3seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me who is not weak, but is powerful in you.
4For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.
5Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
6But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.
7Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed.
8For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect.
10For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
11Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
12Greet one another with a holy kiss.
13All the saints greet you.
14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Philippians 2.5-11
(Epistle, Theotokos)
5Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
8And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
9Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Mark 4.35-41 (Gospel)
35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”
36Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him.
37A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.
38He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”
39He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm.
40He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
41They were greatly afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28
(Gospel, Theotokos)
38As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word.
40But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
41Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
42but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
27It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”
28But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
Commemorations
Hieromartyr Autonomus, Bishop in Italy
He fled from Italy to Bithynia during Diocletian’s persecutions. In Bithynia he converted so many pagans to faith in Christ that those whose hearts remained hard rose up against him and, while he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Archangel Michael, slew him at the altar, killing many other worshipers with him. Two hundred years after his death, he appeared to a soldier named John, who unearthed his relics and found them to be completely incorrupt.
Our Holy Father Athanasius the Elder of Vysotsk (early 15th c.), and his disciple Athanasius the Younger (1395)
He was reared in piety by his father, a priest in Novgorod. One day, hearing the words of the Gospel, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, he renounced the world and entered the Monastery of St Sergius of Radonezh. He became St Sergius’ disciple and, after a few years, became known for his virtue and his knowledge of Scripture. In 1374, with the blessing of his spiritual father, he founded the Monastery of Vysotsk, becoming its first abbot. After heading the monastery for fourteen years, he traveled to Kiev and then, in 1401, to the Monastery of the Stoudion in Constantinople. There he devoted himself to translating books from Greek to Slavonic, sending his translations back to his monastery in Russia. It was he who translated the Jerusalem Typikon and several collections of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, immeasurably enriching the life of the Church in Russia. He reposed in peace in Constantinople.
His disciple Athanasius the Younger was made Abbot of Vysotsk on the elder’s departure for Constantinople, and served as Abbot for eight years, reposing in peace in 1395. He was called ‘perfect in fasting, strong in self-restraint, zealous in prayer, patient in privations and tribulations.’ The Synaxarion says that “He taught his monks to keep careful watch on every movement of the heart so as to drive away every thought displeasing to God.”