put them on the same basis as us who have worked a full day in the scorching heat.’ ‘My friend,’ he said to one in reply, ‘I do you no injustice. You agreed on the usual wage, did you not? Take your pay and go home. I intend to give this man who was hired last the same pay as you. I am free to do as I please with my money, am I not? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
Genesis 8:21- 9:7
When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.
All the days of the earth,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Fear and dread shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat. Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.
Anyone who sheds the blood of a human being,
By a human being shall that one’s blood be shed;
For in the image of God
Have human beings been made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.
Justice leads toward life, but pursuit of evil, toward death.
The crooked in heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those who walk blamelessly are his delight.
Be assured, the wicked shall not go unpunished, but the offspring of the just shall escape.
Like a golden ring in a swine’s snout is a beautiful woman without judgment.
The desire of the just ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
One person is lavish yet grows still richer; another is too sparing, yet is the poorer.
Whoever confers benefits will be amply enriched, and whoever refreshes the other will be refreshed.
Whoever hoards grain, the people curse, but blessings are on the head of the one who distributes it!
Those who seek the good seek favor, but those who pursue evil will have evil come upon them.
Those who trust in their riches will fall, but like green leaves the just will flourish.
Those who trouble their household inherit the wind, and fools become slaves to the wise of heart.
The fruit of justice is a tree of life, and one who takes lives is a sage.
If the just are recompensed on the earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!
Whoever loved discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates reproof is stupid.
A good person wins favor from the Lord, but the schemer he condemns.
No one is made secure by wickedness, but the root of the just will never be disturbed.
A woman of worth is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful one is like rot in his bones.
The plans of the just are right; the designs of the wicked are deceit.
The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright saves them.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Sunday, March 8 –
