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: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by
spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ
had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day
will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition,
who opposes and exalts himself above all that is
called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God.
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I
told you these things?
And now you know what is restraining, that he may be
revealed in his own time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work;
only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the
Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of His coming.
The coming of the lawless one is according to the
working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and with all unrighteous deception among those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might
be saved.
And for this reason God will send them strong
delusion, that they should believe the lie,
that they all may be condemned who did not believe
the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Gospel Reading: Luke 11:42-46
"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all
manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought
to have done, without leaving the others undone.
"Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the
synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are
like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not
aware of them."
Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, "Teacher, by
saying these things You reproach us also."
And He said, "Woe to you also, you lawyers! For you load men
with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with
one of your fingers.
Saints and Feasts
Cosmas and Damian the Holy Unmercenaries of Asia, and their mother Theodota; David the Righteous of Evia
