Epistle Reading: James 4:7-5:9
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from
you.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift
you up.
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil
of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the
law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who
are you to judge another?
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such
and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then
vanishes away.
Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live
and do this or that."
But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to
him it is sin.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are
coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be
a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up
treasure in the last days.
Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which
you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have
fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not
resist you.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting
patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of
the Lord is at hand.
Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be
condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
Gospel Reading: Mark 11:27-33
Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in
the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.
And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these
things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?"
But Jesus answered and said to them, "I will also ask you one
question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these
things:
"The baptism of John; was it from heaven or from men? Answer
Me."
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From
heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
"But if we say, 'From men' "; they feared the people, for all
counted John to have been a prophet indeed.
So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know." And
Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority
I do these things."
Saints and Feasts
Forefeast of the Presentation of Our Lord and Savior in the Temple; Trypho the Martyr; Perpetua & her Companions; Timothy the Confessor; Bridget of Ireland; Our Holy Father Basil, Archbishop of Thessolonica; Anastasios the New Martyr of Navplion
