3rd Week after Holy Cross

Revelation 13:1,2b-4,6-7,11-12,15-18
Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads blasphemous name (s). To it the dragon gave its own power and throne, along with great authority. I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed. Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast. They worshiped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast and said, “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?” It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven. It was also allowed to wage war against the holy ones and conquer them, and it was granted authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb’s but spoke like a dragon. It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak and (could) have anyone who did not worship it put to death. It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads, so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name. Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

John 5:17-23
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Prayer of the Faithful, vol. III
OPENING PRAYER
Christ Jesus our Lord,
strength of the just, hope of the saints and refuge of believers, let your light and grace shine upon our parents, brothers
and sisters, and teachers,
and on all who have died in the faith and who dwell in the
depths;
lift from their faces the mask of gloom.
O Lover of your people, be compassionate toward them,
and they will give glory to you forever.
Amen.

Saints of the Day: Saint Faith, is a saint who is said to have been a girl or young woman of Agen in Aquitaine. Her legend recounts how she was arrested during persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire and refused to make pagan sacrifices even under torture. Saint Faith was tortured to death with a red-hot brazier. Her death is sometimes said to have occurred in the year 287 or 290, sometimes in the large-scale persecution under Diocletian beginning in 303. She is listed as Sainte Foy, “Virgin and Martyr”, in the martyrologies.

Saint Joseph of Damascus (May 15, 1793 – July 10, 1860), born Joseph George Haddad Firzli, was a Melkite Greek Orthodox Christian priest and educator who was canonized as a saint in 1993. He is also known as “Father Joseph” in the Melkite Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. Father Joseph was born in Beirut on May 15, 1793. He was the son of George MeHanna Haddad Firzli, a Lebanese craftsman of Rûm Antiochite-Byzantine descent. He was ordained a priest in 1817 for the Diocese of Damascus and served as director of the Patriarchal School in Damascus 1836–1860: under his leadership, the Patriarchal School became the leading Orthodox institution of higher learning in the Middle-East. He was martyred during the 1860 Damascus massacre when Druze and Muslim marauders led by Druze feudal lords destroyed part of the old city of Damascus and killed more than 11,000 Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians who had taken refuge in the churches and monasteries of Bab Tuma (“Saint Thomas’s Gate”).

Meditation:
Jesus’ Spiritual Armor

The King on high (of heaven) put on earthly attire,
in order to go forth and bring
back the captivity of men from the strong one (Satan).
His good pleasure’ went forth in human attire
in order to give life to men;
and the evil one saw him but
did not discern the power of his hidden Nature.
The likeness of a servant the Creator took on
in order to free all,
and He concealed His glory
within a garment of mortality.
He chose the leader of the host from the same
race that was captive to the evil one;
and He armed him with the Spirit
to go forth and redeem the members of his people.
He gave him divine armor with which he might fight,
so that, when triumphant, he
would possess by its power the name of victory.
The King’s armor the corporeal leader of the host put on;
and he placed the helmet of redemptive life upon his head.
Spiritually he put on armor befitting his hidden
Nature
and girded himself with limbs befitting the conflict.
In his soul’s faculties the corporeal one armed himself,
because he saw in the Spirit that his adversary was spiritual.
Armed with the Spirit, he battled against the
spiritual ruler of the air (Eph 6:12)
lest he be entangled by his earthly limbs.
In body and soul, he bore the armor that the King gave him;
and he put it on, in love, over the senses of the body and the faculties of the soul.
A hidden battle the mortal one waged with hidden power;
and he triumphed and granted victory to the body and the soul and freed them.

Narsai (c.399-c.502), from ‘Ain Dulba, in present day Iraq