2 Thessalonians 3.6-18 (Epistle)

6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion and not after the tradition which they received from us. 7For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you, 8neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you. 9This was not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us. 10For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: “If anyone is not willing to work, don’t let him eat.” 11For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don’t work at all, but are busybodies. 12Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.

13But you, brothers, don’t be weary in doing what is right. 14If any man doesn’t obey our word in this letter, note that man and have no company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed. 15Don’t count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

16Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.

17I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is the sign in every letter. This is how I write. 18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Luke 21.37-22.8 (Gospel)

37Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet. 38All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.

1Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. 2The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people.

3Satan entered into Judas, who was also called Iscariot, who was counted with the twelve. 4He went away and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them. 5They were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6He consented and sought an opportunity to deliver him to them in the absence of the multitude.

7The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”

Ven. Patapius of Thebes

He was born at Thebes in Egypt, and at a young age left his pious parents, his inheritance and his acquaintances to dwell in the Egyptian desert, devoting himself to ceaseless prayer. After many years, he reputation spread and, despite his desire for solitude, throngs of pilgrims would seek him out for his prayers and counsel. To escape the attentions of men, he did a surprising thing: he abandoned the desert and moved to Constantinople, settling in the Blachernae district, where, amid the bustle of the city, he was able to pass unnoticed, more secure in his solitude than he had been in the caves of Egypt.

As he grew in obedience to the commandments of Christ, the grace of working miracles grew in him, and once again he gradually became known. Once a blind man cast himself before Patapius on the street, and the Saint cured him instantly by calling on the name of Christ. Once he healed a man crippled by dropsy, anointing him with the oil from a vigil lamp and signing him with the Cross.

After blessing the Church for many years with his prayers and miracles, St Patapius fell asleep in peace, and was buried in the church of the Monastery of the Egyptians near Constantinople. In 1904 his precious and incorrupt relics were uncovered in the course of some building at a small monastery near Corinth. From that time the monastery has been dedicated to St Patapius, and many miracles are worked there.

Holy Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Tychicus and Epaphroditus, Cephas and Caesar

All of these Apostles are mentioned in the New Testament. Sosthenes was the ruler of the Synagogue in Corinth, and was converted through the preaching of St Paul. After traveling with St Paul for years, he became Bishop of Colophon near Ephesus. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, well educated and with a deep knowledge of the Scriptures. He was brought to the fulness of the Christian faith by Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus, and went out preaching the Gospel among the pagans. His eloquence was so admired that for awhile the gentile Church divided into two factions, one for Paul and one for Apollos. Saint Apollos later became Bishop of Caesarea.

(The Synaxarion lists Cephas and Caesar here; but some believe that St Paul’s reference to Cephas in 1 Cor 1:12 refers to the Apostle Peter, not to a separate companion of St Paul; and that “those of Caesar’s household” (Phil. 4:22) refers to Christians in the Emperor’s palace in Rome, not to a Christian named Caesar.)