Ephesians 5.8-19 (Epistle)

8Jer bijaste negda tama, a sad ste vidjelo u Gospodu: kao djeca vidjela živite; 9Jer je rod duhovni u svakoj dobroti i pravdi i istini. 10Istražujte što je Bogu ugodno. 11I ne pristajte na bezrodna djela tame, nego još karajte. 12Jer je sramno i govoriti šta oni tajno èine. 13A sve za što se kara, vidjelo objavljuje; jer sve što se objavljuje, vidjelo je; 14Zato govori: ustani ti koji spavaš i vaskrsni iz mrtvijeh, i obasjaæe te Hristos. 15Gledajte dakle da uredno živite, ne kao nemudri, nego kao mudri; 16Pazite na vrijeme, jer su dani zli. 17Toga radi ne budite nerazumni, nego poznajte što je volja Božija. 18I ne opijajte se vinom, u kome je kurvarstvo, nego se još ispunjavajte duhom, 19Govoreæi meðu sobom u psalmima i pojanju i pjesmama duhovnijem, pjevajuæi i pripijevajuæi u srcima svojijem Gospodu;

Matthew 18.10-20 (Gospel)

10Gledajte da ne prezrete jednoga od malijeh ovijeh; jer vam kažem da anðeli njihovi na nebesima jednako gledaju lice oca mojega nebeskoga. 11Jer sin èovjeèij doðe da iznaðe i spase izgubljeno. 12Što vam se èini? Kad ima jedan èovjek sto ovaca pa zaðe jedna od njih, ne ostavi li on devedeset i devet u planini, i ide da traži onu što je zašla? 13I ako se dogodi da je naðe, zaista vam kažem da se njoj više raduje nego onima devedeset i devet što nijesu zašle. 14Tako nije volja oca vašega nebeskoga da pogine jedan od ovijeh malijeh. 15Ako li ti sagriješi brat tvoj, idi i pokaraj ga meðu sobom i njim samijem; ako te posluša, dobio si brata svojega. 16Ako li te ne posluša, uzmi sa sobom još jednoga ili dvojicu da sve rijeèi ostanu na ustima dva ili tri svjedoka. 17Ako li njih ne posluša, kaži crkvi; a ako li ne posluša ni crkve, da ti bude kao neznabožac i carinik. 18Jer vam kažem zaista: što god svežete na zemlji biæe svezano na nebu, i što god razdriješite na zemlji biæe razdriješeno na nebu. 19Još vam kažem zaista: ako se dva od vas slože na zemlji u èemu mu drago, za što se uzmole, daæe im otac moj koji je na nebesima. 20Jer gdje su dva ili tri sabrani u ime moje ondje sam ja meðu njima.

Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him at Rome (166)

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans’ arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.

For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher’s garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.

Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Our Holy Father Agapitus of the Kiev Caves (1095)

“A natural doctor, he was a disciple of St Antony of Kiev. He healed people by prayer and the prescribing of cabbage, which they made into a sort of bread. Prince Vladimir Monomachus was healed in this way, and this made Agapitus famed on all sides. The Prince’s doctor, an Armenian, hearing of this, began to spread slander about him. When Agapitus became ill, the Armenian came and, looking at him, said that he would die in three days and that, if he did not do so, then he, the Armenian, would become a monk. Agapitus told him that it had been revealed to him by God that he would die, not in three days but in three months. And so it came to pass. After Agapitus’s death, the Armenian went to the abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and asked him to make him a monk. He explained that Agapitus had appeared to him from the other world and reminded him of his promise. And so the one-time envier became a humble monk, by the providence of God whose care it is that all men be saved. St Agapitus entered into rest in about 1095.” (Prologue)