The leave-taking of the Exaltation of the Cross
Holy Prophet Jonah
September 21
Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.
The Holy Prophet Jonah
Jonah lived more than eight hundred years before Christ (IV Kings 14:25). It is said that he was that son of the widow of Zarephath in Sidon whom the Prophet Elias had raised from the dead. By his three-day sojourn in the belly of the whale, he prefigured the three days that Christ lay in the tomb; and, by his deliverance from the belly of the whale, he prefigured the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. Everything else concerning this wonderful prophet can be read in the Book of Jonah.
Hymn of Praise
The Holy Prophet Jonah
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
Nineveh! Nineveh resounds with sin,
And God sends Jonah to heal Nineveh.
Jonah does not want to, and flees from God!
Oh, where will you go, Jonah, to hide from the Most High?
Jonah sleeps; he sleeps and the tempest rises.
God moves slowly, but He will find you in time.
Hurled into the waves, swallowed by the whale,
“From whom did I flee?” Jonah asks himself.
“I fled from Him, from Whom one cannot hide!”
God chastises Jonah and yet delivers him,
And, by His providence, glorifies him forever.
Jonah, you do not want to speak to the Ninevites,
But through your punishment you will prophesy the immortal Christ.
You do not want to by words? Then you must, by deeds,
Prophesy Christ and the death and resurrection of the body!
Your deeds, Jonah, will not fade away,
And Christ the Lord will speak of you to men,
That, through you, the mercy of the Living God might be revealed,
By which you will be saved, as well as Nineveh.
Through you, the power of repentance shall be revealed-
The power of repentance and God’s forgiveness.
You pitied the gourd, and God pitied men.
Help us to repent, O God, and save us from condemnation.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič for Old Calendar date September 22, and New Calendar date October 5.
http://livingorthodoxfaith.blogspot.com/2010/04/prologue-september-22-october-5.html
Jonah’ book of prophecy is divided into four chapters, and is placed fifth in order among the twelve minor Prophets. His three-day sojourn in the sea-monster’s belly is an image of our Saviour’s three-day burial and His life-bringing Resurrection (Matt. 12:39-40). His name means “dove.”
Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 12:39-40
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered [Jesus], saying, ?Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. 39But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
The Book of Jonah
http://www.christopherklitou.com/old_testament_greek_english_jonah_1-4.htm
Jonah prayer: Jonah 2: 3-10,
(the Sixth ode of the Holy Psalter)
I cried in my affliction to the Lord my God, and he hearkened to me, even to my cry out of the belly of hell: thou heardest my voice.
4 Thou didst cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the floods compassed me: all thy billows and thy waves have passed upon me.
5 And I said, I am cast out of thy presence: shall I indeed look again toward thy holy temple?
6 Water was poured around me to the soul: the lowest deep compassed me, my head went down to the clefts of the mountains;
7 I went down into the earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers: yet, O Lord my God, let my ruined life be restored.
8 When my soul was failing me, I remembered the Lord; and may my prayer come to thee into thy holy temple.
9 They that observe vanities and lies have forsaken their own mercy.
10 But I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of praise and thanksgiving: all that I have vowed I will pay to thee, the Lord of my salvation.
http://www.christopherklitou.com/old_testament_greek_english_jonah_1-4.htm
Apolytikion of the Holy Cross – First Tone
O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to the to the Emperor over the barbarians; and by the power of Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation. (3 times)
Apolytikion of Prophet Jonah
Third Tone
To the Ninevites, thou wast a trumpet, blaring fearful threats of Heaven’s judgments, at the which they repented with all their hearts; and from the sea-monster’s belly didst thou foreshow the Lord’s divine Resurrection to all the world. Hence, entreat Him to bring out of corruption all of us, who honour thee, O Jonah, as a friend of God.
iconandlight 