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: Romans 8:2-13
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me
free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on
account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled
in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the
Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he is not His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to
your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to
live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if
by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 10:16-22
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
"But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to
councils and scourge you in their synagogues.
"And you will be brought before governors and kings for My
sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
"But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or
what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you
should speak;
"for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your
Father who speaks in you.
"Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a
father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them
to be put to death.
"And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he
who endures to the end will be saved.
Saints and Feasts
1st Thursday after Pentecost; Tychon the Wonderworker; 40 Martyrs of Rome; Mark the Just of Apollonia
