2 Corinthians 2.14-3.3 (Epistle)

14Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. 15For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who perish: 16to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

1Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, 3being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.

Matthew 23.23-28 (Gospel)

23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 24You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. 26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. 28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Martyr Eusignius of Antioch

He was a soldier in the Imperial army beginning under the pagan Emperor Maximian. He was a general under Constantine, and saw the Cross that appeared to the Emperor. After sixty years of military service, he retired to his home town and devoted himself to prayer, fasting and good works. A townsman, angry with a judgment that Eusignius had made to settle a dispute, denounced him to Julian the Apostate as a Christian. Summoned before Julian, he vigorously rebuked the Emperor for his apostasy from the Faith; for this he was beheaded, in advanced old age, in 362.

Holy Hieromartyr Fabian, Pope of Rome (250)

He was born in Rome and became a humble village priest; but when he was attending the election of a new Pope, a white dove was seen to descend on him and he was chosen to be Pope. Though humble and gentle, he was fearless for the faith, gathering the bodies of the martyrs, giving them burial, and building churches and shrines over their relics. According to the Prologue, he baptized the Emperor Philip and his son, also named Philip, as well as the senator Pontius; thus there were Christian emperors before St Constantine the Great. When Decius became Emperor, the persecution of Christians returned with terrible force, and Fabian was beheaded.

Righteous Nonna (374), Mother of St Gregory the Theologian

In her own lifetime she was a wonderworker through her holy prayers. She brought her husband back from idolatry to Christian faith; he later became bishop of Nazianzus. Her son Gregory’s profound and devout writings bespeak the Christian upbringing she gave him. By her prayers she once saved St Gregory from perishing in a storm. She was a deaconess, and reposed in peace in 374.