Apostolic Reading – 2 Timothy 4:5-8

Gospel – Mark 1:1-8

Troparion of the Resurrection (Tone 8)

O Merciful One, Who came down from on high and endured burial for three days in order to save us from suffering. O our Life and our Resurrection, glory to you.

Troparion of the Preparation (Tone 4)

Make ready Zebulon and prepare Naphtali and you Jordan River, stop your flow and receive with a thrill of joy the Master coming to be baptized. Adam, rejoice with the first Mother, Eve, and hide not as you did of old in paradise: for Christ at the sight of your nakedness has come forth to clothe you with the robe of innocence. Indeed, Christ has come forth to renew the whole creation.

Troparion of the Holy Cross (Tone 1)

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance, granting peace to the world. And preserve your community by the power of your Cross.

Kondakion of the Preparation (Tone 4)

Today the Lord has appeared in the waters of the Jordan River. He has cried out to John, saying: “Be not dismayed at having to baptize Me: for I have indeed come to save Adam, the first to be created.”

Prokimenon (Tone 6)

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.

Stichon

To you, O Lord, I have called: O my Rock, be not deaf to me!

Reading from the Second Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy (4:5-8)

My son Timothy be watchful in all things, bear with tribulation patiently, work as a preacher of the Good News, fulfill your ministry. As for me, I am already being poured out in sacrifice, and the time of my deliverance is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have completed the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give to me on that day: yet not to me only, but also to those who love his coming.

Alleluia (Tone 4)

May God have mercy on us and bless us.

Stichon

May he let his face shine upon us and have mercy on us.

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark the Evangelist (1:1-8)

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets, “Behold, I send my messenger before thee, who shall prepare thy way, the voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight his paths’, there came John in the desert, baptizing and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea went out to him, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather girdle about his loins, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “One mightier than I is coming after me, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”