1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;
10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
11For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
12Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.
James 1.13-27
(Vespers, St Mark)
13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow.
18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 2.1-13
(Vespers, St Mark)
1My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.
2For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,
3and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”
4haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts?
7Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
8However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
9But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
10For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
13For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Luke 10.1-15
(Matins Gospel, St Mark)
1Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come.
2Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.
3Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.
4Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.
5Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’
6If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
7Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Don’t go from house to house.
8Into whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you.
9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’
10But into whatever city you enter and they don’t receive you, go out into its streets and say,
11‘Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’
12I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
13“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.
15You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.
Acts 10.1-16
(Epistle)
1Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
2a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.
3At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
4He, fastening his eyes on him and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God.
5Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter.
6He is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the seaside.
7When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually.
8Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
9Now on the next day as they were on their journey and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about noon.
10He became hungry and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance.
11He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth,
12in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky.
13A voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!”
14But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
15A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.”
16This was done three times, and immediately the thing was received up into heaven.
1 Peter 5.6-14
(Epistle, St Mark)
6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
7casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.
8Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.
10But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
11To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
12Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.
13She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you. So does Mark, my son.
14Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
John 6.56-69
(Gospel)
56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will also live because of me.
58This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
59He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”
61But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble?
62Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
64But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him.
65He said, “For this cause I have said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”
66At this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
67Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”
68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Mark 6.7-13
(Gospel, St Mark)
7He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
8He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse,
9but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics.
10He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there.
11Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
12They went out and preached that people should repent.
13They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick and healed them.
Commemorations
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark (68?)
“Mark was an idolater from Cyrene of Pentapolis, which is near Libya. Having come to the Faith of Christ through the Apostle Peter, he followed him to Rome. While there, at the prompting of Peter himself and at the request of the Christians living there, he wrote his Gospel in Greek… Afterwards, travelling in Egypt, he preached the Gospel there and was the first to establish the Church in Alexandria. The idolators, unable to bear his preaching, seized him, bound him with ropes, and dragged him through the streets until he, cut to pieces on rocks, gave up his soul. It is said that he completed his life in martyrdom about the year 68. He is depicted in holy icons with a lion next to him, one of the living creatures mentioned by Ezekiel (1:10), and a symbol of Christ’s royal office, as St Irenaeus of Lyons writes.” (Great Horologion)
Saint Ananias, Second Bishop of Alexandria (1st c.)
When St Mark the Apostle first came to Alexandria, he tore one of his shoes and took it to a cobbler. While the cobbler, whose name was Ananias, was working, he drove his awl through his hand, injuring himself badly. The Apostle mixed dust with his spittle and anointed the hand, which immediately became whole. Amazed at the miracle, Ananias invited St Mark to his house, listened to him as he proclaimed the Gospel, believed, and was baptized along with his household. Such was Ananias’ zeal for the Gospel that St Mark made him bishop of the Christians in the city. He was the second Bishop of Alexandria.