Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion.
Synaxarion
On April 27, we commemorate the holy Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, the kinsman of the Lord.
On this day we commemorate our righteous father John the Confessor, Abbot of the Monastery of the Pure at Constantinople (839)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Martyr Publius, who died by the sword.
On this day we also commemorate our righteous father Eulogius the Hospitable, who died in peace. (6th century)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Martyr Lollion the Younger, who died after being dragged on the ground.
On this day we also commemorate our righteous father Nicon, abbot of the Monastery of St. Gerasimus (6th century)
On this day we also commemorate our righteous father Stephen, abbot of the Kiev Caves and Bishop of Vladimir in Volhynia (1094)
On this day we also commemorate the holy New Martyr Elias (Ardunis) of Mount Athos (1686)
On this day we also commemorate our righteous father Basil (Kishkin), Hieroschemamonk of Glinsk and Ploshchansk hermitages (1831)
On this day we also commemorate the holy New Hieromartyrs Paul Svetozarov, Protopresbyter, and John Rozhdestvensky, Priest, and those with them: (1922) Peter Yazykov, Nicholas Malkov, Auxentius Kalashnikov, Sergius Mefodiev and Virgin-martyr Anastasia of Shui and Palekh, at Ivanovo who suffered and received crowns of martyrdom from the godless satanic authorities of communism in Russia.
On this day we also commemorate the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia: Sergey Levashov, Vasily Medvedsky, Joseph Novikov, Alexander Orlov, Pavel Popov, Georgy Stenkin, Sergey Trofimov, Agnia Khorkhorina , Petr Tsvetkov , who suffered and received crowns of martyrdom from the godless satanic authorities of communism in Russia.
Apparition of Our Lady of Kazan in Aleksandrovka, Saint Petersburg Governorate (1826)
Synaxarion From the Triodion.
On this day, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, we celebrate the Raising of Lazarus, the holy and righteous friend of Christ, who lay for four days in the tomb.
Verses
Thou lamentest, O Jesus: this belongeth to Thy mortal nature.
Thou givest life to Thy friend: this is wrought by Thy Divine might.
«I am the resurrection, and the life;…».
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
From the age of eleven [says St. Paisios], I would read the lives of the Saints, I would fast and keep vigil. My older brother would take the books and hide them, but that didn’t stop me. I would just go into the forest and keep reading there.
Later, when I was fifteen, a friend of my brother named Costas told my brother, “I’ll make him willingly give up all this nonesense.” He came and explained to me Darwin’s theory of evolution. I was shaken by this, and I said, “I’ll go and pray, and, if Christ is God, He’ll appear to me so that I’ll believe. I’ll see a shadow, hear a voice—He will show me a sign.” That’s all I could come up with at the time.
So, I went and began to pray and make prostrations for hours; but nothing happened. Eventually I stopped in a state of exhaustion. Then something Costas had said came to mind: “I accept that Christ is an important man,” he had told me, “righteous and virtuous, Who was hated out of envy for His virtue and condemned by His countrymen.” I thought to myself, “since that’s how Christ was, even if He was only a man, He deserves my love, obedience, and self-sacrifice. I don’t want paradise; I don’t want anything. It is worth making every sacrifice for the sake of His holiness and kindness.”
God was waiting to see how I would deal with this temptation. After this, Christ Himself appeared to me in a great light. He was visible from the waist up. He looked at me with tremendous love and said, “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in Me, even if he dies, he shall live” (Jn. 11:25). He was holding the Gospel in His left hand, open to the page where the same words were written.
With this event, the uncertainties that had troubled my soul were overcome, and in divine grace I came to know Christ as true God and Savior of the world. I was convinced of the truth of the God-man, not by men or books, but by the very Lord Himself, who revealed Himself to me even at this young age. Firmly established in faith, I thought to myself, “Come back now, Costas, if you want, and we’ll have a talk.”
from the book Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
***
HOMILY
About the struggle of the weak with the Almighty
Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
“And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too” (St. John 12:10).
