19When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.
21Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
22When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!
23If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”
24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came.
25The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26After eight days, again his disciples were inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, “Peace be to you.”
27Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”
28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
30Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book;
31but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Hebrews 11.24-26, 32-12.2 (Epistle)
24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time,
26considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
32What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets—
33who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
37They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
39These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise,
40God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
John 1.43-51 (Gospel)
43On the next day, he was determined to go out into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
48Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!”
50Jesus answered him, “Because I told you, ‘I saw you underneath the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these!”
51He said to him, “Most certainly, I tell you all, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Commemorations
Martyr Sabinas of Egypt
He was the administrator (we would say mayor) of the city of Hermopolis in Egypt. During a persecution, he and many other Christians fled to the mountains, where Sabinas shut himself in a hut and spent his days in fasting and prayer. But a poor man who brought him food (and whom Sabinas had helped in many ways) betrayed him to the authorities for two pieces of gold. Sabinas and six others were arrested, bound and brought before the governor Arian. After harsh torture, Sabinas was drowned in the Nile.
Our Holy Father Christodoulos, Wonderworker of Patmos (1111)
He was from the region of Nicaea, and was named John by his parents Theodore and Anna. He took up the monastic life at an early age, and was renamed Christodoulos (‘Slave of Christ’). After going far in the ascetical life, he was given permission by the Emperor Alexis I (1081-1118) to establish a church and monastery on the island of Patmos, dedicated to St John the Evangelist. Both the church and the monastery stand and continue in use to this day. When Patmos was attacked by the Arabs, he and his disciples fled to Euboea, where he reposed. The Saint’s disciples brought his relics back to his own monastery, where they continue to work miracles today.
Holy Apostle Aristobulus of the Seventy, first Bishop of Britain (1st c.)
“He was the brother of the Apostle Barnabas and was born in Cyprus. He was a follower of the Apostle Paul, who mentions him in his Epistle to the Romans (16:10). When the great Apostle Paul created many bishops for different parts of the world, he made this Aristobulus bishop of Britain (i.e. England). In Britain there was a wild people, pagan and wicked, and Aristobulus endured among them unmentionable torments, misfortunes and malice. They smote him without mercy, dragged him through the streets, mocked him and jeered at him. But in the end this holy man came to success by the power of the grace of God. He enlightened the people, baptised them in the name of Christ the Lord, built churches, ordained priests and deacons and finally died there in peace and went to the Kingdom of the Lord whom he had served so faithfully.” (Prologue)
Note: in the Greek calendar he is commemorated on March 15.