Acts 3.11-16 (Epistle)

11As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

12When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. 14But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses. 16By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

John 3.22-33 (Gospel)

22After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them and baptized. 23John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came and were baptized; 24for John was not yet thrown into prison. 25Therefore a dispute arose on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification. 26They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”

27John answered, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’ 29He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore my joy is made full. 30He must increase, but I must decrease.

31“He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness. 33He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

Ven. Titus the Wonderworker

Very little is known of him. He took up the monastic life while still very young, and gave himself without reserve to the ascetical struggle, so much so that in the virtues of humility and obedience it was said that he exceeded ‘not only the brethren, but all men.’ In time, he became abbot of a monastery. During the iconoclast heresy, he stood unswervingly for the holy icons. Both in his own lifetime and after his death he was endowed with the gift of wonderworking. He reposed in peace sometime in the ninth century.

Holy Martyrs Amphianus and Aedesius (ca. 306)

They were brothers from an eminent pagan family. While studying in Beirut, they embraced the Faith of Christ. Returning home, they found that they could no longer live with their pagan kinsmen, and fled to Caesarea in Palestine, placing themselves under the care of Pamphylus, a holy priest who instructed them in the teachings of the Faith and in the ascetical life.

Amphianus entered a pagan temple while the governor, Urbanus, was offering sacrifice. Seizing the governor’s hand, he begged him to abandon his service to dead idols and to come to knowledge of the one God. For this he was put to torture, then cast into the sea with a stone around his neck.

Aedisius was sent to a copper mine in Palestine, then to Egypt. In Alexandria, Hierocles the governor was persecuting Christians by capturing Christian nuns and pious virgins and selling them into prostitution. Filled with holy zeal, Aedesius confronted the governor, denounced him, and struck him. For this he, like his brother, was tortured, then drowned.