Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 30]. In those days:

12 ¹²Peter came to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was surnamed Mark, where a considerable number of them were gathered together and praying. ¹³And after Peter knocked at the door of the gateway, a maidservant, by name Rhoda, came to hearken. ¹⁴And having recognized the voice of Peter, from her joy she did not open the gateway, but she ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gateway. ¹⁵And they said to her, “Thou art mad.” But she was strongly affirming that it was so. And they kept on saying, “It is his angel.” ¹⁶But Peter continued knocking. And after they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷And having motioned to them with his hand to be silent, he set out in detail to them how the Lord brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Relate these things to Iakovos and to the brethren.” And going out, he went to another place.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 32]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

8 ⁴²“If God were your Father, ye would love Me; for I came forth out of God and am come; for neither have I come of Myself, but that One sent Me forth. ⁴³“Why do ye not understand My speech? Because ye are not able to hear My word. ⁴⁴“Ye are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father ye wish to do. That one was a manslayer from the beginning, and hath not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he may speak the lie, he speaketh out of the things which are his own; for he is a liar and the father of it. ⁴⁵“And because I speak the truth, ye believe Me not. ⁴⁶“Which of you reproveth Me concerning sin? But if I speak truth, why do ye not believe Me? ⁴⁷“The one who is of God heareth the words of God; on this account ye hear not, because ye are not of God.” ⁴⁸Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “We say well, do we not, that Thou art a Samaritan and hast a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I have not a demon; but I honor My Father, and ye dishonor Me. ⁵⁰“And I seek not Mine own glory; there is One Who seeketh and judgeth. ⁵¹“Verily, verily, I say to you, if anyone should keep My word, he in no wise shall ever see death.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Great-martyr Irene of Magedon.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 18th – Civil Calendar
May 5th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy and Great Martyr Irene.

She lived in the Balkans in apostolic times, in the town of Magedon where her father Licinius was governor of a small region. She was born a pagan of pagan parents. Penelope—for that was her pagan name—learned the Christian Faith from her teacher, Appelianus. St. Timothy, the disciple of the Apostle Paul, baptized her and her lady-in-waiting, and brought her a letter from the Apostle Paul to read. She infuriated her father by her embracing Christianity, and he intended to have her trampled to death by horses. The horses turned on him, however, slaying him. She prayed to God on behalf of her father, who had just tried to kill her, and the Lord resurrected him. He subsequently embraced Christianity. Irene was tortured in different ways by four kings, other than her father, but God saved her through His angels. King Sedekias had her cast headlong into a deep pit full of snakes and reptiles. The saint persevered there for fourteen days, and emerged unscathed. Then the same king attempted to saw off her feet, but the sword broke against her body as against stone. This same king once again bound her to the wheel of a water-mill, then let the water in to drown her, but the water would not flow, but stood still, and the maiden remained whole and alive. After Sedekias was ousted from his domain, Sapor, his son, marched against those who deposed his father. St. Irene met Sapor and his army in the city of Magedon. By her prayers, his entire army was stricken blind. Again, she prayed and their eyesight was restored by divine grace. Nonetheless, the ungrateful ones shod her with nails, loaded a sack of sand onto her, put a bridle on her and commanded that she be led like an animal far outside the city. ‘Truly I am as a beast before Thee, O Lord!’ said the holy martyr as she ran bridled behind her torturers. But an angel of God caused an earthquake, and the earth opened and swallowed up ten thousand infidels—but brought thirty thousand to the Faith. Despite this, the king persisted in his paganism, for which he was smote by an angel of the Lord. Surviving all these tortures, by which an enormous number of pagans were brought to Christianity, Irene went to the city of Kallinikos, where she preached the Christian Faith. The local king, Numerian, tried to kill her, throwing her into three burning metal oxen one after the other. But the maiden was preserved and remained alive, and many saw and believed. The eparch, Vavdonos, sought to kill her by putting her onto a burning grid, but this did not harm St. Irene, and brought him to the true Faith. She then went to the city of Constantina, where Shapur II the Great, King of the Persians, had her head cut off. But she was resurrected by an angel of God. The king, seeing this, together with many of the people, believed in Christ and was baptized. And thus St. Irene, by her sufferings and miracles, brought over 100,000 pagans to faith in Christ. At last she laid herself in a grave and commanded Appelianus, her former teacher, to close it. After four days, when the grave was opened, her body was not in it. Thus God glorified forever the maiden and martyr Irene, who had sacrificed all and endured all, that God should be the more greatly glorified among men.

2. Ss. Martin and Heraclius.

Slavs, they were persecuted by heretical Arians in Illyria. Sent into exile, these knights of Orthodoxy finished their earthly course in the 4th century and went to the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Prayer with words is of no use if the heart does not participate. God only hears prayer from the heart. Abba Zoilos of the Thebaid, returning once from Mount Sinai, met a monk who complained that in the monastery, they were greatly suffering from drought. Zoilos asked: ‘Why don’t you pray to God, and implore Him?’ The monk replied: ‘We have prayed and implored, but there is no rain!’ To this Zoilos answered: ‘It is obvious that you are not praying from the heart. Do you want to be convinced that this is so?’ And, thus speaking, the elder raised his hands to heaven and began to pray, and abundant rain fell onto the earth. Seeing this, the marveling monk fell to the ground before the elder and did him reverence, but the elder, fearing the praise of men, quickly fled from him. ‘Ask, and it shall be given you,’ said the Lord Himself. But vain are mouthfuls of prayers if the heart is empty. God does not stand and listen to the lips, but to the heart. Let the heart be filled with prayer and the lips be silent. God will hear and receive the prayer, for He only hearkens to heartfelt prayer.

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.