*Ps 138:17*
To me, Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
*Ps 138:1-2*
O Lord, You have probed me and You know me; You know when I sit and when I stand.
Glory Be to the Father…
To me, Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
O God, Who have given us a way of coming to know Your name through Your blessed Apostles Simon and Jude, grant us to honor their everlasting glory by becoming more holy and to become more holy by honoring it.
Through our Lord…
Lesson from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians
*Eph. 4:7-13.*
Brethren: To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal. Thus it says, Ascending on high, He led away captives; He gave gifts to men. Now this, He ascended, what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He Who descended, He it is Who ascended also above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He Himself gave some men as apostles, and some as prophets, others again as evangelists, and others as pastors and teachers, in order to perfect the saints for a work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the deep knowledge of the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ.
*Ps 44:17-18*
You shall make them princes through all the land; they shall remember Your name, O Lord.
℣. The place of your father your sons shall have; therefore shall nations praise You. Alleluia, alleluia.
*Ps 138:17*
℣. Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened. Alleluia.
Continuation ☩ of the Holy Gospel according to John
*John 15:17-25*
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, These things I command you, that you may love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I have spoken to you: No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him Who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them works such as no one else has done, they would have no sin. But now they have seen, and have hated both Me and My Father; but that the word written in their Law may be fulfilled, ‘They have hated Me without cause.’
*Ps 18:5*
Through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message.
We honor, O Lord, the everlasting glory of Your holy Apostles Simon and Jude; we beseech You, that, purified by this sacramental rite, we may the more worthily celebrate their glory.
Through our Lord…
*of Apostles*
It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, to entreat Thee humbly, O Lord, that Thou wouldst not desert Thy flock, O everlasting Shepherd, but, through Thy blessed Apostles, wouldst keep it under Thy constant protection; that it may be governed by those same rulers, whom as vicars of Thy work, Thou didst set over it to be its pastors. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing the hymn of Thy glory, evermore saying:
*Matt 19:28*
You who have followed Me shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
