1 Corinthians 9.13-18 (Epistle)

13Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? 14Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.

15But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. 16For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News. 17For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 18What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

Matthew 16.1-6 (Gospel)

1The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!

4An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them and departed. 5The disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread. 6Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Martyr Emilian of Silistria

He was from the town of Dorostolon in Thrace and during the reign of Julian the Apostate became a servant of the governor in that region. Before the time of his martyrdom he was a secret Christian. An imperial legate arrived in the town with orders to seize all Christians, but failed to find any; to show his pleasure he ordered a great feast for the whole town, complete with sacrifices to the pagan gods. On the night before the appointed feast, Emilian went around the town and smashed all the idols with a hammer. The following day there was an uproar, and an innocent villager was seized and charged with the crime. Emilian, seeing this, said to himself ‘If I conceal my action, what sort of use has it been? Shall I not stand before God as the slayer of an innocent man?’ So he presented himself to the legate and confessed what he had done. When the furious official asked Emilian on whose orders he had acted, Emilian replied ‘God and my soul commanded me to destroy those dead pillars that you call gods.’ As punishment, Emilian was subjected to many tortures and finally burned alive.

St Pambo, hermit of Egypt (374? 386?)

Abba Pambo was a contemporary of St Anthony the Great and one of the greatest of the Desert Fathers. He would only eat bread which he had earned by his own labors, plaiting baskets and mats out of reeds. In his later years, he became in appearance like an angel of God: his face shone so that the monks could not look on it. Through long ascetic labor, he was enabled to control his tongue so that no unnecessary word ever passed his lips. He never gave an immediate answer to even the simplest question, but always prayed and pondered on the question first. Once, when Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, was visiting the monks, they begged Abba Pambo to give the Patriarch a word. He answered: ‘If my silence is no help to him, neither will my words be.’ He reposed in peace, some say in 374, others in 386.