Holy Prophet Daniel and Three Holy Youths; Our Holy Father Dionysius the New of Zakinthos (1624)

who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee. ³⁵Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. ³⁶Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— ³⁸of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.

³⁹These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise, ⁴⁰God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

¹Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him. ²Behold, a certain man who had dropsy was in front of him. ³Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

⁴But they were silent. He took him, and healed him, and let him go. ⁵He answered them, “Which of you, if your son or an ox fell into a well, wouldn’t immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

⁶They couldn’t answer him regarding these things.

⁷He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them, ⁸“When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him, ⁹and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, ‘Make room for this person.’ Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”