16 Bashans 1743
Readings for Monday of fourth of of the Holy Fifty Days
Vespers Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 43 : 5 - 5
| 5 | Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Mark 16 : 17 - 20
| 17 | And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; |
| 18 | they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." |
| 19 | So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. |
| 20 | And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. |
Glory be to God forever.
Matins Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 43 : 3 - 3
| 3 | Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Mark 4 : 30 - 34
| 30 | Then He said, "To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? |
| 31 | It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; |
| 32 | but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade." |
| 33 | And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. |
| 34 | But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. |
Glory be to God forever.
Divine Liturgy
Pauline Epistle
Paul, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed to the Gospel of God. A reading from the Epistle of our teacher Paul to the Romans.
May his blessings be with us. Amen.
Romans 4 : 4 - 8
| 4 | Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. |
| 5 | But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, |
| 6 | just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: |
| 7 | "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; |
| 8 | Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin." |
The grace of God the Father be with you all. Amen.
Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle of St. John . May his blessings be upon us. Amen.
1 John 3 : 8 - 12
| 8 | He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. |
| 9 | Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. |
| 10 | In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. |
| 11 | For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, |
| 12 | not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous. |
Do not love the world or the things in the world. The world passes away, and its desires; but he who does the will of God abides forever. Amen.
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us. Amen.
Acts 5 : 21 - 25
| 21 | And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. |
| 22 | But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, |
| 23 | saying, "Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!" |
| 24 | Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. |
| 25 | So one came and told them, saying, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!" |
The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God. Amen.
Divine Liturgy Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 119 : 105,135
| 105 | Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. |
| 135 | Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes. |
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord. Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen.
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint John the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
John 8 : 39 - 42
| 39 | They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. |
| 40 | But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. |
| 41 | You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father--God." |
| 42 | Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. |
Glory be to God forever.
Not to be read in the Church during this time of the year.
Synaxarium
Day 16 of the Blessed Coptic Month of Bashans.
May God make it always received, year after year, with reassurance and tranquility, while our sins are forgiven by the tender mercies of our God my fathers and brothers. Amen.
The Sixteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Bashans
Commemoration of St.John the Evangelist
On this day the church commemorates
St. John the Evangelist and his preaching in Asia Minor, the city of Ephesus,
and the cities that are around it. Commemorates, the afflictions that he
suffered and what befell him from the evil men who worshipped idols until
he brought them to the knowledge of God and delivered them from the error
of Satan by his teachings. The miracles that God performed through him.
The writing of his Gospel, uttering in it with the eternity of the Son
and His incarnation. His ascension to heaven in the Spirit, he saw the
heavenly ranks and heard their praising and wrote about it in the book
of Revelation. This was during the reign of Emperor Domitianus (Domitian),
when he exiled St. John, after he placed him in a cauldron filled with
boiling oil, and was not harmed, to the island of Patmos, where he wrote
the book of Revelation. After Domitian had been killed in the year 96 A.D.,
St. John returned to Ephesus. He found some heretics of the Nicolaitans
(Rev. 2:6) who taught that Christ's birth was a natural birth from both
Joseph and Mary. For this reason, he wrote his Gospel to refute their heresy.
St. John had ardent zeal for the salvation of sinners. Once he saved a
youth, delivered him to the bishop, and told him: "I entrust you with the
safe keeping of this soul," but the youth, because of his bad conduct and
the evil company that he kept, spoiled his morals and he became the head
of a band of robbers. When St. John returned, he asked the bishop about
the young man, who expressed his sorrow to St. John for the condition that
became of this young man and told him what had happened. St. John rode
a horse, took with him a guide, and travelled to his place. When he arrived
to that place, he was caught by the thieves and they took him to their
leader. When the leader saw St. John, he knew him, and was ashamed and
tried to flee. St. John told him: "My son, be merciful to yourself, because
the door of hope is still open for your salvation, and I will be your intercessor
before the Lord Christ." Then, the young man wept, returned repenting,
and St. John administered to him the Holy Communion to strengthen him.
The biography of St. John is written under the fourth day of Tubah. This
feast is a commemoration for his evangelism, and also because on this day
a church was consecrated after his name in the city of Alexandria.
May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.
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