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: Ephesians 4:14-19
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in
the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive,
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things
into Him who is the head; Christ;
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what
every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every
part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself
in love.
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you
should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of
their mind,
having their understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the
hardening of their heart;
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to
licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Gospel Reading: Luke 6:12-19
Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the
mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, He called His disciples to Him; and from
them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:
Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James
and John; Philip and Bartholomew;
Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called
the Zealot;
Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a
traitor.
And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a
crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and
Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him
and be healed of their diseases,
as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And
they were healed.
And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out
from Him and healed them all.
Saints and Feasts
Callistratus the Martyr & his 49 Companions; Mark, Aristarchos, and Zenon, Apostles of the 70; Akylina the New Martyr of Thessaloniki; Gideon the Righteous
