Prayer Before Reading Holy Scripture

O Master Who loves mankind, illuminate our hearts with the pure light of Your divine knowledge and open the eyes of our mind to understand the teachings of Your Gospel. Instill in us also the fear of Your blessed commandments, that we may overcome all carnal desires, entering upon a spiritual life and understanding and acting in all things according to Your holy will. For You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, O Christ God, and to You we give glory together with Your eternal Father and Your all-holy, gracious and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.

Epistle Reading: 1 Timothy 5:1-10

Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, the younger men as brothers,

the older women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity.

Honor widows who are really widows.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.

Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.

And these things command, that they may be blameless.

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man,

well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.

Gospel Reading: Luke 17:20-25

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;

“nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

“And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.

“For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.

“But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Saints and Feasts

Our Holy Father Clement, Pope of Rome; Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria; Hermogenes, the Martyr; Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple; Philoumenos and Christopher the Martyrs