1Thus says the Lord: From Sion will come forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples and rebuke mighty nations in a distant land. For all the peoples will walk, each its own way, while we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever. Thus says the Lord Almighty: Listen hills and valleys, foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with his people; for he will dispute with Israel, saying, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or how have I grieved you? Or how have I troubled you? Answer me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and rescued you from the house of slavery, and sent Moses and Aaron before your face. My people, what have your enemies planned against you? Was it not told you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord seek from you, except to execute judgement, and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?’ Therefore the Lord will be magnified in strength, and will shepherd his flock in peace, to the extremities of the earth.
1Thus says the Lord: You who thirst, go to the water; and all who have no money, go, buy and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. For thus says the Lord Almighty to you: My people, draw water with joy from the springs of salvation. And you will say in that day: Praise the Lord, cry his name aloud, declare his glory among the nations, call to mind that his name has been exalted. My people, hear me, and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Attend with your ears and follow my ways. Listen to me and your soul will live among good things. And I will make an eternal covenant with you, and you will call upon me. And when you draw near me, let the impious abandon his ways, and the lawless man his plans; and turn back to me and I will have mercy on you and forgive your sins. For your plans are not as my plans, says the Lord; but as heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind. For as rain or snow would come down from heaven and not return there, until it had soaked the earth, and it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower, and bread for food, so shall my word be, which once it has come from my mouth will not return there until it has accomplished all that I willed; and I will make my ways and my commands succeed. For you will go out with joy, and be taught with gladness; for the mountains and hills will exult as they receive you with joy; and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches; and instead of the briar shall come up the cypress; instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and the Lord shall be for a name and for an eternal sign, says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel.
Proverbs 9.1-11 (Vespers)
1Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars.
2She has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine in a bowl, and prepared her table.
3She has sent forth her servants, calling with a loud proclamation to the feast, saying,
4Whoso is foolish, let him turn aside to me: and to them that lack understanding she says,
5Come, eat of my bread, and drink wine which I have mingled for you.
6Leave folly, that you⌃ may reign for ever; and seek wisdom, and improve understanding by knowledge.
7He that reproves evil men shall get dishonor to himself; and he that rebukes an ungodly man shall disgrace himself.
8Rebuke not evil men, lest they should hate you: rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
9Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser: instruct a just man, and he will receive more instruction.
10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the counsel of saints is understanding: for to know the law is the character of a sound mind.
11For in this way you shall live long, and years of your life shall be added to you.
Acts 14.6-18 (Epistle)
6they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.
7There they preached the Good News.
8At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked.
9He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him and seeing that he had faith to be made whole,
10said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked.
11When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”
12They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker.
13The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes.
14But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes and sprang into the multitude, crying out,
15“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
16who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
17Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
18Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.
John 7.14-30 (Gospel)
14But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
15The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”
16Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
17If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God or if I am speaking from myself.
18He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
19Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
20The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
21Jesus answered them, “I did one work and you all marvel because of it.
22Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
23If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?
24Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
25Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?
26Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?
27However, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
28Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.
29I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
30They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Hebrews 2.11-18
(Epistle, Blessing of Waters)
11For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
12saying, “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the congregation I will sing your praise.”
13Again, “I will put my trust in him.” Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”
14Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham.
17Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
18For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
John 5.1-4
(Gospel, Blessing of Waters)
1After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
Commemorations
Apostles Carpus and Alphaeus of the Seventy
He was one of the Seventy and a companion of St Paul, who mentions him in 2 Timothy 4:13. He became a Bishop in Thrace (the Great Horologion says in Berea, the Prologue in Varna), where he suffered martyrdom. St Dionysius the Areopagite met and wrote about him, stating that Carpus never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision.
From the Prologue: “We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, the one pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St Carpus related this event to St Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).”
Saint Augustine of Canterbury, evangelizer of England (ca. 605)
He is the founder of the Church in southern England, which at that time was almost entirely pagan, though Christianity thrived in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Wales and parts of Scotland. Augustine, a monk at the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, was chosen by Pope Gregory I to lead a mission to England. He and a party of about forty monks landed in England in 597; they were received warmly by King Aethelbert, who was baptised by Augustine and thus became the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxon people. In 601 Pope Gregory made Augustine Archbishop of Britain, and he established his cathedral at Canterbury, where he also established a monastery. Saint Augustine worked unsuccessfully to unite his churches with those of the Irish monks and hierarchs, who followed different liturgical practices, kept a different date of Pascha, and disapproved of the less severe Roman monastic practices introduced by the Archbishop. He reposed in peace.
Holy New Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica (1794)
He was born in Thessalonica and, though baptised a Christian, he accepted Islam as a young man, eventually becoming a Sufi (one of a mystical sect among the Muslims). But in time he began to repent, and concluded that martyrdom was the only way for him to cleanse himself from the stain of his denial of Christ. Having repented, he presented himself to the Turks dressed as a Christian. He was thrown into prison and tortured, but in response to every enticement, threat or torment, he would only say ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die.’ Finally he was sentenced to death, which Alexander joyfully accepted as a sign of God’s forgiveness. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794.