Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare)

BLESSED IS THE KINGDOM…

TROPARIA AND KONTAKION

TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION IN TONE FOUR
The women disciples of the Lord, having learned from the angel the joyful announcement of the resurrection, and having rejected the ancestral sentence proudly told the Apostles: Death is despoiled; Christ God is risen bestowing to the world great mercy.

KONTAKION OF FORGIVENESS IN TONE ONE
O You who guide men towards wisdom and give them intelligence and understanding, Instructor of the Ignorant and Helper of the Poor: strengthen and enlighten my heart, O Lord! O Word of God, grant that I may speak, for behold I will not keep my lips from crying out to You: “O Compassionate One, have mercy on me who have fallen!”

LITURGY OF THE WORD

PROKIMENON

R: Sing praise to our God, sing praise!
Sing praise to our King, sing praise! (All repeat)

V: All you peoples, clap your hands!
Shout to God with cries of gladness.

THE READING FROM
THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE ROMANS

BRETHREN: Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand.

ALLELUIA

In You O Lord I have hoped, let me never be put to shame.
In your justice save me and deliver me.
Lend me your ear and hasten my deliverance.

Be for me a protecting God, a sheltering house to save me.

THE READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO ST MATTHEW

THE LORD SAID: If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.