Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New; Martyr Irenarchus and Seven Women Martyrs at Sebaste; Martyr Timothy and his Companions at Tiberiopolis

For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. ⁹For what thanksgiving can we give again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God, ¹⁰night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. ¹²May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as we also do toward you, ¹³to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

He entered into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, ⁴⁶saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

⁴⁷He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him. ⁴⁸They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.