1I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,
2that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
3Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
5Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
6Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who were also in Christ before me.
8Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
12Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.
13Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
15Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.
1 Corinthians 4.9-16
(Epistle, Apostles)
9For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.
10We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.
11Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
12We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.
13Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
14I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
16I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
Matthew 13.3-9 (Gospel)
3He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.
4As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.
5Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.
6When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
7Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.
8Others fell on good soil and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
9He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Mark 3.13-19
(Gospel, Apostles)
13He went up into the mountain and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him.
14He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach
15and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:
16Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
17James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder);
18Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;
19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then he came into a house.
Commemorations
Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-praised Twelve Apostles
Though each of the Twelve Apostles has his own Feast day, on this day they are commemorated together. Of the Twelve, only St John the Theologian died in peace; the rest met a martyr’s end. Following are their individual feast days and the manner of their end.
Roman citizens could not be crucified: crucifixion was considered a shameful death unworthy of a citizen. For this reason the Apostle Paul was ‘privileged’ to be beheaded.
Peter: June 29, January 16. Crucified upside down.
Andrew: November 30. Crucified.
James the Son of Zebedee: April 30. Beheaded.
John the Theologian: September 26, May 8. Died in peace in a wondrous way.
Philip: November 14. Crucified.
Bartholomew: June 11, August 25. Crucified, then flayed and beheaded.
Thomas: October 6. Pierced with five spears.
Matthew the Evangelist: November 16. Burned to death.
James the Son of Aphaeos: October 9. Crucified.
Thaddeus (or Jude the brother of James): June 19. Crucified.
Simon the Zealot: May 10. Crucified.
Matthias: August 9. Stoned, then beheaded with an axe when dead.
Paul: June 29. Beheaded.
Repose of Photios Kontoglou (1965) (June 30 OC)
He is called “Blessed Photios” by many, but has not yet been officially glorified. In the twentieth century, he almost singlehandedly restored the practice of true Byzantine iconography to the Church. He was born in 1895 in one of the many Greek towns of Asia Minor. He and his family fled to Greece during the “exchange of populations” of 1923, when more than a million Greeks were driven from Turkey and resettled in Greece. He studied to be a secular artist, but was increasingly drawn to Byzantine iconography, the practice of which had almost disappeared: he learned the iconographic ethos and technique by copying ancient models and studying with the few monks on the Holy Mountain who still practiced true iconography. Initially his work was scorned, since secular western standards had come to dominate even the art of the Church. Slowly, through his tireless labors, an understanding of Orthodoxy iconography was restored to the Church, not only in Greece, but throughout the world. Though married, he lived his life in poverty, often donating his work to churches or performing it for nominal fees. His deeply spiritual writings are greatly honored in Greece, though most remain untranslated into English.