Holy Apostle Thomas: Epistle and Gospel Reading

 

Holy Apostle Thomas

October 6

 Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Mode Plagal 4.
Psalm 18.4,1
Their voice has gone out into all the earth.
Verse: The heavens declare the glory of God.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 4:9-16

English

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

Commemoration of the Massacre in 1823 at the Cave of Milatos

On Thomas Sunday, which is the Sunday after Easter, a Memorial Service is held in the Cave of Milatos (also known as Rapas Cave), which is located in Lassithi, Crete, 3km northeast of Milatos village at an altitude of 155m, to commemorate the massacre of 3600 Cretans. This execution took place in February 1823 under the orders of the Turkish general Hassan. These 3600 people, mainly women and children, were hiding in this cave from the bloodthirsty Turks who were ravaging the area.

Commentary on the Gospel Reading for Thomas Sunday (Archb. Averky of Syracuse)

By Archbishop Averky of Syracuse

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace be unto you." Then saith He to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing." And Thomas answered and said unto him, "My Lord and my God." Jesus saith unto him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name. (Jn. 20:24-31)

The Life and Passion of the Holy Apostle Thomas

St. Thomas the Apostle (Feast Day - October 6)

By St. Dimitri of Rostov

The holy Apostle Thomas, who was called "The Twin," was from the city of Paneada in Galilee. When our Lord Jesus Christ, during His sojourn on earth with men, passed through cities and villages, teaching the people and healing all manner of disease, Thomas hearkened unto His preaching and saw His miracles. Cleaving unto the Lord fervently, he followed Him, filling himself with the Lord’s words and with the sight of His most holy countenance. Thomas was vouchsafed by Him to be numbered in the choir of the twelve apostles, with whom he followed Christ even until the time of the saving Passion.

After the Lord’s Resurrection, the faith of the Church in Christ was increased through Saint Thomas’ unbelief. When the other apostles told him that they had seen the Lord, Thomas would not believe them until he himself had beheld and touched Christ’s wounds. Eight days after the Resurrection, the disciples gathered together and Thomas was with them; and the Lord appeared and said, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.

The Confession of Thomas and the Blasphemy of Arius (St. John Chrysostom)

By St. John Chrysostom

(Excerpt from his Homily on the Holy Apostle Thomas)

How do I respond in reality, where will I find the word of passage? Shall I preach Thomas as being alive? But the tomb proclaims his death. Shall I relate that he is dead? I am by circumstances compelled. He is dead, and immortal, and died as a man, and hastens about the world as an angel, and accepted his passion, and cuts apart the passions, and is buried below, and above rejoices. Therefore it was not possible for him to be hidden, neither for him to disappear somewhere, for he enlightened the whole world. The grave received him, but everywhere he shines like the sun, the earth conquered the relics of the righteous one, and revealed them as wider than all creation, for his grace is sowed throughout the whole world. Every corner place has Thomas, he has filled the whole world, and remains whole in his place. His glory has gone out into all the earth, and to the ends of the earth his trophies.

Saint Thomas the Apostle Resource Page

St. Thomas the Apostle (Feast Days - October 6, Second Sunday of Pascha, June 30)

The Life and Passion of the Holy Apostle Thomas

Holy Apostle Thomas: Epistle and Gospel Reading

Holy Apostle Thomas, Enlightener of India

Saint Thomas the Apostle as a Model for our Lives

October: Day 6: Holy Apostle Thomas

Synaxarion for the Sunday of Saint Thomas

Thomas Sunday Resource Page

Antipascha — Thomas Sunday Gospel Explanation  

Commentary on the Gospel for Thomas Sunday (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

The Doubt of St. Thomas (St. John Chrysostom)

The Confession of Thomas and the Blasphemy of Arius (St. John Chrysostom)

Homily for the Sunday of Saint Thomas (St. John of Kronstadt)

Thomas Didn't Believe So That All May Believe (St. Gregory the Great)

The Good Unbelief of Thomas

My Lord and My God! (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

Doubting Thomas (Fr. Alexander Schmemann)

The Personal Experience of All the Apostles

The Empirical Theology of the Church is the Mystery of the Touch of Thomas

On Doubting Your Doubts

The Risen Christ: Logic on Trial (Photios Kontoglou)

The Faith of the Mind and the Faith of the Heart

The Resurrection Gospel in Homeric Greek (and other Greek dialects)

Orthodox Bulgaria Marks Sunday of St. Thomas

On the Mission of the Apostles (Hymns by St. Romanos the Melodist)

St. Thomas, the Apostle of India (video)

The Holy Girdle (Zoni) of the Theotokos

The Skull of the Holy Apostle Thomas in Patmos

A Miracle of the Skull of the Apostle Thomas in Symi in 1978

Milatos Cave and the Chapel of Saint Thomas