The first reading is on a reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

From Miletus, Paul had the presbyters of the church and Ephesus summoned.

When they came to him, he addressed them.

You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first gave, came to the providence of Asia.

I served the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials that came to me because of the

plots of the Jews.

I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit or from teaching you

in public or in your homes.

I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance

before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.

What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another, the Holy Spirit has

been warning me that imprisonment and

hardship await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me. If only I may finish my course

in ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace.

But now I know that none of you, to whom I preach the kingdom during my travels

who ever see my face again.

And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

No bountiful rain you shower down, O God, upon your inheritance.

You restored the land when it languished, your flock settled in it.

...