Epistle Reading: Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could
swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I
will multiply you."
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the
promise.
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for
confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs
of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for
God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to
lay hold of the hope set before us.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having
become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Gospel Reading: Mark 9:17-31
Then one from the multitude answered and said, "Teacher, I
brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.
"And wherever he seizes him, he throws him down; he foams at
the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your
disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not."
He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long
shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me."
Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately
the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming
at the mouth.
So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to
him?" And he said, "From childhood.
"And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the
water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and
help us."
Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible
to him who believes."
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He
rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, "You deaf and dumb spirit, I
command you, come out of him, and enter him no more!"
Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out
of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead."
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him
privately, "Why could we not cast him out?"
So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but
prayer and fasting."
Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and
He did not want anyone to know it.
For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man
is being delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after
He is killed, He will rise the third day."
Saints and Feasts
Mark, Bishop of Arethusa; Martyr Cyril the Deacon and Those with him; The Holy Martyrs Jonas and Barachesius; Eustathios the Confessor, Bishop of Bithynia
