Romans 1.7-12 (Epistle)

7to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers, 10requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established; 12that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Matthew 5.42-48 (Gospel)

42Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.

43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Apostle Hermes of the Seventy

He is mentioned in the Epistles of St Paul (Romans 16:14). He served as a bishop in the first-century Church, and died a martyr. His book, The Shepherd, is one of the earliest Christian writings outside of the New Testament, and was held in such esteem by the early Church that it is sometimes found in ancient collections of the Holy Scriptures.

Hermas had been a wealthy man, but had fallen into poverty through his sins. A man, clad all in white and holding a staff, appeared to St Hermas and, telling him that he was an angel of repentance, gave St Hermas twelve commandments:

• To believe in God
• To live in simplicity and innocence
• To love truth and flee from falsehood
• To guard his thoughts in chastity
• To learn patience and magnanimity of soul
• To know that a good and an evil spirit attend every man
• To fear God, but not the devil
• To perform every good deed and to restrain himself from every evil one
• To pray to God in faith from the depths of his heart, so that his prayer might be heard
• To preserve himself from melancholy, the daughter of doubt, and from anger
• To try true and false prophecies
• To preserve himself from every evil desire.