Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ mid 333]. Brethren:

12 ²⁸Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be having gratitude by which we may worship God well pleasingly with reverence and piety. ²⁹For also, “Our God is a consuming fire [cf. Deut. 4:24].”

13 ¹Let brotherly love abide. ²Cease being forgetful of hospitality, for by this some entertained angels unawares. ³Be mindful of those in bonds as bound with them, of those being ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body. ⁴Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. ⁵Let your manner of life be without covetousness, being satisfied with things at hand; for He hath said, “In no wise will I leave thee, nor in any wise will I abandon thee [cf. Deut. 31:6].” ⁶So that being of good courage we may say, “The Lord is a helper to me, and I will not be afraid; what shall man do to me [cf. Ps. 117(118):6]?”

⁷Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: ⁸Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 39]. At that time:

11 ¹There was a certain sick man, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” ⁴And after Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God might be glorified by it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶When He heard therefore that “he is sick,” then indeed He remained in the place which He was for two days. ⁷Then after this He saith to His disciples, “Let us go into Judæa again.” ⁸The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone Thee, and goest Thou there again?” ⁹Jesus answered, “There are twelve hours in the day, are there not? If anyone walk about in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; ¹⁰“but if anyone walk about in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹These things He said, and after this He saith to them, “Our friend Lazarus hath fallen asleep; but I go that I might awaken him.” ¹²Then said His disciples, “Lord, if he hath fallen asleep, he shall recover.” ¹³But Jesus had spoken about his death; but they thought that He spoke about taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Therefore Jesus then said to them openly, “Lazarus died. ¹⁵“And I rejoice on your account that I was not there, in order that ye might believe; but let us go to him.” ¹⁶Then Thomas, the one who was called Didymos, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we might die with Him.”

¹⁷Then after Jesus came, He found that he already had been in the sepulcher four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to join the women around Martha and Mary, in order that they might console them concerning their brother. ²⁰Then Martha, when she heard that “Jesus is coming,” went to meet Him; but Mary was sitting in the house. ²¹Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died. ²²“But even now I know that whatsoever Thou Thyself shalt ask of God, God will give it to Thee.” ²³Jesus saith to her, “Thy brother shall rise up.” ²⁴Martha saith to Him, “I know that he shall rise up in the resurrection in the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believeth in Me, though he die, he shall live; ²⁶“and everyone who liveth and believeth in Me, in no wise shall ever die. Believest thou this?” ²⁷She saith to Him, “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Who cometh into the world.” ²⁸And after she said these things, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, and saith, “The Teacher is present and calleth thee.” ²⁹And the latter, when she heard, rose up quickly and came to Him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha went to meet Him. ³¹The Jews then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, after they saw that Mary quickly rose up and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the sepulcher that she might weep there.” ³²Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came down with her weeping, He rebuked His deep feelings in the spirit and troubled Himself, ³⁴and said, “Where have ye laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus wept. ³⁶Then the Jews were saying, “Behold, how He was loving him.” ³⁷But some of them said, “Was not this One able, Who opened the eyes of the blind, to have caused that this one should not die?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again rebuking His deep feelings in Himself, cometh to the sepulcher. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it. ³⁹Jesus saith, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the one who was dead, saith to Him, “Lord, already he stinketh, for it is the fourth day.” ⁴⁰Jesus saith to her, “I said to thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God, did I not?” ⁴¹Then they took away the stone where the dead one was laid. And Jesus lifted His eyes upwards, and said, “Father, I give thanks to Thee that Thou heardest Me. ⁴²“But I know that Thou hearest Me always; but on account of the crowd which stood around I said it, that they might believe that Thou didst send Me forth.” ⁴³And after He said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ⁴⁴And the one who was dead came forth, his feet and hands having been bound with graveclothes; and his face had been bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

⁴⁵Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Mark, Bishop of Arethusa, and Kyril the deacon, and many others with them, and the holy Martyrs Jonas and Varachysios of Persia.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 11th – Civil Calendar
March 29th – Church Calendar

1. St. Mark the Confessor, Bishop of Arethusa in Syria.

St. Gregory the Theologian and Blessed Theodoretus have given us an account of his sufferings. According to these accounts, Mark destroyed some pagan temples and brought many to the Christian Faith during the reign of the Emperor Constantine. But when the Emperor Julian came to the throne and quickly became an apostate from the Faith, some of the inhabitants of Arethusa renounced Christ and lapsed into paganism. They rose up against Mark because he had demolished the temple and demanded that he either rebuild it or pay them a very large sum of money. As Mark refused to do either, he was flogged and flayed and dragged through the streets. They then cut off his ears with strong, fine threads, stripped him naked, smeared him with honey and left him bound to a tree in the summer heat for the wasps, mosquitoes and hornets to eat. The martyr of Christ endured all this without complaint. He was quite old, and his face shone like an angel of the Lord. The pagans lowered the price of their temple again and again, finally demanding a quite insignificant amount which Mark could easily have given. But he refused to give even a single coin for that purpose. His endurance made a great impression on the citizens, and they began to admire him for it and to feel sorry for him, and gradually reduced the price of their temple to nothing just to allow him to remain alive. Finally, they let him go free, and one by one, all came to him to receive instruction and become Christians again. A deacon, Kyril, also suffered at this time for a similar cause in Heliopolis at the foot of Mount Lebanon. He had broken some idols at the time of the liberation of Christianity and was cruelly tortured under Julian for this. The pagans were so enraged with him that, after they had killed him, they tore out his teeth and ripped open his stomach. Many others suffered on the same day as St. Kyril. The evil pagans cut their bodies into small pieces, coated them with barley and fed them to the pigs. But retribution came swiftly upon them; all their teeth fell out and their mouths emitted an unbearable stench.

2. Our Holy Father John the Hermit.

He was the son of Juliana, a Christian woman of Armenia. While still a child, he left his mother and ran off to the desert. He was utterly aflame with love for Christ the Lord. In the beginning he entrusted himself to the guidance of a spiritual father, Pharmutios, who was so pleasing to God that an angel brought him bread every day. John later left him and withdrew into solitude. He let himself down into a dry well and lived there for a full ten years in fasting, prayer and vigils. St. Pharmutios used to bring him some of the angel’s bread, for the angel of God did not wish to bring bread to the young John in person, lest he grow proud through this, so he sent it through Pharmutios, his spiritual father. After ten years of arduous asceticism in this well, St. John went to the Lord and his relics revealed wonder-working power. He lived and was glorified by God and men in the 4th century.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The spiritists of our time accept every appearance from the spiritual world as sent by God and immediately boast that it has been ‘revealed’ to them. I was myself acquainted with an eighty-year-old monk who was respected by everyone as a great spiritual guide. When I asked him if he had ever seen any being from the spiritual world in his lifetime, he answered me: ‘No, never; and praise be to God for His mercy!’ Seeing my astonishment at this, he said: ‘I have constantly prayed to God that nothing should ever appear to me, lest I fall into illusion and accept a devil disguised as an angel. And, until now, God has heard my prayer.’ One noted example serves to show how humble and cautious were the elders in this respect: A devil clothed in angelic light appeared to a certain brother and declared to him: ‘I am the archangel Gabriel, who has been sent to you.’ The brother replied to this greeting: ‘You must have been sent to someone else: I’m not worthy to see angels,’ and the devil instantly became invisible and disappeared.

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.