Day 1 (Monday)
Psalm 77/78
We began this year reading about the patriarchs Isaac and Jacob, and how they received the promises of the Lord, the covenant that God had made with Abraham, renewed with each of them in turn. After that we read the story of Gideon the judge, and saw how the people of God had fallen from the faithfulness to which they were called. We saw in our reading from Ruth the first hint of the remedy for that faithlessness, with the great-grandparents of David the king, from whose line the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, would be born to make all things right. Next week, we will begin to read the story of King David, but first, we will read a summary of God’s dealings with His people from the time of the Exodus from Egypt until David’s time.
KATHISMA XI. Psalm 77
(David’s honey-sweet songs of sacred harmony) For understanding, of Asaph
Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter riddles from of old, Which we have heard, and known, and our fathers have told us. They were not concealed from their children in the coming generation; but they recounted the praises of the Lord, and his mighty works, and the wonders that he did.
And he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children, That the coming generation might know them, the children yet unborn, who should arise and tell them to their children, That they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s works, but search his commandments; That they might not be like their fathers, a crooked and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make their heart right, and whose spirit was not faithful with God.
The children of Ephraim, when they bent their bows and shot, were turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God, and would not walk in his law. And they forgot his benefactions, and his wonders that he had shown them, The wonders he had done in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanis. He cleaved the sea, and brought them through; he made the waters stand as in a wineskin. And he led them with a cloud by day, and with a light of fire all the night. He cleaved the rock in the wilderness, and gave them drink as from the great deep. And he brought forth water out of the rock, and made waters run down like rivers.
And they sinned yet more against him; they provoked the Most High in a waterless place. And they tested God in their hearts by asking food for their appetite. And they spoke against God, and said, Can God provide a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he also give bread? can he provide a table for his people?
Therefore the Lord heard this, and was enraged, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger rose up against Israel, Because they did not have faith in God, nor did they trust in his salvation, Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven. Man ate the bread of angels; he sent them provisions to the full. He removed the south wind from heaven, and by his power he brought in the west wind.
And he rained down meat upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas; And they fell into the midst of their camp, all around their tents. So they ate, and were abundantly filled, and he gave them their own desire; they were not deprived of their desire. While the food was still in their mouths, then did the wrath of God rise up against them. And he slew the stoutest of them, and fettered the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and did not have faith in his wondrous works. And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years with haste. When he slew them, they sought him; and they repented, and came early to God. And they remembered that God was their helper, and the most high God their redeemer. And they loved him with their mouth, but lied to him with their tongue; And their heart was not right with him, nor were they faithful to his covenant. Yet he is compassionate, and forgives their sins, and will not destroy them; And many a time will he turn away his anger, and will not kindle all his wrath. And he remembered that they were flesh, a spirit that passes, and does not come again.
How often they provoked him in the wilderness, and angered him in a waterless land! And they turned about, and put God to the test, and embittered the Holy One of Israel. And they did not remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the hand of the oppressor; How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his portents in the plain of Tanis. And he turned their rivers into blood, and their pools, so that they could not drink. He sent among them dog-flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. And he gave their crop to the blight, and their labor to the locust. He killed their vines with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost. He delivered their cattle also to the hail, and their substance to the fire.
He sent among them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and affliction, a mission performed by evil angels. He made a path for his anger, and did not spare their souls from death; and their cattle he consigned to death. And he smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, the first-fruits of all their labor in the dwellings of Ham. And he removed his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them forth in hope, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the nations before their face, and divided to them an inheritance by line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their dwellings.
And they tested and provoked the most high God, and did not observe his testimonies. And they turned away, and broke faith like their fathers; they twisted like a crooked bow. And they provoked him to anger him with their hills, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel. And he rejected the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among men. And he delivered their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the hands of their enemies. And he consigned his people to the sword, and was furious with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men, and their virgins were not mourned. Their priests fell by the sword, and there was none to weep for their widows. And the Lord awoke as one who sleeps, like a mighty man grown hot from wine. And he struck his enemies on the backside; he put them to a perpetual reproach.
