Romans 11.25-36 (Epistle)

25For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, 26and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”

28Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. 29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, 31even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. 32For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! 34“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35“Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”

36For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

Matthew 12.1-8 (Gospel)

1At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

3But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4how he entered into God’s house and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Prophet Elisha

The disciple and spiritual heir of the Prophet Elijah (July 20), his story can be found in II Kings. Unlike most of the Old Testament prophets, he was granted the gift of working many miracles. He reposed in peace at a great age. The Fathers tell us that he was anointed by Elijah in the year 908 BC and reposed in peace at a great age in 839 BC. He was buried in Samaria. Even after his death, miracles of wonderworking were performed through his relics.

St Methodios, Patriarch of Constantinople (847)

He was born to wealthy parents in Syracuse of Sicily. He entered monastic life and in time became a priest in the service of Patriarch Nikephoros. Because of his great and well-known zeal for the holy icons, he was cruelly persecuted by a succession of iconoclast emperors. Around 815, he was sent as an ambassador to Rome on behalf of the Patriarch, who had been exiled by the Emperor Leo the Armenian. When he returned to Constantinople upon Leo’s death, he was immediately exiled and imprisoned by Leo’s successor, Michael the Stutterer. Upon Michael’s death he was freed for a short time, but soon the Emperor Theophilus had him exiled to an island where, says the Prologue, “he spent seven years in prison with two common robbers, in damp conditions, without light and without sufficient food, as if in a grave.” When the pious Empress Theodora restored the Empire to Orthodoxy, he was freed and elevated to Patriarch of Constantinople. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we commemorate the restoration of the Holy Icons by Theodora and Methodios. Despite many attacks by heretics while he was Patriarch, he served faithfully and reposed in peace.

St John Mavropos, Metropolitan of Euchaïta(1100)

He is commemorated today on the Slavic Calendar; for his life, see October 5, his commemoration on the Greek Calendar.