Saturday 24 May 2031
16 Bashans 1747
Readings for Saturday of sixth 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 51 : 10
| 10 | Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. |
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 Luke the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Luke 11:53-54 Luke 12:1-3
| 53 | And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, |
| 54 | lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him. |
| 1 | In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. |
| 2 | For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. |
| 3 | Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. |
Glory be to God forever.
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Matins Psalm & Gospel
From the Psalms of our father David the prophet and the king, may his blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 112 : 4
| 4 | Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. |
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 Luke the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Luke 10 : 21 - 24
| 21 | In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. |
| 22 | All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." |
| 23 | Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; |
| 24 | for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it." |
Glory be to God forever.
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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 Ephesians.
May his blessings be with us. Amen.
Ephesians 4 : 8 - 16
| 8 | Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." |
| 9 | (Now this, "He ascended"--what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? |
| 10 | He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) |
| 11 | And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, |
| 12 | for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, |
| 13 | till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; |
| 14 | that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, |
| 15 | but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- |
| 16 | from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. |
The grace of God the Father be with you all. Amen.
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Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle of St. Peter . May his blessings be upon us. Amen.
1 Peter 5 : 5 - 12
| 5 | Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." |
| 6 | Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, |
| 7 | casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. |
| 8 | Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. |
| 9 | Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. |
| 10 | But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. |
| 11 | To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. |
| 12 | By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. |
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.
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Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us. Amen.
Acts 24 : 10 - 21
| 10 | Then Paul, after the governor had nodded to him to speak, answered: "Inasmuch as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself, |
| 11 | because you may ascertain that it is no more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship. |
| 12 | And they neither found me in the temple disputing with anyone nor inciting the crowd, either in the synagogues or in the city. |
| 13 | Nor can they prove the things of which they now accuse me. |
| 14 | But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. |
| 15 | I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. |
| 16 | This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. |
| 17 | "Now after many years I came to bring alms and offerings to my nation, |
| 18 | in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with a mob nor with tumult. |
| 19 | They ought to have been here before you to object if they had anything against me. |
| 20 | Or else let those who are here themselves say if they found any wrongdoing in me while I stood before the council, |
| 21 | unless it is for this one statement which I cried out, standing among them, "Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged by you this day."' |
The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God. Amen.
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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 136 : 1 - 2
| 1 | Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. |
| 2 | Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. |
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 16 : 15 - 23
| 15 | All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. |
| 16 | "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father." |
| 17 | Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, "because I go to the Father'?" |
| 18 | They said therefore, "What is this that He says, "A little while'? We do not know what He is saying." |
| 19 | Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'? |
| 20 | Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. |
| 21 | A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. |
| 22 | Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. |
| 23 | "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. |
Glory be to God forever.
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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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