1 Thessalonians 2.20-3.8 (Epistle)

20For you are our glory and our joy.

1Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, 2and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, 3that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task. 4For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. 5For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

6But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you. 7For this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith. 8For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

Luke 20.27-44 (Gospel)

27Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 28They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 30The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 32Afterward the woman also died. 33Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”

34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

39Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you speak well.” 40They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.

41He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 43until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’

44“David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

Holy Prophet Habbakuk (Abbacum) (7th c. BC).

He prophesied in the time of Joachim, just before the Jewish people were taken into captivity in Babylon. He himself escaped captivity, and after Jerusalem was destroyed, returned to his homeland. Once he was taking some food to his harvesters when an Angel transported him to Babylon to feed the Prophet Daniel in the lions’ den, then bore him back to Judea (this is told in the full version of the book of Daniel, ch. 6 LXX). The third chapter of his prophecy is used as the Fourth Ode of the Matins Canon(the Ode is usually sung in full only in monasteries during Lent, but the eirmos of the Fourth Ode, sung in many parishes, usually refers to the Prophet). His holy relics were found through a revelation in Palestine during the reign of Theodosius the Great, and a chapel built there. His name means “Father of the Resurrection.”

Holy Martyr Myrope (Myropea) of Chios (251)

She was born in Ephesus. At baptism, she was consecrated by her mother to serve at the shrine of St Hermione, one of the four daughters of the Apostle Philip. Many pilgrims came to be anointed with a miracle-working myrrh that flowed from St Hermione’s body — and from her service at the shrine Myrope received the name by which she is known. Later, she and her mother went to the island of Chios to flee the persecution of the Emperor Decius.

When the holy martyr Isidore (May 14) was beheaded, Myrope secretly recovered his body and gave it honorable burial. The governor Numerius was furious, and ordered his soldiers to find the body or themselves be beheaded. Unable to let innocent people suffer for her act, Myrope presented herself to the governor and told him where she had buried the body. At Numerius’ order, the holy girl was tortured and thrown in prison. There a heavenly light illuminated her cell and St Isidore himself appeared to her with a company of angels, saying ‘Peace to thee, Myrope: thy prayer has ascended to God, and thou shalt soon be with us and receive the crown prepared for thee.’ Myrope, filled with joy, gave up her soul to God at that moment. One of the guards who had witnessed these events believed in Christ, and not long afterward was baptized and received a martyr’s death.

Our Holy Father Athanasius "the Resurrected," Recluse of the Kiev Caves (1176)

After many years of ascetic struggle, Athanasius died and was prepared for burial. After lying dead for two full days, he inexplicably came back to life: the monks who came to bury him were astonished to find him sitting up and weeping. The brethren gathered around him and asked him many questions about what he had seen of the next world, but he would only answer ‘Save yourselves!’ When they pressed him further, he said ‘If I told you, you would not believe me or want to listen to me.’ His final reply was ‘Repent every moment, and pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His most pure Mother.’ He then shut himself in his cell and lived another twelve years, taking only bread and water and never speaking again to anyone.

Saint (Stephen) Uroš, King of Serbia (1367)

“The son of King Dušan, he ruled during the difficult time of the fall of the Kindom of Serbia. Humble, pious and gentle, he refused to attempt to restrain the power of the powerful nobles by force. Amongst these was Vukašin, who brought about his death. Good King Uroš suffered a martyr’s death on December 2nd, 1367, at the age of thirty-one. Killed by men, he was glorified by God. His wonderworking relics were preserved in the monastery of Jazak in the Fruška Gora, whence they were taken to Belgrade in 1942, during the Second World War, and placed in the Cathedral beside the bodies of Prince Lazar and Despot Stephen Štiljanovic. During the reign of this benevolent king, the monastery of St Nahum was built beside Lake Ochrid by one of Uroš’s nobles, Grgur.” (Prologue)

Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (1991) (Nov. 19 OC)

One of the true God-bearing Elders of our own time, he was glorified by the Church in 2013.