The holy martyr Myron was a priest in the town of Achaia. He was of wealthy and prominent origin, yet was kind and meek by nature- a lover of both God and man. During the reign of Emperor Decius, on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, pagans charged into the church, dragged Myron out of the service, and subjected him to torture by fire. During this torture, and angel appeared to him and encouraged him. The pagans began to peel his skin in strips from his head to his feet. The martyr grabbed one such strip of skin and struck his torturer, the judge, on his face with it. As though possessed, the judge grabbed a sword and killed himself. Finally, the pagans took Myron to the city of Cyzicus, and slew him there with the sword, in the year 250.
Troparion
Your martyr Myron, O Lord our God, in his struggle received an incorruptible crown from You. With Your strength, he brought down the tyrants and broke the cowardly valor of demons. Through his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Kontakion
From your tenderest years you loved Christ and kept all His commandments, O most glorious Myron. You followed Him quickly with your innocence, and it is fitting that you now keep company with angels. Seek the forgiveness of sins for those who honor you.
2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
Brothers and sisters: Just as you are rich in every respect, in faith and discourse in knowledge, in total concern, and in the love we bear you, so may you abound in this charity [begun among you by Titus].
I am not giving an order but simply testing your generous love against the concern which others show. You are well acquainted with the favor shown you by our Lord Jesus Christ: how for your sake he made himself poor though he was rich, so that you might become rich by his poverty. I am about to give you some advice on this matter of rich and poor. It will help you who began this good work last year, not only to carry it through, but to do so willingly. Carry it through now to a successful completion, so that your ready resolve may be matched by giving according to your means. The willingness to give should accord with one’s means, not go beyond them. The relief of others ought not to impoverish you: there should be a certain equality. Your plenty at the present time should supply their need so that their surplus may one day supply your need, with equality as a result. It is written, “He who gathered much had no excess and he who gathered little had no lack.”
Mark 3: 6-12
At that time the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus. Jesus withdrew toward the lake with his disciples. A great crowd followed him from Galilee, and an equally great multitude came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon, because they had heard what he had done. In view of their numbers, he told his disciples to have a fishing boat ready for him so that he could avoid the press of the crowd against him. Because he had cured many, all who had afflictions kept pushing toward him to touch him. Unclean spirits would catch sight of him, fling themselves down at his feet, and shout, “You are the Son of God!”, while he kept ordering them sternly not to reveal who he was.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Sunday, August 16 –
