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.

Trans. Rel. Protomartyr Stephen

After the First Martyr Stephen was stoned to death, his body was left for the dogs; but his teacher Gamaliel had his body secretly taken to a place outside Jerusalem and buried by night. About the year 427, a Fr Lucian, the parish priest near the place, was told in a dream where the relics of the Protomartyr were buried. He told Patriarch John of Jerusalem, and they went together to the place revealed. Digging there they found a box labeled with the word “Stephen” in Aramaic letters. They took the sacred relics to Jerusalem in solemn procession.

Bl. Vasily, Fool-for-Christ

At the age of sixteen, he took up the podvig of folly for Christ, in which he continued for seventy-two years, living to the age of eighty-eight. He was homeless, barefood and dressed in tatters, wandering the streets of Moscow. Though mocked by many, he spoke to strangers of their secret sins, rebuked nobles for their hard-heartedness, and slowly became known as a Saint. Tsar Ivan and the Metropolitan of Moscow attended his funeral. He was buried in the church in Moscow that now bears his name.

Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome (257), and those with him

As Bishop of Rome from 254 to 257, he battled the Novatian heresy. By his prayers he once healed Lucilla, the daughter of the Roman tribune Nemesius; for this both father and daughter were baptized into Christ. Saint Stephen and twelve of his priests were beheaded during a celebration of the Liturgy, during the reign of Valerian.