Holy Martyr Agatha of Palermo in Sicily (251); Our Holy Father Polyeuctus, Patriarch of Constantinople (970); Holy New Martyr Antony of Athens (1774)

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. ⁷For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. ⁸He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; ¹⁰and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. ¹¹For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.

¹²Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.

¹³Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. ¹⁵Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. ¹⁶Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. ¹⁸Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹²If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

¹³They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation and said to them, “Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these. ¹⁵Most certainly I tell you, whoever will not receive God’s Kingdom like a little child, he will in no way enter into it.” ¹⁶He took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.