6But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?
7Even lifeless things that make a sound, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped?
8For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war?
9So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air.
10There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without meaning.
11If then I don’t know the meaning of the language, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me.
12So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly.
13Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret.
14For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15What should I do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say?
17For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up.
18I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.
19However, in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in another language.
Colossians 1.12-18
(Epistle, Image)
12giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,
13who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
14in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
18He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Matthew 20.17-28
(Gospel)
17As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,
18“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,
19and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”
20Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.
21He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.”
22But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to him, “We are able.”
23He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.
25But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26It shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
27Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,
28even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Luke 9.51-56, 10.22-24
(Gospel, Image)
51It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem
52and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him.
53They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem.
54When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
55But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are.
56For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
22Turning to the disciples, he said, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son desires to reveal him.”
23Turning to the disciples, he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see,
24for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.”
Commemorations
Translation of the Image Not-Made-By-Hands of our Lord Jesus Christ from Edessa to Constantinople (944)
The Third “Feast of the Savior” in August While the Lord was preaching in Palestine, his fame reached a king Avgar of Edessa, who suffered from leprosy. Avgar sent a messenger named Ananias to ask whether the Lord could heal his illness. The king also charged Ananias, if he was unable to bring back Jesus Himself, to bring back a likeness of Him. When Ananias found Jesus, the Lord told him that he could not come to Edessa since the time of His passion was at hand. But he took a cloth and washed His face, miraculously leaving a perfect image of His face on the cloth. Ananias brought the holy image back to the king, who reverently kissed it. Immediately his leprosy was healed, save for a small lesion that remained on his forehead. Later the Apostle Thaddeus came to Edessa, preaching the gospel, and Avgar and his household were baptized, at which time his remaining leprosy vanished. The king had the holy likeness mounted on wood and displayed above the city gate for all to revere. But Avgar’s grandson returned to idolatry, and the Bishop of Edessa had the image hidden in the city wall to prevent it from being defiled. Many years later, when the Persian king Chosroes besieged Edessa, the Bishop Eulabius was told in a vision to find the sealed chamber, whose location had been forgotten. The holy icon was found, completely incorrupt, and by its power the Persian army was driven off. In the year 944 the image was brought to Constantinople and enshrined in the Church of the Theotokos called the Pharos. This is the event commemorated today.
Martyr Diomedes the Physician of Tarsus in Cilicia (298)
He is one of the Holy Unmercenary Physicians, a physician who practiced in Tarsus during the reign of Diocletian. Around 288 he came to Nicaea, where he healed many bodies by his medical arts and many souls through his preaching of the Gospel of Christ. The Emperor Diocletian sent men to arrest him, but when they arrived they found that he had already reposed. They cut off his head to take it back to the Emperor, and for this abomination were all struck blind. When Diocletian saw St Diomedes’ head, he ordered the men to return it to the body from which they had taken it. As soon as they had done so, their sight was restored.