Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not
helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the
power of any.
Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but
God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual
immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us
up by His power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?
Certainly not!
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot
is one body with her? For "The two," He says, "shall become one flesh."
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with
Him.
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is
outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own
body.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God
in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
Gospel Reading: Luke 15:11-32
Then He said: "A certain man had two sons.
"And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me
the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his
livelihood.
"And not many days after, the younger son gathered all
together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with
prodigal living.
"But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in
that land, and he began to be in want.
"Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country,
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
"And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods
that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my
father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with
hunger!
'I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like
one of your hired servants." '
"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a
great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him.
"And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against
heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
"But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best
robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
'And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat
and be merry;
'for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and
is found.' And they began to be merry.
"Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew
near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
"So he called one of the servants and asked what these things
meant.
"And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he
has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.'
"But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father
came out and pleaded with him.
"So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years
I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time;
and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my
friends.
'But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your
livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'
"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all
that I have is yours.
'It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your
brother was dead and is alive, and was lost and is found.' "
Saints and Feasts
Leo the Great, Pope of Rome; Agapetus the Confessor, Bishop of Sinai; Flavian the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople
