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.

One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”

²²He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear. ²³Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! ²⁵Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height? ²⁶If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ²⁸But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

²⁹“Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. ³⁰For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.