Martyr Nestor of Thessalonica; St Procla, the wife of Pontius Pilate.; Our Venerable Father Demetrius of Basarabov (Romania) (13th c.)

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News; ²⁸and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God. ²⁹Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf, ³⁰having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

¹If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, ²make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; ³doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; ⁴each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

“He who is not with me is against me. He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.

²⁴The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’ ²⁵When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order. ²⁶Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”