1st Friday of Summer – Memorial of Mar Yako, Bishop of Nisibin

The Law – From the Memorial of the Patron Saint

Isaiah 41:8-16

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant,

Jacob, whom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

and called from its farthest corners,

saying to you, “You are my servant,

I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

¹⁰ fear not, for I am with you,

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

¹¹ Behold, all who are incensed against you

shall be put to shame and confounded;

those who strive against you

shall be as nothing and shall perish.

¹² You shall seek those who contend with you,

but you shall not find them;

those who war against you

shall be as nothing at all.

¹³ For I, the Lord your God,

hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Fear not,

I will help you.”

¹⁴ Fear not, you worm Jacob,

you men of Israel!

I will help you, says the Lord;

your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge,

new, sharp, and having teeth;

you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,

and you shall make the hills like chaff;

¹⁶ you shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away,

and the tempest shall scatter them.

And you shall rejoice in the Lord;

in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

 

The Prophet – From the Memorial of the Patron Saint

Acts of the Apostles 19:8-20

8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God; ⁹ but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.

 

Apostle – From the Memorial of the Patron Saint

2Corinthians 10:4-18

⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

7 Look at what is before your eyes. If any one is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that as he is Christ’s, so are we. ⁸ For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame. ⁹ I would not seem to be frightening you with letters. ¹⁰ For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” ¹¹ Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. ¹² Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

13 But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us, to reach even to you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ We do not boast beyond limit, in other men’s labors; but our hope is that as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s field. ¹⁷ “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” ¹⁸ For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends.

 

Luke 12:1-12

A Warning against Hypocrisy

12 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ²  Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

Whom to Fear

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵  But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

8 “And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; ⁹  but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. ¹⁰  And every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. ¹¹ And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”