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.”

St Emilian the Confessor

He was one of the bishops summoned by the Patriarch Nikephoros to defend the veneration of the holy icons against the Emperor Leo the Armenian. For this reason he was sent into exile around 815, and after many sufferings for his faithful confession, reposed in exile in 820.

St Myron the Wonderworker, Bishop of Crete (350)

He was a widowed farmer who, though poor, shared the produce of his farm freely with the needy. Once he found some thieves stealing his grain. Without saying who he was, he helped the thieves fill their sacks and make their escape. His virtue became known, and he was ordained to the priesthood, then consecrated bishop. In his own lifetime he was known as a great wonderworker. He reposed in peace.

St Gregory of Sinai (Mt Athos) (1346)

One of the great ascetics, hesychasts and spiritual teachers of the Church, he did much to restore the knowledge and practice of Orthodox hesychasm. He became a monk at Mt Sinai. He traveled to Mt Athos to learn more of Orthodox spiritual prayer and contemplation, but found that these were almost lost even on the Holy Mountain. The only true, holy hesychast he found there was St Maximos of Kapsokalyvia (Maximos the hut-burner, January 13). Maximos lived a life of reclusion in crude shelters; from time to time he would burn his hut and move to a new one, so as not to become attached even to that poor earthly dwelling. For this, he was scorned as a madman by the other monks. St Gregory upbraided the monks and told them that Maximos was the only true hesychast among them, thus beginning a reform of spiritual life on the Holy Mountain. He spent time teaching mental prayer in all the monasteries of Mt Athos, then traveled around Macedonia, establishing new monasteries. Some of his writings on prayer and asceticism can be found in the Philokalia. He reposed in peace in 1346.