January 4, 2016

Reading

The First Letter of Saint John    3: 22-4:6

3:22 and whatever we shall request of him, we shall receive from him. For we keep his commandments, and we do the things that are pleasing in his sight.
3:23 And this is his commandment: that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
3:24 And those who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And we know that he abides in us by this: by the Spirit, whom he has given to us.
4:1 Most beloved, do not be willing to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
4:2 The Spirit of God may be known in this way. Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has arrived in the flesh is of God;
4:3 and every spirit who contradicts Jesus is not of God. And this one is the Antichrist, the one that you have heard is coming, and even now he is in the world.
4:4 Little sons, you are of God, and so you have overcome him. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
4:5 They are of the world. Therefore, they speak about the world, and the world listens to them.
4:6 We are of God. Whoever knows God, listens to us. Whoever is not of God, does not listen to us. In this way, we know the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   4: 12-17, 23-25

4:12 And when Jesus had heard that John had been handed over, he withdrew into Galilee.
4:13 And leaving behind the city of Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, near the sea, at the borders of Zebulun and of Naphtali,
4:14 in order to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
4:15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:
4:16 A people who were sitting in darkness have seen a great light. And unto those sitting in the region of the shadow of death, a light has risen.”
4:17 From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say: “Repent. For the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.”
4:23 And Jesus traveled throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every infirmity among the people.
4:24 And reports of him went out to all of Syria, and they brought to him all those who had maladies, those who were in the grasp of various sicknesses and torments, and those who were in the hold of demons, and the mentally ill, and paralytics. And he cured them.
4:25 And a great crowd followed him from Galilee, and from the Ten Cities, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from across the Jordan.