Romans 1.28-2.9 (Epistle)

28I kao što ne marahu da poznadu Boga, zato ih Bog predade u pokvaren um da èine što ne valja, 29Da budu napunjeni svake nepravde, kurvarstva, zloæe, lakomstva, pakosti; puni zavisti, ubistva, svaðe, lukavstva, zloæudnosti; 30Šaptaèi, opadaèi, bogomrsci, siledžije, hvališe, ponositi, izmišljaèi zala, nepokorni roditeljima, 31Nerazumni, nevjere, neljubavni, neprimirljivi, nemilostivi. 32A neki i pravdu Božiju poznavši da koji to èine zaslužuju smrt, ne samo to èine, nego pristaju na to i onima koji èine.

1Zato se ne možeš izgovoriti, o èovjeèe koji god sudiš! jer kojijem sudom sudiš drugome, sebe osuðuješ; jer to èiniš sudeæi. 2A znamo da je sud Božij prav na one koji to èine. 3Nego pomišljaš li, o èovjeèe koji sudiš onima koji to èine, i sam èiniš to! da æeš ti pobjeæi od suda Božijega? 4Ili ne mariš za bogatstvo njegove dobrote i krotosti i trpljenja, ne znajuæi da te dobrota Božija na pokajanje vodi? 5Nego svojom drvenosti i nepokajanijem srcem sabiraš sebi gnjev za dan gnjeva u koji æe se pokazati pravedni sud Boga, 6Koji æe dati svakome po djelima njegovijem: 7Onima dakle koji su trpljenjem djela dobroga tražili slavu i èast i neraspadljivost, život vjeèni; 8A onima koji se uz prkos suprote istini a pokoravaju se nepravdi, nemilost i gnjev. 9Nevolja i tuga na svaku dušu èovjeka koji èini zlo, a najprije Jevrejina i Grka;

Matthew 5.27-32 (Gospel)

27Èuli ste kako je kazano starima: ne èini preljube. 28A ja vam kažem da svaki koji pogleda na ženu sa željom, veæ je uèinio preljubu u srcu svojemu. 29A ako te oko tvoje desno sablažnjava, iskopaj ga i baci od sebe: jer ti je bolje da pogine jedan od udova tvojijeh negoli sve tijelo tvoje da bude baèeno u pakao. 30I ako te desna ruka tvoja sablažnjava, otsijeci je i baci od sebe: jer ti je bolje da pogine jedan od udova tvojijeh negoli sve tijelo tvoje da bude baèeno u pakao. 31Tako je kazano: ako ko pusti ženu svoju, da joj da knjigu raspusnu. 32A ja vam kažem da svaki koji pusti ženu svoju, osim za preljubu, navodi je te èini preljubu; i koji puštenicu uzme preljubu èini.

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.