Martyr Mamas of Caesarea in Cappadocia (275), and his parents, Martyrs Theodotus and Rufina; St John IV, Patriarch of Constantinople, known as John the Faster (595); Righteous Eleazar, son of Aaron and second High Priest of Israel

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

³¹What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? ³³Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. ²He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, ³“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow. ⁴As he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. ⁶When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.” ⁹He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”