Acts 17.19-28 (Epistle)

19They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about? 20For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you. 24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. 25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. 26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

John 12.19-36 (Gospel)

19The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him.”

20Now there were certain Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast. 21Therefore, these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew came with Philip, and they told Jesus.

23Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? But I came to this time for this cause.

28Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came out of the sky, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

29Therefore the multitude who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

30Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes. 31Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out. 32And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.

34The multitude answered him, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever. How do you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

35Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them.

St Michael the Confessor

“This Saint was from Synnada in Phrygia of Asia Minor. In Constantinople he met Saint Theophylact (March 8); the holy Patriarch Tarasius, learning that Michael and Theophylact desired to become monks, sent them to a monastery on the Black Sea. Because of their great virtue, St Tarasius afterwards compelled them to accept consecration, Theophylact as Bishop of Nicomedia, and Michael as Bishop of his native Synnada. Because St Michael fearlessly confessed the veneration of the holy icons, he was banished by the Iconoclast Emperor Leo V the Armenian, who reigned from 813 to 820. After being driven from one place to another, in many hardships and bitter pains, St Michael died in exile.” (Great Horologion)

Holy Myrrh-bearer Mary, wife of Cleopas

Holy Martyr Michael of St Sabbas' Monastery(9th c.)

When his parents died, the young Michael gave away all his goods and travelled to Jerusalem, where he entered the monastery of St Sabbas the Sanctified. Once he was sent into town to sell some handwork for the monastery. A eunuch of an Arab princess met him in the street and brought him to princess’ home to show his wares. (Jerusalem was ruled by Muslim Arabs at that time.) The princess, like Potiphar’s wife, conceived an illicit passion for the young monk and invited him to her bed. When he refused, the angry princess had him beaten and taken to the Sultan, where she accused him of blasphemy against Mohammed. The Sultan tried to make him accept Islam, but he refused. When a dose of poison had no effect on the holy Michael, the Sultan had him publicly beheaded in the center of Jerusalem. The monks retrieved his body and gave it honorable burial at his monastery.

Holy Virgin Euphrosyne, Princess of Polotsk (1173)

“She was the daughter of Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. When her parents wished her to be married, she ran away to a monastery and became a nun. An angel of the Lord appeared to her three times to show her the place where she was to build a new monastery for virgins. She brought her own sister, Evdokia, into monasticism and many other young girls from the ranks of the aristocracy. One kinswoman of hers, Zvenislava, a princess of Borisov, brought all her wealth, clothing and precious jewels, and said: ‘I count all the beauty of this world as naught, and wish to give these fine things, prepared for my marriage, to the Church of the Saviour. And I desire to espouse myself to Him in a spiritual marriage, and to bow my head beneath His easy and light yoke.’ Euphrosyne professed her too, and gave her the name Evpraxia. In old age, Euphrosyne evinced a desire to die in Jerusalem, and prayed for this boon. God heard her prayer, and she did indeed die in the monastery of St Theodosius in Jerusalem on May 23rd, 1173, during a visit there.” (Prologue)