First Reading

Reading from the letter of the Apostle Saint Paul to Philemon

Philemon 7-20

Dear brother: I received great joy and consolation because of your charity toward the brothers, for thanks to you they feel comforted.

Therefore, although as an apostle of Christ I have full right to order you what you must do, I prefer to ask you in the name of love. I, Paul, already an old man and now, moreover, a prisoner for the cause of Christ Jesus, want to ask you something on behalf of Onesimus, my son, whom I have begotten for Christ here in prison. He was once useless to you, but now he is very useful to you and to me. I am sending him to you. Receive him as you would receive me.

I would have liked to keep him with me, so that he might attend to me in your place, while I am imprisoned for the cause of the Gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the favor you do me may not be as if by obligation, but by your own will.

Perhaps he was taken away from you for a short time, so that you might recover him forever, but no longer as a slave, but as something better than a slave, as a beloved brother. He already is one to me. How much more should he be to you, not only by his quality as a man, but as a brother in Christ! Therefore, if you consider me as your companion, receive him as you would receive me. And if in anything he harmed you or owes you anything, charge it to my account. I, Paul, will pay you, and this I sign with my own hand. And that without mentioning that you owe me a debt, which is yourself. Yes, brother, do me this favor for our union with the Lord, so that you may comfort my heart in Christ.

Gospel

Reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Luke

Luke 17, 20-25

At that time, the Pharisees asked Jesus: “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus answered them: “The Kingdom of God does not come in an ostentatious way. It cannot be said: ‘It is here’ or ‘It is there’, because the Kingdom of God is already among you”.

Then he said to his disciples: “The time will come when you will desire to enjoy even a single day of the presence of the Son of Man and you will not be able. Then they will say to you: ‘It is here’ or ‘It is there’, but do not go running to see, for just as the brightness of lightning shines from one end of the sky to the other, so will be the coming of the Son of Man in his day. But first he must suffer much and be rejected by the men of this generation”.