1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
6But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
7Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so you are also of the comfort.
2 Timothy 2.1-10
(Epistle, St Panteleimon)
1You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
3You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.
5Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he isn’t crowned unless he has competed by the rules.
6The farmer who labors must be the first to get a share of the crops.
7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News,
9in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.
10Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Matthew 21.43-46 (Gospel)
43“Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit.
44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them.
46When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.
John 15.17-16.2
(Gospel, St Panteleimon)
17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23He who hates me, hates my Father also.
24If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father.
25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1“I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble.
2They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
Commemorations
Holy Great-martyr and Healer Panteleimon (305)
He was born in Nicomedia; his father was a pagan, his mother a Christian. Through her he was taught the Christian Faith and baptized by St Hermolaus (July 26). He became a physician, and practiced his art with compassion and generosity, healing many more through his prayers as by his medicines. His parents had named him Pantoleon (“in all things a lion”), but because of his great compassion he was re-named Panteleimon (“all- merciful”). He once healed a man of blindness by calling on Christ, which led the once-blind man to embrace the Faith. When asked how he came to be healed he named Panteleimon as his healer and proclaimed his newfound faith in Christ. For this the pagans executed him, then arrested Panteleimon, who after many tortures was beheaded in 305. He is counted as the foremost of the Unmercenary Physicians.
St Clement, Archbishop of Ochrid (916)
He was a disciple of Saints Methodius and Cyril, working with them in their missionary labors in Moravia. After the death of St Methodius, Clement and many others of their mission were driven out of Moravia by the Germans, and traveled south. Clement, with his companions Gorazd, Nahum, Sava and Angelarius, crossed the Danube, stayed for a time with King Boris Michael, and settled in near Ochrid (in what is now Kosova, Yugoslavia). He founded a monastery at Belica, then moved to Ochrid, where he built a church dedicated to St Panteleimon. There he continued the work of Sts Cyril and Methodius, producing many books in the new Slavonic script for the help of the Slavic Orthodox people. Saint Clement performed miracles in his own lifetime and after his repose: his wonder-working relics are still venerated in a church dedicated to him. He reposed in peace.
Commemoration of the canonization (1970) of St Herman of Alaska (1837)
His feast day is December 12. Due to the severity of the Alaskan climate, the annual pilgrimage to his relics in Kodiak, Alaska, is in the Summer, around this date.