2 Corinthians 6.11-16 (Epistle)

11Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13Now in return—I speak as to my children—you also open your hearts.

14Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? 16What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”

Mark 1.23-28 (Gospel)

23Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, 24saying, “Ha! What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

25Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”

26The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What can this new doctrine be? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28The report of him went out immediately into all the region of Galilee and its surrounding area.

Righteous Joseph of Arimathea

The “noble Joseph” was a secret follower of Christ and a wealthy member of the Jewish Sanhendrin (ruling council); it was he who provided Christ’s tomb. When his faith became known he was driven from the Sanhendrin, from the synagogues, and from the Holy Land, and traveled through many lands, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. According to some accounts he eventually reached England, where he reposed in peace.

Righteous Eudocimus of Cappadocia (9th c.)

“Saint Eudocimus was from Cappadocia, the son of pious and most illustrious parents, patricians in rank. He especially cultivated chastity and mercy, the one by never meeting the gaze of a woman, the other by cheerfully providing the needs of the poor. When he was made military commander of Cappadocia, he continued in his righteous ways, showing mercy and uprightness in all his dealings. Having so lived in piety, quietly and without ostentation, he was called from this life at the age of thirty-three, about the year 840, during the reign of the Iconoclast Theophilus. Not long after his burial, his grave became a fountain of unending miracles, as God revealed the virtue that Eudocimus had striven to hide; when his grave was later opened, his body was found incorrupt. His holy relics were translated to Constantinople.” (Great Horologion)