1 Corinthians 10.12-22 (Epistle)

12Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

13No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. 16The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? 17Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread. 18Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

19What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons. 21You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. 22Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Matthew 16.20-24 (Gospel)

20Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.

21From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.”

23But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Ven. Isaac, Dalmatius, Faustus

St Isaac is also commemorated May 30; see his life there. St Dalmatus was a soldier in the Imperial army, but along with his son Faustus left all to become a monk at the monastery founded by St Isaac. He was present at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431; there he labored zealously for the Orthodox faith against Patriarch Nestorius. He was made Archimandrite of all the monasteries in Constantinople, and reposed in peace, having lived for more than eighty years.

Ven. Anthony the Roman of Novgorod

He was born in Rome in 1086 to wealthy and pious parents. When the Roman Church broke away from the Orthodox around that time, those who continued to uphold Orthodoxy, Antony among them, were persecuted. Antony gave away his worldly possessions and fled to a small rocky island in the sea, where he spent fourteen months in asceticism. During this time, the island miraculously floated like a ship to Novgorod. There, Archbishop Nikita received the young monk and helped him to build a church to the holy Theotokos, which in time became a monastery. St Anthony served there as abbot for many years, reposing in peace in 1148.

Holy Myrrh-bearer Salome

She was the mother of the Apostles James and John, the wife of Zebedee, and the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed, who was a widower when he became betrothed to the Mother of God. She was a disciple of the Lord and one of the Myrrh-bearing women who first brought tidings of the Resurrection to the world.