Orienting to the Liturgy-- The Way of Repentance

The Fifth Sunday of Great Lent—The Sunday of our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt (Tone 1)

[The fifth Sunday of Great Lent commemorates St. Mary of Egypt the preeminent example of repentance.

    Mary, at a very young age, ran away from home and devoted herself to a life of sexual license in the city of Alexandria.  By accident, she became acquainted with a group of people in the port of Alexandria, who were going to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.  She conceived the whimsical desire to go with them, not out of devotion, but as a tourist.  She paid for her passage from Egypt to Jerusalem by doing sexual favours for the crew of the ship.

     When she came to Jerusalem, she went up to the Church of the Resurrection (now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), and tried to enter along with the rest of the crowd, but the Mother of God prevented her from entering.  The Mother of God told her that she was unworthy to enter the Church, but that she should go over the Jordan River to a place that the Mother of God had prepared for her.  Taking with her only three loaves of bread, Mary crossed the Jordan and disappeared into the desert.  There, forty-seven years later, the monk Zosima found her and learned her story.  Mary had been completely transformed by repentance.  She had become an awe-inspiring vessel of the Holy Spirit.]

Tropar, Tone 1

Though the stone was sealed by the Jews and soldiers guarded Your most pure body, You arose O Saviour, on the third day, and gave life to the world. And so the heavenly powers cried out to You, O Giver of life: Glory to Your resurrection, O Christ! Glory to Your kingdom! Glory to Your saving plan, O only Lover of Mankind.

Tropar of the Triodion, Tone 8

The divine image was faithfully preserved in you, O mother, for taking up the Cross, you followed Christ. By your deeds you have taught us to see beyond flesh, which passes, and care for the soul, a thing immortal. And so, O venerable Mary, your spirit rejoices with the angels.

[The kondak has this line: “by your deeds you have taught us to see beyond flesh which passes away.” It is true that when Zosima found Mary in the desert, her body was so scorched by the sun and so emaciated that, at first, he did not even recognize her as a human being. God calls very few to that degree of repentance, but they are a reminder to all of us that the purpose of our life is to acquire the Holy Spirit and the virtues that life in the Holy Spirit entails.  Any energy that is not directed towards acquiring virtue (acquiring money, material things, experiences, etc.) is just a colossal waste of time.]

Glory…Now…

Kondak of the Triodion, Tone 3

Once you were filled with every impurity, now through repentance you have been revealed as a bride of Christ; following the angelic life, you crushed demons with the weapon of the Cross. Therefore, O glorious Mary, you have been shown to be a bride of the kingdom.

Prokimen, Tone 1

Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in You.

v. Rejoice in the Lord, O you just; praise befits the reighteous.

Prokimen of the Triodion, Tone 4

God is wonderful in His saints, the God of Israel.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL,
THE APOSTLE, TO HEBREWS:

Brethren, when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. (9:11-14)

[Christ has offered Himself to the Father as the perfect, pleasing sacrifice.  In this way, He has won for us a perfect purification from sin and death.  For this reason, whenever we are aware of anything in our soul that is displeasing to God, we should turn to Him and ask Him to purify it with the grace that flows from His perfect sacrifice.]

Alleluia, Tone 1

God gives me vindication, and has subdued peoples under me.

v. Making great the salvation of the king, and showing mercy to His anointed, to David, and to His posterity forever.

A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL

ACCORDING TO SAINT MARK:

At that time, Jesus took his twelve disciples, and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise." Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?" They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." (10:32-45)

[When we hear the Gospel reading for this fifth Sunday of Great Lent, we can rightly be aghast at the audacity displayed by the sons of Zebedee.  But we can also take from this reading a very edifying example.  Rather than allowing ourselves to become discouraged, frustrated and upset by circumstances, we should meet all that the Lord wills for us with the words of these two devoted Apostles: „Yes, we can!”]

Zadostoynyk of the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

In you, O Full of Grace, all creation rejoices: the angelic ranks and all the human race. Sanctified temple and spiritual paradise, virgins’ pride and boast, from whom God is made flesh and became a little Child; and He who is our God before the ages, He made your womb a throne, and He made it wider than all the heavens. In you, Full of Grace, all creation rejoices. Glory be to you.

Communion verse

Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the highest. Alleluia (3)

The just man shall be in the in everlasting remembrance; of evil hearsay he shall have no fear.