Acts 19.1-8 (Epistle)

1Dogodi se pak, kad bješe Apolos u Korintu, da Pavle prolažaše gornje zemlje, i doðe u Efes, i našavši neke uèenike 2Reèe im: jeste li primili Duha svetoga kad ste vjerovali? A oni mu rekoše: nijesmo ni èuli da ima Duh sveti. 3A on im reèe: na što se dakle krstiste? A oni rekoše: na krštenje Jovanovo. 4A Pavle reèe: Jovan krsti krštenjem pokajanja, govoreæi narodu da vjeruju onoga koji æe za njim doæi, to jest, Hrista Isusa. 5A kad to èuše, krstiše se u ime Gospoda Isusa. 6A kad Pavle metnu ruke na njih, siðe Duh sveti na njih, i govorahu jezike i proricahu. 7A bijaše ljudi svega oko dvanaest. 8I ušavši u zbornicu govoraše slobodno tri mjeseca uèeæi i uvjeravajuæi za carstvo Božije.

John 14.1-11 (Gospel)

1Da se ne plaši srce vaše, vjerujte Boga, i mene vjerujte. 2Mnogi su stanovi u kuæi oca mojega. A da nije tako, kazao bih vam: idem da vam pripravim mjesto. 3I kad otidem i pripravim vam mjesto, opet æu doæi, i uzeæu vas k sebi da i vi budete gdje sam ja. 4I kuda ja idem znate, i put znate. 5Reèe mu Toma: Gospode! ne znamo kuda ideš; i kako možemo put znati? 6Isus mu reèe: ja sam put i istina i život; niko neæe doæi k ocu do kroza me. 7Kad biste mene znali onda biste znali i oca mojega; i otsele poznajete ga, i vidjeste ga. 8Reèe mu Filip: Gospode! pokaži nam oca, i biæe nam dosta. 9Isus mu reèe: toliko sam vrijeme s vama i nijesi me poznao, Filipe? koji vidje mene, vidje oca; pa kako ti govoriš: pokaži nam oca? 10Zar ne vjeruješ da sam ja u ocu i otac u meni? Rijeèi koje vam ja govorim ne govorim od sebe; nego otac koji stoji u meni on tvori djela. 11Vjerujte meni da sam ja u ocu i otac u meni; ako li meni ne vjerujete, vjerujte mi po tijem djelima.

Holy Apostle Carpus of the Seventy

He was one of the Seventy and a companion of St Paul, who mentions him in 2 Timothy 4:13. He became a Bishop in Thrace (the Great Horologion says in Berea, the Prologue in Varna), where he suffered martyrdom. St Dionysius the Areopagite met and wrote about him, stating that Carpus never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision.

From the Prologue: “We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, the one pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St Carpus related this event to St Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).”

Saint Augustine of Canterbury, evangelizer of England (ca. 605)

He is the founder of the Church in southern England, which at that time was almost entirely pagan, though Christianity thrived in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Wales and parts of Scotland. Augustine, a monk at the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, was chosen by Pope Gregory I to lead a mission to England. He and a party of about forty monks landed in England in 597; they were received warmly by King Aethelbert, who was baptised by Augustine and thus became the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxon people. In 601 Pope Gregory made Augustine Archbishop of Britain, and he established his cathedral at Canterbury, where he also established a monastery. Saint Augustine worked unsuccessfully to unite his churches with those of the Irish monks and hierarchs, who followed different liturgical practices, kept a different date of Pascha, and disapproved of the less severe Roman monastic practices introduced by the Archbishop. He reposed in peace.

Holy New Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica (1794)

He was born in Thessalonica and, though baptised a Christian, he accepted Islam as a young man, eventually becoming a Sufi (one of a mystical sect among the Muslims). But in time he began to repent, and concluded that martyrdom was the only way for him to cleanse himself from the stain of his denial of Christ. Having repented, he presented himself to the Turks dressed as a Christian. He was thrown into prison and tortured, but in response to every enticement, threat or torment, he would only say ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die.’ Finally he was sentenced to death, which Alexander joyfully accepted as a sign of God’s forgiveness. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794.