Thursday in the Thirty-Second Week after Pentecost

The Lesson of the Epistle of the Holy Apostle James.
Saint James §56 (4:7-5:9).
Beloved: Be subject to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow. Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver. But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? Behold, now you that say: Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will traffic, and make our gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say: If the Lord will, and if we shall live, we will do this or that. But now you rejoice in your arrogancies. All such rejoicing is wicked. To him therefore who knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted: and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have feasted upon earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts, in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the Just One, and He resisted you not. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receive the early and latter rain. Be you therefore also patient, and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Grudge not, brethren, one against another, that you may not be judged. Behold the Judge standeth before the door.

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark.
Saint Mark §52 (11:27-33).
At that time: Jesus cometh to Jerusalem. And when He was walking in the temple, there come to Him the chief priests and the scribes and the ancients, and they say to Him: By what authority dost Thou these things? And who hath given Thee this authority that Thou shouldst do these things? And Jesus answering, said to them: I will also ask you one word, and answer you Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? Answer Me. But they thought with themselves, saying: If we say, From heaven; He will say, Why then did you not believe him? If we say, From men, we fear the people. For all men counted John that he was a prophet indeed. And they answering, say to Jesus: We know not. And Jesus answering, saith to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.