Romans 8.14-21 (Epistle)

14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. 19For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

1 Corinthians 4.9-16 (Epistle, Apostles)

9For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. 10We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. 11Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. 12We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. 13Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

14I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. 16I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

Matthew 9.9-13 (Gospel)

9As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him. 10As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 13But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Mark 3.13-19 (Gospel, Apostles)

13He went up into the mountain and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him. 14He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach 15and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: 16Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder); 18Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;

19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then he came into a house.

Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-praised Twelve Apostles

Though each of the Twelve Apostles has his own Feast day, on this day they are commemorated together. Of the Twelve, only St John the Theologian died in peace; the rest met a martyr’s end. Following are their individual feast days and the manner of their end.

Roman citizens could not be crucified: crucifixion was considered a shameful death unworthy of a citizen. For this reason the Apostle Paul was ‘privileged’ to be beheaded.

Peter: June 29, January 16. Crucified upside down.

Andrew: November 30. Crucified.

James the Son of Zebedee: April 30. Beheaded.

John the Theologian: September 26, May 8. Died in peace in a wondrous way.

Philip: November 14. Crucified.

Bartholomew: June 11, August 25. Crucified, then flayed and beheaded.

Thomas: October 6. Pierced with five spears.

Matthew the Evangelist: November 16. Burned to death.

James the Son of Aphaeos: October 9. Crucified.

Thaddeus (or Jude the brother of James): June 19. Crucified.

Simon the Zealot: May 10. Crucified.

Matthias: August 9. Stoned, then beheaded with an axe when dead.

Paul: June 29. Beheaded.

Repose of Photios Kontoglou (1965) (June 30 OC)

He is called “Blessed Photios” by many, but has not yet been officially glorified. In the twentieth century, he almost singlehandedly restored the practice of true Byzantine iconography to the Church. He was born in 1895 in one of the many Greek towns of Asia Minor. He and his family fled to Greece during the “exchange of populations” of 1923, when more than a million Greeks were driven from Turkey and resettled in Greece. He studied to be a secular artist, but was increasingly drawn to Byzantine iconography, the practice of which had almost disappeared: he learned the iconographic ethos and technique by copying ancient models and studying with the few monks on the Holy Mountain who still practiced true iconography. Initially his work was scorned, since secular western standards had come to dominate even the art of the Church. Slowly, through his tireless labors, an understanding of Orthodoxy iconography was restored to the Church, not only in Greece, but throughout the world. Though married, he lived his life in poverty, often donating his work to churches or performing it for nominal fees. His deeply spiritual writings are greatly honored in Greece, though most remain untranslated into English.