Friday in the Twenty-Third Week after Pentecost

The Lesson of the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians.
I Thessalonians §266 (2:14-19).
Brethren: You are become followers of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered the same things from your own coutrymen, even as they have from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and have persecuted us, and please not God, and are adversaries to all men; prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath of God is come upon them to the end. But we, brethren, being taken away from you for a short time, in sight, not in heart, have hastened the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. For we would have come unto you, I Paul indeed, once and again: but Satan hath hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke.
Saint Luke §58 (11:23-26).
The Lord said: He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.