And he rejected the dwelling of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. And he chose the tribe of Judah, mount Zion, which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like that of a unicorn; he established it in the land forever. And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds. He brought him from following the ewes great with young, to shepherd Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance. And he shepherded them in the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Roumas, Nicholas. The Psalter of David the Prophet and King with the Nine Odes (p. 104). Great Light Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note that this Psalm sums up, in a dramatic and penitent fashion, the entire history of God’s people from the Exodus through to the anointing of David to be king. We won’t say much more about it here, save that this Psalm, and all the Psalms, see David’s kingship as a pivotal moment of salvation for God’s people; in the Church, we understand David’s significance to be that he is the ancestor of the Messiah, a type of his own descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Salvation of God’s people, and of all the Creation. We must note, of course, the repeated mention of God caring for His people in a waterless land, and the strong resonance of this with the preaching of John the Baptist prior to the baptism of the Lord which we are now celebrating)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
St. John the Baptist according to St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and his festal Apolytikion
St. Cyril was the bishop of Jerusalem in the middle of the 4th century, beginning about the year 350. He was exiled several times, due to his Orthodoxy in this time when Arianism or semi-Arianism were favored by the emperors in Constantinople. He was present at the 2nd Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 381, and affirmed the Nicene formula, that the Lord Jesus Christ is homoousios (of one being/essence, or consubstantial) with the Father. He is chiefly remembered for his Catechetical Lectures, from which the reading selected today is taken. Specifically, this comes from the 3rd of 18 Catechetical Lectures delivered during Great Lent; the topic of this lecture is Baptism.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem on St. John the Baptist
(6) Baptism marks the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. For its author was John, than whom there was no one greater among those born of women. He marked the end of the Prophets: “For all the prophets and the Law were until John.”20 He likewise marks the beginning of the things of the Gospel: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and what follows: “There came John in the desert, baptizing.”
You may mention Elias, who was taken up to heaven, but he is not greater than John. Enoch was transported, but he is not greater than John. Mightiest was Moses the lawgiver, and all the Prophets, but they are not greater than John.
It is not I who venture to compare Prophets with Prophets, but their Master and ours who has declared: “Among those born of women, there has not risen a greater than John.”22 He does not say, “among those born of virgins,” but, “of women.” The comparison is between the great servant and his fellow-servants; but the pre-eminence and the grace of the Son over the household is beyond compare.
Do you see how great a man God chose to be the first minister of this grace? He was a man who possessed nothing, a lover of solitude, but no hater of mankind; who ate locusts, and fitted wings to his soul, satisfying his hunger with honey, and speaking words sweeter and more wholesome than honey; clad in a garment of camel’s hair, and showing in himself the model of the ascetic life; who was sanctified by the Holy Spirit when still borne in his mother’s womb.
Jeremiah also was sanctified, but he did not prophesy in the womb. Only John leaped for joy when still being carried in the womb. Without seeing Him with the eyes of the body, he recognized his Master by the Spirit. For since the grace of Baptism was a great one, it called for greatness in its author.
(7) John was baptizing in the Jordan and there went out to him all Jerusalem, to have the benefit of the first-fruits of baptism; for the prerogative of all good things is in Jerusalem. But notice, O people of Jerusalem, how those who went out were baptized by him “confessing their sins.”25 First they displayed their wounds; then he applied the remedies, and to those who believed he granted redemption from eternal fire.
And if you wish a proof on this point, that the baptism of John was a redemption from the threat of fire, listen to his own words: “Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come?” Be not, then, henceforth a viper, but though you were once of viper’s brood, put off, he says, your former sinful nature. For every snake, retreating into a nook, puts off its age, and sloughing off its skin by constriction, henceforth is rejuvenated; so you, too, enter in through the narrow and straitened gate; constrain yourself by fasting, do violence to what threatens your destruction. “Strip off the old man with his deeds,”27 and say in the words of the Canticles: “I have taken off my robe, how am I then to put it on?”
