THE WORD OF GOD – FEBRUARY 22 (9), 2015

The Sunday of Forgiveness. Tone four.
Cheesefare Sunday. Meat is excluded

Martyr Nicephorus of Antioch (ca. 257).
Uncovering of the relics (1805) of St. Innocent of Irkutsk (1731).
Venerables Gennadius (1516) and Nicephorus (1557), monks, of Vazhe Lake (Vologda).
Hieromartyrs Marcellus, bishop of Sicily; Philagrius, bishop of Cyprus; and Pancratius, bishop of Taormina; disciples of Apostle Peter (1st c.).
Hieromartyr Peter Damascene, bishop of Damascus (743).

Matthew 6:14-21

14	For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15	But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16	Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
17	But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18	so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
19	Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20	but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21	For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.