Saturday 5th July 2025
Saint Athanasios, Founder of the Great Lavra on Mt Athos, and his six disciples & Saint Lampadus the Wonderworker, monk, of Hirenopolis
Today we commemorate:
New Martyr Cyprian of Koutloumousiou Monastery, Mt Athos (1679). Uncovering of the relics (1422) of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1392). Synaxis of the 23 martyrs of Lesbos.
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Fragan and his wife St. Gwen (5th C). St. Modwenna of Burton, anchoress (7th C). St. Edana, anchoress of the Boyle and Shannon. St. Erfyl of Llanerfyl. SS Probus and Grace of Tressilian.
Romans 6:11-17; Matthew 8:14-23
For the Commemoration: Galatians 5:22-6:2; Luke 6:17-23
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
Romans 6:11-17
You are to consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign over your mortal body so that you obey its passions, nor offer up your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but offer yourselves up to God as alive from death, and your members as instruments of righteousness for God. For sin shall not have mastery over you because you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? No, not at all. Do you not understand that in offering yourselves to someone as servants under obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? Thanks be to God because you were slaves of sin but, from the heart you submitted to that model of teaching to which you are committed.
Matthew 8:14-23
At that time, when Jesus entered Peter’s house he saw that his mother-in-law was lying down and had a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began serving him. When evening came they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were diseased. In this way what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled: ‘He accepted our infirmities and bore our sufferings.’ Jesus, seeing great crowds around him, gave the order to leave for the opposite shore. Then a solitary scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I shall follow you wherever you go.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have places to roost, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ He got into the boat, and his disciples followed him.
Galatians 5:22-6:2
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, honesty, goodness, faith, humility and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become arrogant, irritating one another, envious of one another. Brothers and sisters, if someone has been caught unawares by some lapse, you who are of the Spirit should restore such a person in a spirit of humility, having regard for yourself so that you are not tempted as well. Carry one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Luke 6:17-23
At that time Jesus came down and stopped at a level place. A crowd of his disciples and a great number from all Judaea, Jerusalem, and from the coastal areas of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, those too who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were healed. The whole crowd was trying to touch him because power was coming from him, and he was healing them all. Then he raised his eyes to his disciples and said, ‘Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you and drag down your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for you know that your reward is great in heaven because their ancestors did the same to the prophets.’