Prayer Before Reading Holy Scripture
O Master Who loves mankind, illuminate our hearts with the pure light of Your divine knowledge and open the eyes of our mind to understand the teachings of Your Gospel. Instill in us also the fear of Your blessed commandments, that we may overcome all carnal desires, entering upon a spiritual life and understanding and acting in all things according to Your holy will. For You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, O Christ God, and to You we give glory together with Your eternal Father and Your all-holy, gracious and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
Epistle Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the
Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from
us how you ought to walk and to please God;
for you know what commandments we gave you through
the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
that each of you should know how to possess his own
vessel in sanctification and honor,
not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not
know God;
that no one should take advantage of and defraud his
brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we
also forewarned you and testified.
For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in
holiness.
Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man,
but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I
should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one
another;
and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are
in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and
more;
that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind
your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
that you may walk properly toward those who are
outside, and that you may lack nothing.
Gospel Reading: Luke 11:42-46
"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all
manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought
to have done, without leaving the others undone.
"Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the
synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are
like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not
aware of them."
Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, "Teacher, by
saying these things You reproach us also."
And He said, "Woe to you also, you lawyers! For you load men
with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with
one of your fingers.
Saints and Feasts
Cosmas & Damian the Holy Unmercenaries of Asia, & their mother Theodota; David the Righteous of Evia
