Thursday in the Twenty-Fourth Week after Pentecost

The Lesson of the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians.
I Thessalonians §271 (5:1-8).
Brethren: But of the times and moments, brethren, you need not, that we should write to you; for yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For all you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, having on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke.
Saint Luke §62 (11:47-12:1).
The Lord said to the Jews that came to Him: Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, who build the monuments of the prophets: and your fathers killed them. Truly you bear witness that you consent to the doings of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres. For this cause also the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the altar and the temple: Yea I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourselves have not entered in, and those that were entering in, you have hindered. And as He was saying these things to them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began violently to urge Him, and to oppress His mouth about many things, lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch something from His mouth, that they might accuse Him. And when great multitudes stood about Him, so that they trod one upon another, He began to say to His disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.