Saturday 29th March 2025
Lenten Fast: wine and oil allowed
Today we commemorate:
Hieromartyr Mark, bishop of Arethusa, Martyr Cyril the deacon, of Heliopolis, and others who suffered under Julian the Apostate (c.364). St. Eustathios (Eustace) the Confessor, bishop of Bithynia (9th C).
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Gladys and St. Gwynllyn, parents of St. Cadoc (6th C). St. Lasar, niece of St. Forchera (6th C).
Hebrews 6:9-12; Mark 7:31-37
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
Hebrews 6:9-12
Although we are speaking in this way, with regard to you, beloved, we are assured of things that are nobler and hold salvation. For God is not so unfair as to forget your work, the labour of love for his name that you displayed by serving the saints; and you continue to serve them. We long for each one of you to show to the end the same determination for the complete assurance of the hope, that you may not become lazy but imitate those who through faith and patient endurance are inheriting the promises.
Mark 7:31-37
Leaving the borderlands of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus returned through the central region of the Ten Towns to the Sea of Galilee. They brought to him a deaf man with a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hands on him. And so, taking him aside from the crowd by himself, he put his fingers into his ears and spat and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven and sighed, and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ Immediately his ears were opened and the restriction on his tongue was released and he spoke clearly. He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he told them the more enthusiastically they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly amazed; they were saying, ‘He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’