The holy martyr Sebastian was born in Italy and brought up in the city of Milan where he intended to be a soldier. The emperor Diocletian made him captain of the imperial guard. During this time, Sebastian professed the Faith and was greatly persecuted for it. After many of his converts were martyred, the emperor called Sebastian and rebuked him for his betrayal. Sebastian replied, “I always pray to my Christ for your health and for the peace of the Roman Empire.” The emperor ordered him stripped and shot with arrows. Since this did not kill him, he was beaten to death with staves in the year 287.
Your martyrs, O Lord our God, in their struggles received incorruptible crowns from You. With Your strength, they brought down the tyrants and broke the cowardly valor of demons. Through their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
O Sebastian, by the shedding of your blood you were clothed in martyrdom, being arrayed in a robe of precious purple. Therefore, you took up your abode with Christ in the kingdom without end on high, and with those who suffered with you, you received the crown of glory. O wise Sebastian, as you sing with them, always remember us.
James 1: 1-18
To the twelve tribes in the dispersion, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting.
Brothers and sisters, count it pure joy when you are involved in every sort of trial. Realize that when your faith is tested this makes for endurance. Let endurance come to its perfection so that you may be fully mature and lacking in nothing.
If any of you is without wisdom, let him ask it from the God who gives generously and ungrudgingly to all, and it will be given him. Yet he must ask in faith, never doubting, for the doubter is like the surf tossed and driven by the wind. A man of the sort, devious and erratic in all that he does, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Let’s a brother in humble circumstances take pride in his eminence and the rich man be proud of his loveliness, for he will disappear “like the flower of the field.” When the sun comes up with its scorching heat it parches the Meadow, the field flowers droop, and with that the Meadows loveliness is gone. Just so will the rich man wither away amid his many projects.
Happy the man who holds out to the end through trial! Once he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one who is tempted is free to say, “I am being tempted by God.” Surely God, who is beyond the grasp of evil, temps no one. Rather the tug and lore of his own passion tempt every man. Once passion has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and once it reaches maturity it begets death.
Make no mistake about this, my dear brothers and sisters. Every worthwhile gift, every genuine benefit comes from above, descending from the father of heavenly luminaries, who cannot change and who has never shadowed over. He wills to bring us to birth with a word spoken in truth so that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Mark 10: 11-16
At that time the Lord said “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and the woman who divorces her husband and marries another commits adultery.”
People were bringing their little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples were scolding them for this. Jesus became indignant when he noticed it and said to them: “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them. It is to just such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I assure you that whoever does not accept the reign of God like a little child shall not take part in it.” Then he embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Tuesday, December 17 –
