Day 16 of the Blessed Coptic Month of Bashans, may God make it always received, year after year, with reassurance and tranquility, while our sins after forgiven by the tender mercies of our God my fathers and brothers.
Amen.
The Sixteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Bashans
Commemoration of St.John the Evangelist
On this day the church commemorates St. John the Evangelist and his preaching in Asia Minor, the city of Ephesus, and the cities that are around it. Commemorates, the afflictions that he suffered and what befell him from the evil men who worshipped idols until he brought them to the knowledge of God and delivered them from the error of Satan by his teachings. The miracles that God performed through him. The writing of his Gospel, uttering in it with the eternity of the Son and His incarnation. His ascension to heaven in the Spirit, he saw the heavenly ranks and heard their praising and wrote about it in the book of Revelation. This was during the reign of Emperor Domitianus (Domitian), when he exiled St. John, after he placed him in a cauldron filled with boiling oil, and was not harmed, to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation. After Domitian had been killed in the year 96 A.D., St. John returned to Ephesus. He found some heretics of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6) who taught that Christ's birth was a natural birth from both Joseph and Mary. For this reason, he wrote his Gospel to refute their heresy. St. John had ardent zeal for the salvation of sinners. Once he saved a youth, delivered him to the bishop, and told him: "I entrust you with the safe keeping of this soul," but the youth, because of his bad conduct and the evil company that he kept, spoiled his morals and he became the head of a band of robbers. When St. John returned, he asked the bishop about the young man, who expressed his sorrow to St. John for the condition that became of this young man and told him what had happened. St. John rode a horse, took with him a guide, and travelled to his place. When he arrived to that place, he was caught by the thieves and they took him to their leader. When the leader saw St. John, he knew him, and was ashamed and tried to flee. St. John told him: "My son, be merciful to yourself, because the door of hope is still open for your salvation, and I will be your intercessor before the Lord Christ." Then, the young man wept, returned repenting, and St. John administered to him the Holy Communion to strengthen him. The biography of St. John is written under the fourth day of Tubah. This feast is a commemoration for his evangelism, and also because on this day a church was consecrated after his name in the city of Alexandria.
May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.
Vespers
Vespers Psalm
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 23 : 5
Chapter 23
| 5 | You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Vespers Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all.
Mark 9 : 33 - 37
Chapter 9
| 33 | Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" |
| 34 | But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. |
| 35 | And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." |
| 36 | Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, |
| 37 | "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me." |
And Glory be to God forever.
Matins
Matins Psalm
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 23 : 1 - 3
Chapter 23
| 1 | The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. |
| 2 | He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. |
| 3 | He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Matins Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint Mark the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all.
Mark 9 : 38 - 42
Chapter 9
| 38 | Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." |
| 39 | But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. |
| 40 | For he who is not against us is on our side. |
| 41 | For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. |
| 42 | "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. |
And Glory be to God forever.
Liturgy Gospel
Paulines Epistle
Paul, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed to the Gospel of God.
A reading from the Epistle of our teacher Paul to the Romans .
May his blessings be upon us.
Amen.
Romans 7 : 1 - 8
Chapter 7
| 1 | Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? |
| 2 | For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. |
| 3 | So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. |
| 4 | Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. |
| 5 | For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. |
| 6 | But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. |
| 7 | What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." |
| 8 | But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. |
The grace of God the Father be with you all.
Amen.
Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle 1 of St. John .
May his blessing be upon us.
Amen.
1 John 5 : 13 - 18
Chapter 5
| 13 | These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. |
| 14 | Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. |
| 15 | And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. |
| 16 | If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. |
| 17 | All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. |
| 18 | We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. |
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The world passes away, and its desires; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Amen.
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us.
Acts 19 : 6 - 10
Chapter 19
| 6 | And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. |
| 7 | Now the men were about twelve in all. |
| 8 | And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. |
| 9 | But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. |
| 10 | And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. |
The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God.
Amen.
Divine Psalm
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint John the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet, and the Good King.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 40 : 13,17
Chapter 40
| 13 | Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! |
| 17 | But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God. |
Hallelujah.
Divine Gospel
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
John 17 : 1 - 9
Chapter 17
| 1 | Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, |
| 2 | as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. |
| 3 | And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. |
| 4 | I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. |
| 5 | And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. |
| 6 | "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. |
| 7 | Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. |
| 8 | For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. |
| 9 | "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. |
And Glory be to God forever.
But that an enemy has striven among you to the subversion of some, has, by the mercy of God and His marvellous goodness in turning his arts to the advantage of His servants, rather availed to this result, that while none of you were cast down for the worse, some were built up for the better. There is therefore no need to reconsider again and again all that I have already transmitted to you, sufficiently argued out in a lengthy treatise; for your replies indicate how you have received this.