10Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
11I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.
12Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works.
13For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I seek not your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
15I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
16Even so, I myself didn’t burden you. But you might say that being crafty, I caught you with deception.
17Did I take advantage of you by anyone of those whom I have sent to you?
18I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same steps?
19Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying.
Philippians 2.5-11
(Epistle, Theotokos)
5Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
8And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
9Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Mark 4.10-23 (Gospel)
10When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
11He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,
12that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”
13He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?
14The farmer sows the word.
15The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
16These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.
17They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.
18Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,
19and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”
21He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand?
22For there is nothing hidden except that it should be made known, neither was anything made secret but that it should come to light.
23If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28
(Gospel, Theotokos)
38As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word.
40But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
41Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
42but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
27It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”
28But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
Commemorations
Hieromartyr Autonomus, Bishop in Italy
He fled from Italy to Bithynia during Diocletian’s persecutions. In Bithynia he converted so many pagans to faith in Christ that those whose hearts remained hard rose up against him and, while he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Archangel Michael, slew him at the altar, killing many other worshipers with him. Two hundred years after his death, he appeared to a soldier named John, who unearthed his relics and found them to be completely incorrupt.
Our Holy Father Athanasius the Elder of Vysotsk (early 15th c.), and his disciple Athanasius the Younger (1395)
He was reared in piety by his father, a priest in Novgorod. One day, hearing the words of the Gospel, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, he renounced the world and entered the Monastery of St Sergius of Radonezh. He became St Sergius’ disciple and, after a few years, became known for his virtue and his knowledge of Scripture. In 1374, with the blessing of his spiritual father, he founded the Monastery of Vysotsk, becoming its first abbot. After heading the monastery for fourteen years, he traveled to Kiev and then, in 1401, to the Monastery of the Stoudion in Constantinople. There he devoted himself to translating books from Greek to Slavonic, sending his translations back to his monastery in Russia. It was he who translated the Jerusalem Typikon and several collections of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, immeasurably enriching the life of the Church in Russia. He reposed in peace in Constantinople.
His disciple Athanasius the Younger was made Abbot of Vysotsk on the elder’s departure for Constantinople, and served as Abbot for eight years, reposing in peace in 1395. He was called ‘perfect in fasting, strong in self-restraint, zealous in prayer, patient in privations and tribulations.’ The Synaxarion says that “He taught his monks to keep careful watch on every movement of the heart so as to drive away every thought displeasing to God.”