1 John 3.21-4.6 (Vespers)

21Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; 22so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. 23This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. 24He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.

1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

1 John 4.11-16 (Vespers)

11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

1 John 4.20-5.5 (Vespers)

20If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.

1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. 3For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. 5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

John 20.11-18 (8th Matins Gospel)

11But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, 12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus.

15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him, “Rabboni!” which is to say, “Teacher!”

17Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

Acts 16.16-34 (Epistle)

16As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. 17Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!”

18She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour. 19But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city 21and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”

22The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received such a command, he threw them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

25But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. 27The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”

29He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, 30brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

33He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household. 34He brought them up into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly with all his household, having believed in God.

1 John 1.1-7 (Epistle, St John)

1That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life 2(and the life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was revealed to us); 3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled.

5This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and don’t tell the truth. 7But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

John 9.1-38 (Gospel)

1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. 4I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, 7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.

8Therefore the neighbors and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?”

9Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” He said, “I am he.”

10They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?”

11He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”

12Then they asked him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.”

13They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”

16Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them.

17Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

18The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, 19and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

20His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”

24So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

25He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

26They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?”

28They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.”

30The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him. 32Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out.

35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

36He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?”

37Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.”

38He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him.

John 19.25-27, 21.24-25 (Gospel, St John)

25But standing by Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

24This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and wrote these things. We know that his witness is true. 25There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written.

Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

The Apostle’s main commemoration is September 26. Today is commemorated a miracle that took place at his grave every year on this date in Ephesus.

The Apostle reposed when he was more than one hundred years old; he was the only one of the Apostles not to die a martyr. Knowing that his death approached, he took seven of his disciples and told them to dig a grave in the form of a cross. He then lay down in the grave and died, and was buried by his disciples. When the faithful later opened his grave, they found it to be empty. But on this date every year a fine powder, called manna by the people, poured forth from the grave, and was used by the faithful for healing of ailments of body and soul.

Our Righteous Father Arsenios the Great (449)

He is one of the original and most honored Desert Fathers. Born of a noble family, he was a deacon and a courtier in Constantinople. One day he heard a voice saying “Arsenios, flee from men, and thou shalt be saved.” He left the capital in secret and sailed to Alexandria, then journeyed to Skete in the Egyptian desert, where he became a monk. For years he was the disciple of St John the Dwarf. Even though he had already abandoned the world so dramatically, after some time in the desert he again heard a voice saying, “Arsenios, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the causes of sinning not.” He then separated himself from his brother monks and lived as a hermit, practicing silence. It was told of him that, on Saturday evenings, he would stand, turn his back to the setting sun, raise his hands in prayer, and pray without sitting down until the sun shone on his face the following morning. A monk who came to visit him looked into his cell and saw Arsenios at prayer, his entire body glowing like a flame. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-five.

St Emilia (375), mother of Sts Macrina, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, and Theosevia

Her main commemoration is on May 8.