Our venerable father Eumenius the Wonder-worker was bishop of Gortyna in Crete in the 7th century. He gave himself with his whole heart to Christ from his youth. He gave all he owned to the poor, and kept a very strict ascetic life of fasting and vigils. Seeing his virtue, the people of Gortyna chose him to be their bishop. He was father to the poor, consolation to the sad, healer to the sick, and a shepherd to his flock. He traveled to visit the desert fathers in the Thebaid, where he died.
You enriched your life with fasting, O father Eumenius. You loved the poor and gave them all you had. You were brighter than the sun in virtue, cheering the sad and comforting the mourners. By virtue of these riches and through your prayers, now beg Christ to forgive our sins.
Illumined by the Divine Light, O all-blessed Eumenius, enlighten us who sing of your honorable and glorious and holy death with love. O father and hierarch Eumenius, pray unceasingly for all of us.
Ephesians 4: 17-25
Brothers and sisters: I declare and solemnly attest in the Lord that you must no longer live as the pagans do–their minds empty, their understanding darkened. They are estranged from a life in God because of their ignorance and their resistance; without remorse they have abandoned themselves to lust and the indulgence of every sort of lewd conduct. That is not what you learned when you learned Christ! I am supposing, of course, that he has been preached and taught to you in accord with the truth that is in Jesus: namely, that you must lay aside your former way of life and the old self which deteriorates through the illusion and desire, and acquire a fresh, spiritual way of thinking. You must put on that new man created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth. See to it, then, that you put an end to lying; let everyone speak the truth to his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Mark 12: 1-12
At that time Jesus began to address the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders once more in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a vat, and erected a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. In due time he dispatched a man in his service to the tenants to obtain from them his share of produce from the vineyard. But the tenants seized the servant, beat him, and sent him off empty-handed. The second time he sent them another servant; him too they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another and they killed him. So too with many others: some they beat; some they killed. He still had one to send – the son whom he loved. He sent him to the tenants as a last resort, thinking, ‘They will have to respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘Here is the one who will inherit everything. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ Then they seized and killed him and dragged him outside the vineyard. What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do? He will come and destroy those tenants and turn his vineyard over to others. Are you not familiar with the passage of Scripture: ‘The stone rejected by the builder has become the keystone of the structure. It was the Lord who did it and we find it marvelous to behold’?”
They wanted to arrest him at this, yet they had reason to fear the crowd. (They knew well enough that he meant the parable for them.) Finally they left him and went off.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Thursday, September 17 –
