26 Bashans 1743
Readings for Thursday of fifth 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 18 : 46 - 47
| 46 | The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
| 47 | It is God who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under 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 John the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
John 6 : 70 - 7 : 1
| 70 | Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" |
| 71 | He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. |
| 1 | After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. |
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 118 : 26 - 27
| 26 | Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. |
| 27 | God is the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. |
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 7 : 5 - 8
| 5 | Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" |
| 6 | He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: "This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. |
| 7 | And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' |
| 8 | For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." |
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 6 : 5 - 11
| 5 | For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, |
| 6 | knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. |
| 7 | For he who has died has been freed from sin. |
| 8 | Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, |
| 9 | knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. |
| 10 | For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. |
| 11 | Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
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 4 : 18 - 5 : 1
| 18 | There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. |
| 19 | We love Him because He first loved us. |
| 20 | If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? |
| 21 | And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. |
| 1 | Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. |
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 7 : 51 - 54
| 51 | "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. |
| 52 | Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, |
| 53 | who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it." |
| 54 | When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. |
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 39 : 12
| 12 | "Hear my prayer, O LORD, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were. |
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 17 : 18 - 21
| 18 | As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. |
| 19 | And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. |
| 20 | "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; |
| 21 | that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. |
Glory be to God forever.
Not to be read in the Church during this time of the year.
Synaxarium
Day 26 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 Twenty-Sixth Day of the Blessed Month of Bashans
Martyrdom of St.Thomas, the Apostle
On this day St. Thomas the apostle was martyred. He was born in Galilee, and the Lord chose him among the twelve disciples (Mathew 10:3). When the Lord wanted to go to raise Lazarus from the dead, Thomas said to the other disciples: " (John 11:16). He also asked the Lord at the supper: " (John 14:5-6). When the Lord Christ appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, and said to them "Receive the Holy Spirit", Thomas was absent. On his return, the disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." He said to them: " (John 20:19-29). After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in the Upper room in Zion, the apostles dispersed everywhere to preach the Gospel, Thomas went to India. He worked there as a slave at one of the friends of the king, whose name was Lukios, who brought him to the king who inquired about his profession. Thomas said: "I am builder, carpenter and a physician. He preached in his master's palace, and Lukios' wife believed and all his household. The king asked him about his achievements, and he said: "The palaces that I built were the souls that have become the temples of the King of Glory; the carpentry that I did was the Gospel that removes the thorns of sin; and the medicines I practiced are the Holy Mysteries which heal the poison of the evil one. The king became angry and tortured him, and bound him among four poles, cut off his skin and rubbed his wounds with salt and lime. The apostle Thomas endured the pains. Lukios' wife saw him suffering, and she fell from the window and died. Lukios came to him and said: "If you raise my wife from the dead, I believe in your God." Thomas went to the room where the dead body was, and said: "Arsabona (Arsonia), rise up in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ." She rose instantly and bowed to the Saint. When her husband saw that, he believed and many more with him from the people of the city, and Thomas baptized them. Once the sea drove a huge tree to the shore that no one could lift it up. St. Thomas asked the king for permission to lift it up and to use its wood in building a church. He got the permission, he made the sign of the cross, and he raised it and later he built the church, to which he ordained a bishop and priests.
St. Thomas left and went to a city called "Kantoura" (Kontaria), where he found an old man weeping bitterly because the king killed his six children. The Saint prayed over them, and the Lord raised them up. The idol priests were angry, and wanted to stone him. The first raised a stone to throw it at him, and his hand was paralyzed. The Saint prayed over his hand, he was healed instantly, and all the idol priests believed in the Lord Christ. Then St. Thomas went to the city of "Parkenas" and other cities, where he preached in the Name of Jesus Christ. The king heard about him, and he put him in prison. When he found out that he was teaching the prisoners the way of God, he tortured him, and at last he cut his head off, and he received the crown of martyrdom. He was buried in "Melibar", then his body was relocated to El-Raha.
May His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.