Epistle Reading: Hebrews 8:7-13
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place
would have been sought for a second.
Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days
are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah;
"not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the
land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I
disregarded them," says the LORD.
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel: After those days," says the LORD, "I will put My laws in their
mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people.
"None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his
brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of
them to the greatest of them.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their
sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first
obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish
away.
Gospel Reading: Mark 8:11-21
And the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him,
seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.
But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this
generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to
this generation."
And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to
the other side.
Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not
have more than one loaf with them in the boat.
Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
So they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we
have no bread."
And Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason
because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your
heart still hardened?
"Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?
And do you not remember?
"When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many
baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."
"And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many
large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, "Seven."
So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"
Saints and Feasts
Paul of Thebes; John the Hut-Dweller; Pansophios the Martyr of Alexandria
