Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Renewal Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 7]. In those days:

3 ¹Peter and John were going up together into the temple during the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ²And a certain man, lame from his mother’s womb, was being carried, whom they used to lay daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those going into the temple; ³who, seeing Peter and John being about to go into the temple, began asking alms. ⁴And Peter, looking intently upon him with John, said, “Look on us.” ⁵And he began to give heed to them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, this I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaræan, rise up and be walking.” ⁷And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankle bones were strengthened. ⁸And leaping up, he stood and went on walking and entered with them into the temple—walking and leaping and praising God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 7]. At that time:

2 ¹²Jesus went down to Capernaum, He, and His Mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. ¹³And the passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴And He found in the temple those who sell oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting. ¹⁵And after He made a scourge out of cords, He cast out all from the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the small pieces of money, and turned upside down the tables of the money changers. ¹⁶And He said to those who sold doves, “Take away these things from this place. Cease making the house of My Father a house of merchandise.” ¹⁷And His disciples were reminded that it is written: “The zeal for Thy house shall eat me up [cf. Ps. 68(69):12(9)].” ¹⁸Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign showest Thou to us, seeing that Thou doest these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” ²⁰Then the Jews said, “In forty and six years was this temple built, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?” ²¹But He was speaking about the temple of His body. ²²When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples were reminded that He was saying this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus said.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy father among the saints, Antipas, Bishop of Pergamon and disciple of St. John the Theologian.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 24th – Civil Calendar
April 11th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum in Asia.

He is mentioned in the Book of Revelation as ‘Antipas My faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth’ (Rev. 2:13)—the city of Pergamum (Pergamos). The inhabitants of this town dwelt in the darkness of idolatry and in the depths of impurity: they were slaves to their passions, slanderers, bullies, incestuous; in brief, slaves of Satan. There among them lived Antipas, ‘as a light in the midst of darkness, as a rose among thorns, as gold in mud’. He who would seize and kill a Christian was regarded as good and just. The whole of their idolatrous faith consisted in soothsaying, the interpretation of dreams, the service of demons and the extreme excesses of debauchery. In terror of Antipas as of fire, the demons appeared to the pagan priests in their dreams and told them how greatly they were in fear of him, and how this fear was driving them from the city. The priests stirred up the multitude, and they began to torment him and to press him to deny Christ and worship idols. Antipas said to them: ‘When your so-called gods and lords of the universe are afraid of me, a mortal man, and have to flee the city, why do you not learn from this that all your faith is in vain?’ And the saint spoke further with them of the Christian Faith as the only true and saving Faith. But they became incensed like wild beasts and dragged the aged Antipas before the temple of Artemis, where there stood an ox cast in bronze. They heated the ox and threw the servant of God inside. St. Antipas, inside the red-hot ox, glorified God with thanksgiving, like Jonah in the sea monster and the Three Children in the burning fiery furnace. Antipas prayed for his flock and for the whole world until his soul parted from his exhausted body and went to join the angels in the kingdom of Christ. He died under torture and was crowned with unfading glory in the year 92.

2. The Holy Martyrs Processus and Martinian.

They were warders in the Roman prison where the Apostles Peter and Paul were held captive. Hearing the words and seeing the miracles of these apostles, they were baptized and released the apostles from prison. The apostles left Rome, but the Lord appeared to Peter on the Appian Way. ‘Lord, whither goest Thou?’ asked Peter of Him, and the Lord replied: ‘I’m going to Rome, to be crucified afresh.’ The apostles returned to Rome, where they were arrested and killed. The two courageous martyrs, Processus and Martinian, were beheaded along with St. Paul.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘There is no rest on earth for those who seek salvation,’ says St. Ephraim the Syrian. The struggle is incessant, whether external or internal. The enemy acts at times visibly through people and things, at times invisibly through the mind. At times he shows himself clearly as the enemy, acting with cruelty; at others as a flattering friend, leading astray by a trick. That which takes place in war between two opposing armies is that which happens to a man who commits himself to the struggle with the delusion of this world. Indeed, ‘there is no rest on earth for those who seek salvation’. But when salvation comes, rest comes with it.

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.