They agreed among themselves to first kill the Maker and then His work. For Lazarus was the work of Christ. What is the use, they nefariously thought, to kill the Miracle-worker and to leave a living witness of His greatest miracle? For then, the people would be inflamed at them as evil doers! But, nevertheless, it happened that they killed Christ and missed Lazarus. And then? And then, they and their think alikes – killed scores of His apostles and missed hundreds. Then they killed thousands and missed hundreds of thousands. Then, they killed hundreds of thousands and missed millions. Finally it became clear that behind their backs, even the slain were resurrected to life as mown grass and those designated to be killed before the faces of the murderers, grew as sown grass. In vain did the wise Gamaliel say: “But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them” (Acts of the Apostles 5:39). Those who wage war against God throughout the centuries in vain did they hone their own helplessness to mow down the crop of God. The more they cut down, the more the crops of God grew luxuriantly.
O unreasonable combatants against Christ, those of that time and the present! Your mace rebounds from the city of Christ and strikes your own shed and destroys it into dust and ashes. Throughout the ages, you have had enough allies: besides the devil, with you were heretics, idolaters, fanatics, soothsayers, divinators depraved princes and the wealthy, tyrants and all insensitive sinners. Up to now you have been defeated and without any doubt all of your allies together with you will be defeated to the end of time.
For that let it be to You O Almighty and irresistible Lord glory and thanks always. Amen.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
http://livingorthodoxfaith.blogspot.gr/2009/12/prologue-february-18-march-3.html
***
Fr. Rafail:
“Every single culture ends with the cemetery…
Do you want to be the most cultured man in the cemetery? The most famous? The richest? The “most” of the cemetery?
When the human mind remains in this world, that ends with the grave and the cemetery, something dies in that man… And the Church, the mother who carries us in eternity, dies inside us, to an extent and form.”
Through the intercessions of Thy beloved friend, St. Lazarus, О Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Tone VI
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. Let us all take up Thy cross and say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! (First Verse of Vespers).
Glory to You, our God, glory to You.
Behold, Christ makes ready to enter Jerusalem. Let all who dwell as solitaries in the mountains and the desert assemble together and come to meet Him, sharing in the joy of the whole world. [ On Friday Before Palm Sunday,Matins, Canon 2 from the Triodion ,Ode v. Mode pl. 4. (NM) O Christ my God Τὸν ζόφον τῆς ψυχῆς μου ]
Glory to You, our God, glory to You.
All who dwell in deserts, in mountains and in caves, draw near and assemble with us, to meet the King and Master with palms in your hands; for He comes to save our souls. [Canon 2 from the Triodion ,Ode ix. Mode pl. 4. (NM) The burning bush Τὸν προδηλωθέντα ]
There, in the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, must our mind dwell. We must hunger and thirst to enter into this wondrous Kingdom. Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) of Essex
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/28359/
Scripture readings for the Saturday of Lazarus are: At the Orthros (Matins): No reading of the Gospel. At the Vespers: Hebrews 12:28-13:8; John 11:1-45.
At the Divine Liturgy of Lazarus Saturday, the baptismal verse from Galatians (“As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” Galatians 3:27)
Apolytikion in the First Tone
O Christ our God, before Your Passion, You raised Lazarus from the dead to confirm the common Resurrection for all. Therefore, we carry the symbols of victory as did the youths, and we cry out to You, the victor over death, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The Troparion of the day, in Tone I:
In confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ God, * Thou didst raise up Lazarus from the dead before Thy passion. * Wherefore, we also, like the children bearing the symbols of victory, * cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: * Hosanna in the highest; ** blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
The Kontakion of the day, in Tone II:
Christ, the joy of all, * the truth, the light, the life, the resurrection of the world, * in His loving-kindness hath appeared unto those on earth; * and became the prototype of our resurrection,** granting unto all divine forgiveness.
Tone VI
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. Let us all take up Thy cross and say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! (First Verse of Vespers).
Refrain: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.
All ye who dwell in the deserts, in the mountains and caves, draw near and assemble with us, to meet the King and Master bearing palms in your hands; for He cometh to save our souls.
Refrain: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.
O ye Monks, gather together from your dwellings, as the rational sheep, and with branches in your hands meet Christ the Chief Shepherd: For the Lord cometh willingly as a lamb to the slaughter, that He may deliver us from the tyranny of the wolf.
At the Aposticha;To the Martyrs; (Tone VIII):
O martyrs of the Lord, * ye hallow every place and heal every manner of infirmity: * and now we entreat you to intercede on our behalf ** that our souls may be delivered from the snares of the enemy.
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