The Book of Common Prayer Table of
contents
Saint Matthew the Apostle
September 21.
The Collect
O Almighty God, who
by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to
be an Apostle and Evangelist: Grant us grace to forsake all
covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the
same thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and
the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle
2 Corinthians 4.1-6
Therefore seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by
manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of
Jesus Christ.
The Gospel
St. Matthew 9.9-13
And as Jesus
passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at
the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he
arose, and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat
in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came, and sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, They
said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and
sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and
learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for
I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Text from The Book of Common Prayer, the
rights in which are vested in the Crown,
is reproduced by permission of the Crown's Patentee, Cambridge
University Press.