2/20/2022 - Divine Liturgy
Special Hymns for Today
Troparion - Tone 2 (Resurrection)
When You descended to death, O Life Immortal, / You slew hell with the splendor of Your Godhead. / And when from the depths You raised the dead, / all the powers of heaven cried out://“O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory to You!”
Troparion for St. Nikolai — Tone 8
O golden-tongued preacher proclaiming the risen Christ, / everlasting guide of the cross-bearing Serbian people, / resounding harp of the Holy Spirit, and dear to monastics who rejoice in you, / pride and boast of the priesthood, teacher of repentance, master for all nations, / guide of those in the army of Christ as they pray to God, / Holy Nikolai teacher in America and pride of the Serbian people, / with all the saints, implore the only Lover of mankind//to grant us peace and joy in his heavenly kingdom!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit . . .
Kontakion for St. Nikolai — Tone 3
Born at Lelich in Serbia, / you served as archpastor at the church of Saint Nahum in Ochrid./ You presided on the throne of Saint Sava at Zhicha,/ teaching the people of God and enlightening them with the Gospel, / bringing them to repentance and love for Christ. / And for His sake you endured suffering at Dachau. / Therefore, Nikolai, we glorify you as one newly well pleasing to God.
. . . both now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.
Kontakion – Tone 3 (from the Lenten Triodion)
I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; / and among sinners I have scattered the riches which You gave me. / And now I cry to You as the Prodigal: / “I have sinned before You, O merciful Father; / receive me as a penitent, //and make me as one of Your hired servants!”
The Prokeimenon in the 2nd Tone:
The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.
Congregation: The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. (Ps. 117:14)
Reader: v: The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has not given me over to death. (Ps. 117:18)
Congregation: The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.
Reader: The Lord is my strength and my song . . .
Congregation: . . . He has become my salvation.
The Reading is from the First Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians (6:12-20)
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. 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. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 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! 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.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 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? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Priest: Peace be to thee that reads.
Reader: And to thy spirit. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Congregation: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Reader: May the Lord hear you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! (Ps. 19:1)
Congregation: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Reader: Save the King, O Lord, and hear us on the day we call! (Ps. 19:9)
Congregation: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke (15:11-32)
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 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. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 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! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ 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. 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.’ 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. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 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.’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 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. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 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.’”
Sunday Communion Hymn
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!