But perhaps there is some hypocrite among you, who seeks the favor of men and makes a pretense of piety, but does not believe from the heart, who with the hypocrisy of Simon Magus approaches not to share in the grace, but out of meddlesome curiosity concerning what is given. Let him listen to John: “For even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that is not bringing forth good fruit is to be cut down, and thrown into the fire.” The Judge is inexorable, so cast aside your hypocrisy.
(8) What must be done, then, and what are the fruits of repentance? “Let him who has two tunics share with him who has none.” Now the teacher was one worthy of credence, since he had first put his teaching into practice; he was not ashamed to speak, for his tongue was not checked by a bad conscience. “And let him who has food do likewise.”31 While aspiring to the grace of the Holy Spirit for yourself, will you deny bodily food to the poor? Do you seek great things, but share not the small?
Though you be a publican or fornicator, yet hope for salvation. “The publicans and harlots are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Paul testifies to this when he says: “Neither fornicators nor idolaters,” nor the rest, “will possess the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you have been washed, and you have been sanctified.”33 He did not say, some of you “are,” but some of you “were.” The sin committed in ignorance is pardoned, but persistent wickedness is condemned.
(9) You have for the glorification of baptism the Only-begotten Son of God Himself. Why should I speak any further of man? John was great, but what was he compared to the Lord? Loud was his voice, but what compared with the Word? Noble was the herald, but what was he to the King? Glorious was he who baptized with water, but what in comparison to Him who baptizes “with the Holy Spirit and with fire”?
The Savior baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire when: “suddenly there was a sound from heaven as of a violent wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Cyril of Jerusalem, The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, ed. Roy Joseph Deferrari, trans. Leo P. McCauley and Anthony A. Stephenson, vol. 61, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1969), 111–114.
Apolytikion of St. John the Baptist
The memory of the just is observed with hymns of praise; for you suffices the testimony of the Lord, O Forerunner. You have proved to be truly more ven'rable than the Prophets, since you were granted to baptize in the river the One whom they proclaimed. Therefore, when for the truth you had contested, rejoicing, to those in Hades you preached the Gospel, that God was manifested in the flesh, and takes away the sin of the world, and grants to us the great mercy.
Translation from https://dcs.goarch.org, by Fr. Seraphim Dedes
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out the illustrations of the greatness of the Forerunner, and emphasize his remarkable role as the last of the Prophets and the first proclaimer of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Especially notable is his role in preaching even in Hades, as we see depicted in every icon of the Anastasis, with John standing together with the Patriarchs, pointing to the God of spirits and all flesh as He tramples down death and overthrows the dominion of Hades.))
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
John 7:40-53; 8:1-11 (Division among the People, Unbelief of Those in Authority, Woman Caught in Adultery)
Last time we saw the authorities and the people in Jerusalem in an uproar because of Jesus, with many rejecting Him due to His healing on the Sabbath Day and His declarations that He is the Son of God, sent by the Father to do His will, while many believed His word and entrusted themselves to Him. At the end of that last reading, He stood up in the Temple and cried out: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38 and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water,’” speaking about the Holy Spirit. This time we will see the response of the people, and what follows after.
Division among the People
40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some asked, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The Unbelief of Those in Authority
45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46 The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52 They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”
The Woman Caught in Adultery
[[53 Then each of them went home,
8 1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”]]
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out first that the religious authorities try to arrest Jesus, but are unable to do so, simply because His time has not yet come. We see them wrestling with that, and arguing amongst themselves, with Nicodemus, who we saw visit Jesus back in chapter 3, speaking up in favor of not judging Jesus without giving Him a hearing first, and then being shouted down. Nonetheless, the matter is left there. Second, the Leader should point out the beautiful passage that follows, with the woman caught in adultery being condemned by all, but receiving mercy from Jesus, and how she is not praised or excused, but simply commanded to “go and sin no more.” It may be noted that this passage is not included in most of the more ancient manuscripts, and its provenance is often questioned. Nonetheless, it has been a part of the Gospel of John for a very long time, and has been received by the Church, and thus this gives us an opportunity to engage with the reality that the “inspired” text of Scripture is not necessarily exactly what the author wrote down originally, but rather what the Church has received and accepted.))
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?