Apostles of the 70 Erastus, Olympas, Herodion, Sosipater, Quartus, Tertius; Our Venerable Father Arsenios of Cappadocia, the Wonderworker (1924)

For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. ¹¹Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

¹⁴I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. ¹⁶I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. ³⁸Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only born child. ³⁹Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him so that he foams; and it hardly departs from him, bruising him severely. ⁴⁰I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn’t.”

⁴¹Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”

⁴²While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

⁴³They were all astonished at the majesty of God. But while all were marveling at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples,