Acts 2.38-43 (Epistle)

38Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 40With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls. 42They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. 43Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

John 3.1-15 (Gospel)

1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

3Jesus answered him, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must all be born anew.’ 8The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

10Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? 11Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. 12If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. 14As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Prophet Isaiah

He is counted as the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets. His incomparably beautiful verses foretell Christ in many places. He chastised, comforted, and counseled the pious king Hezekiah; but when he denounced the impiety and lawlessness of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, he was sawn in two outside Jerusalem, receiving a martyr’s crown. His name means “The Lord is helper.”

The Fifth Biblical Ode, “Out of the night my spirit waketh at dawn unto Thee, O God…” is taken from Isaiah.

Trans. Rel. St Nicholas the Wonderworker

In 1087 the Saint’s relics were taken from Myra in Lycia (on the southern coast of present-day Turkey) to the town of Bari in Italy. This was done due to a Muslim attack on Lycia. At that time Bari was Orthodox and under the administration of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Saint’s relics now lie in a Roman Catholic church in Bari; each year the casket containing the relics is opened by a Roman Catholic and Orthodox bishop together, and quantities of fragrant myrrh are removed, for the healing and encouragement of the faithful.

Holy Martyr Christopher (3rd c.)

He was originally named Reprobus. In the time of the persecutions under the Emperor Decius, Reprobus, seeing the sufferings of the Christians, rebuked the rulers for their cruelty. The governor sent soldiers to arrest him, but he converted them and was baptised along with them, receiving the name Christopher. After he was brought before the governor, he was imprisoned with two harlots sent to seduce him, but he converted them also. He, the soldiers, and the former harlots were subjected to torture and finally beheaded.

It is this Saint Christopher who is portrayed on the medals often worn for protection in the Latin West. The image of him carrying the child Jesus comes from his name, which means ‘Christ-bearer,’ not from any incident in his life.