Sunday, November 1st, is the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. On this day we commemorate:
Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Mesopotamia, and their mother, St. Theodota
Hieromartyrs John the Bishop and Jacob (James) the Presbyter, of Persia (ca. 345)
Martyrs Kyriaina and Juliana in Cilicia (4th c.)
Martyr Hermenegild the Goth of Spain (586)
Martyrs Cæsarius, Dacius, Savva, Sabinian, Agrippa, Adrian, and Thomas, at Damascus (7th c.)
Monastic Martyrs James and his two disciples, James the Deacon, and Dionysios the Monk (Mt. Athos—1520).
Readings for Sunday, November 1st:
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11
See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!
12
As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
13
For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
14
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
15
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
16
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
17
From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
18
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
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26
Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
27
And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.
28
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”
29
For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
30
Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him.
31
And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.
32
Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them.
33
Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
34
When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
35
Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
36
They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed.
37
Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned.
38
Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying,
39
“Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.