9All the nations are gathered together, and princes shall be gathered out of them: who will declare these things? or who will declare to you things from the beginning? let them bring forth their witnesses, and be justified; and let them hear, and declare the truth.
10Be you⌃ my witnesses, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you⌃ may know, and believe, and understand that I am he: before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none.
11I am God; and beside me there is no Saviour.
12I have declared, and have saved; I have reproached, and there was no strange god among you: you⌃ are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God,
13even from the beginning; and there is none that can deliver out of my hands: I will work, and who shall turn it back?
14Thus says the Lord God that redeems you, the Holy One of Israel; for your sakes I will send to Babylon, and I will stir up all that flee, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Vespers)
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.
2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,
3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.
4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.
5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.
6As gold in the furnace has he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.
7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.
8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.
9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he has care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3 (Vespers)
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High.
16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord's hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them.
17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armor, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies.
18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet.
19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield.
20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise.
21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.
22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them.
23Yes, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.
1Hear therefore, O you⌃ kings, and understand; learn, you⌃ that be judges of the ends of the earth.
2Give ear, you⌃ that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations.
3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
Matthew 28.16-20
(1st Matins Gospel)
16But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.
17When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted.
18Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
19Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Hebrews 11.33-12.2 (Epistle)
33who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
37They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
39These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise,
40God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Matthew 10.32-33, 37-38, 19.27-30 (Gospel)
32Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.
33But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
37He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
38He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me isn’t worthy of me.
27Then Peter answered, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
28Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life.
30But many will be last who are first, and first who are last.
Commemorations
Hieromartyr Patrick, Bishop of Prusa
‘Saint Patrick was Bishop of Prusa, a city in Bythinia (the present-day Brusa or Bursa). Because of his Christian faith, he was brought before Julius (or Julian) the Consul, who in his attempts to persuade Patrick to worship as he himself did, declared that thanks was owed to the gods for providing the hot springs welling up from the earth for the benefit of men. Saint Patrick answered that thanks for this was owed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and explained that when He, Who is God, created the earth, He made it with both fire and water, and the fire under the earth heats the water which wells up, producing hot springs; he then explained that there is another fire, which awaits the ungodly. Because of this, he was cast into the hot springs, but it was the soldiers who cast him in, and not he, who were harmed by the hot water. After this St Patrick was beheaded with the presbyters Acacius, Menander, and Polyaenus. Most likely this was during the reign of Diocletian (284-305).’ (Great Horologion)