The holy martyr Clement, Priest-Martyr, Bishop of Ancrya, lived in exile for 28 years under several persecutors and died by the sword in the year 296.
The holy martyr Agathangel suffered death also in the reign of emperors Maximian and Diocletian.
O most holy Clement, you are a vineyard of holiness for the faithful, a rod of valiance, a flower of purity, and a fruit of great delight that God has granted. Since you struggled together with the martyrs and to the dignity of a bishop, intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.
O Clement worthy of all praise, you became a precious vine and a noble conqueror in Christ’s vineyard. At the time of your martyrdom you cried out with your companion: O Christ our God, You are the delight of martyrs.
Philippians 3:20- 4:3
Brothers and sisters: As you well know, we have our citizenship in heaven; it is from there that we eagerly await the coming of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will give new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of his glorified body, by his power to subject everything to himself.
For this reason, my brothers and sisters, you whom I so love and long for, you who are my joy and my crown, my dear ones, to stand firm in the Lord. I plead with Evodia just as I do with Syntyche: come to some mutual understanding in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, too, my dependable fellow worker, to go to their aid; they have struggled at my side in promoting the gospel, along with Clement and the others who have labored with me, whose names are in the book of life.
Luke 12: 32-40
The Lord said, “Do not live in fear, little flock. It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Get purses for yourselves that do not wear out, a never-failing treasure with the Lord which no thief comes near nor any moth destroys. Wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be.
“Let your belts be fastened around your waists and your lamps be burning ready. Be like men awaiting their master’s return from a wedding, so that when he arrives and knocks, you will open for him without delay. It will go well with those servants whom the master finds wide-awake on his return. I tell you, he will put on an apron, seat them at table, and proceed to wait on them. Should he happen to come at midnight or before sunrise and find them prepared, it will go well with them. You know as well as I that if the head of the house knew when the thief was coming he would not let him break into his house. Be on guard, therefore, The Son of Man will come when you least expect him.”
2 Peter 1: 1-10
Simeon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been given a faith like ours in the justifying power of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: may grace be yours and peace in abundance through your knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.
That divine power of his has freely bestowed on us everything necessary for a life of genuine piety, through knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. By virtue of them he has bestowed on us the great and precious things he promised, so that through these you who fled a world corrupted by lust might become sharers of the divine nature. This is reason enough for you to make every effort to undergird your virtue with faith, your discernment with virtue, and your self-control with discernment; this self-control, in turn, should lead to perseverance, and perseverance to piety, and piety to care for your brother, and care for your brother, to love.
Qualities like these, made increasingly your own, are by no means ineffectual; they bear fruit in true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Any man who lacks these qualities is short-sighted to the point of blindness. He forgets the cleansing of his long-past sins. Be solicitous to make your call and election permanent, brothers and sisters; surely those who do so will never be lost.
Mark 13: 1-8
At that time as Jesus was making his way out of the temple area, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at the huge blocks of stone and the enormous building!” Jesus said to him, “You see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another– all will be torn down.” While he was seated on the Mount of Olives facing the temple, Peter, James, and Andrew began to question him privately. “Tell us, when will this occur? What will be the sign that all this is coming to an end?”
Jesus began his discourse: “Be on your guard. Let no one mislead you. Any number will come attempting to impersonate me. ‘I am he,’ they will claim, and will lead many astray. When you hear about wars and threats of war, do not yield to panic. Such things are bound to happen, but this is not yet the end. Nation will rise against nation, one kingdom against another. There will be earthquakes in various places and there will be famine. This is but the onset of the pains of labor.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Thursday, January 22 –
