22For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
23Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
24For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
25But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
26In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
27He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
Matthew 10.23-31
(Gospel)
23But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come.
24“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.
25It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
26Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
27What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.
28Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
29“Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.
30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
Commemorations
Trans. Rel. Ven. Cyrus and John
They are counted among the Unmercenary Physicians. For their lives, see January 31.
Synaxis of the Icon of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos "Of the Three Hands"
Saint John of Damascus (December 4), the great defender of Orthodoxy against the iconoclasts, was falsely accused of plotting against the Caliph of Damascus through the intrigues of the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741). The Caliph ordered St John’s hand to be cut off for his suspected treachery. The saint asked for the severed hand, and passed the night praying fervently for aid before an icon of the most holy Theotokos. Waking in the morning, he found his hand miraculously restored, with only a scar around the wrist where it had been completely severed. In thanksgiving, St John had a silver hand mounted on the icon. When he became a monk in the monastery of St Sabbas in the Holy Land, he took the icon with him. It remained there until it was given to St Sabbas (Sava) of Serbia (January 14), who brought it to Serbia. Later it was miraculously taken to the Hilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain (carried, according to legend, from Serbia to Mt Athos by an unguided donkey), where it may now be found.
Sergius and Herman, Wonderworkers of Valaam
After helping to establish Orthodoxy among the Karelian Finns, they founded the famous Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga in northern Russia. Both reposed in the same year.
Our Holy Father Sennuphius the Standard-Bearer (4th c.)
“A great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert, he was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and the Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called ‘the Standard-Bearer’ because he once helped the Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over enemy forces by his prayers. When the Emperor summoned him to Constantinople, he replied that he was unable to go, but sent his torn and patched monastic habit and his staff. Going out to battle, the Emperor put on Sennuphius’s habit and carried his staff in his hand, and returned victorious from the battle.” (Prologue)