Saturday 20th September 2025
Saturday after the Elevation of the Cross
Afterfeast of the Elevation of the Cross
Today we commemorate:
Great Martyr Eustathius (Eustace), his wife, Martyr Theopiste, and their children, Martyrs Agapius and Theopistus, of Rome (c 118). St. Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica (1194). Venerable Martyr Hilarion of St. Anne Skete on Athos. Venerable John of Crete. Holy Martyr Michael and his Councillor Theodore of Chernigov (1245). St. Stephen (István), King and Enlightener of Hungary (1038).
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5; John 8:21-30
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5
Look at your own calling, brothers and sisters, because not many are wise according to the flesh, not many are powerful, not many are of noble birth. But God chose the world’s foolish things in order to confound the wise; and God chose the world’s weak things in order to confound the strong; and God chose the world’s lowly things and the despised things and what is nothing in order to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh may boast in the presence of God. It is his doing that you are in Christ Jesus, the one who for us became wisdom from God as well as righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘The one who boasts should boast in the Lord.’ When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come to you preaching the testimony of God with grand words or wisdom, for I was determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and in great fear and trembling. Neither my message nor my preaching were in persuasive words of human wisdom, but were a manifestation of the Spirit and of power so that your faith may not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God.
John 8:21-30
The Lord said to the Jews who believed in him, ‘I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. Where I am going you cannot come.’ The Jews were saying, ‘Perhaps he is going to kill himself, and that is why he says, “Where I am going you cannot come.”’ He told them, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.’ They then asked him, ‘Who are you?’ And Jesus told them, ‘Just what I have been saying to you from the start. I have much to say about you, and to condemn, for he who sent me is truthful, and what I hear from him I announce to the world.’ They did not understand that he was speaking to them of the Father, and so Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM. For I do nothing of myself but what I proclaim is what my Father taught me, and he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me on my own because I always do what is pleasing to him.’ As he spoke of these things, many believed in him.