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.
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.
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 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.