1 Timothy 1.8-14 (Epistle)

8But we know that the law is good if a person uses it lawfully, 9as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine, 11according to the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

12I thank him who enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to service, 13although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Luke 19.45-48 (Gospel)

45He entered into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

47He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him. 48They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.

Martyr Paramon and Companions

“Akylinus, the Governor of Bithynia in the reign of the Emperor Decius (249-51), was leaving for the hot springs at Bisaltia, when he decided to make 370 Christians from Nicomedia, who had been imprisoned on his orders, worship in the temple of Isis. On their refusal to do so, they were all beheaded. Seeing this massacre, the righteous Paramon cried out: ‘What a wicked deed to slaughter so many righteous men, and strangers moreover, as if they were animals.’ The Governor heard these words and had Paramon seized and taken with him under guard. On the road he was mistreated in various ways by the soldiers. Some of them struck him with their spears, others excised his tongue and other members, and he was finally put to death in the presence of the Governor.” (Synaxarion) Note: of the various persecutions launched by the pagan Emperors before St Constantine, the persecution under Decius was probably the fiercest and bloodiest.

Our Holy Father Pitirim of Egypt (4th c.)

“Abba Pitirim directed a group of ascetics who led a very austere life in the arid mountains of the Thebaid. He was himself a disciple and third successor of Saint Anthony the Great (17 Jan.) in his hermitage. He ate no more than a little flour mixed with water twice a week, and so persevered in spiritual labours that he gained abundant graces from the Holy Spirit. Among other things, he taught that to each passion there corresponds a demon who tries to stir up that passion within us through different temptations. In order to get rid of these demons and of evil thoughts, Abba Pitirim said that we must first free our hearts from passions.” (Synaxarion)