Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 101]. Brethren:

9 ⁶It is not as though the word of God hath failed. For they are not all Israel those who are of Israel; ⁷nor because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children, but, “In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee [Gen. 21:12]”; ⁸that is, the children of the flesh, these are not children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for a seed. ⁹For this word is of promise: “According to this time will I come, and there shall be a son to Sarah [cf. Gen. 18:10, 14].” ¹⁰And not only this, but when Rebecca also conceived by one, our father Isaac ¹¹(for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works, but of the One Who calleth), ¹²it was said to her, “The greater shall serve the lesser [Gen. 25:23].” ¹³Even as it hath been written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated [Mal. 1:2, 3].”

¹⁴What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it not be! ¹⁵For He saith to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomsoever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomsoever I will have compassion [Ex. 33:19].” ¹⁶So then it is not of the one who willeth, nor of the one who runneth, but of God Who showeth mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, “For this very thing I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and so that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth [Ex. 9:16].” ¹⁸So then to whom He will, He hath mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then to me, “Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath withstood His express will?”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 38]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ³²“Everyone who shall confess in Me before men, I also will confess in him before My Father Who is in the heavens. ³³“But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Who is in the heavens. ³⁴“Never think that I came to cast peace on the earth; I came not to cast peace, but a sword. ³⁵“For I came to divide in two a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶“and a man’s enemies shall be those of his own household.”

11 ¹And it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, He passed over from that place to teach and preach in their cities.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Aquilina, and our holy father among the saints, Triphyllios, Bishop of Lefkosia in Cyprus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 26th – Civil Calendar
June 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Aquilina.

Born in the Palestinian town of Biblos of Christian parents, little Aquilina was already, at the age of seven, living as a true Christian, and by the age of ten was so filled with divine understanding and the grace of the Holy Spirit that she used to preach Christ with great power and zeal to her girl friends. When Diocletian’s persecution began, Aquilina was handed over to the imperial governor, Volusianus, who was more like a beast than a man. He ordered that she first be flogged and then that a heated rod be passed through her ears and brain. Until the last moment, the virgin Aquilina freely and clearly confessed Christ the Lord; but when her brains started flowing with her blood from her head, she fell as if dead. Believing her to be indeed dead, the governor ordered that her body be taken outside the city and thrown onto a dungheap for the dogs to eat. But, during the night, an angel of God appeared to her and said: ‘Arise and be healed!’ and the maiden arose and was restored to health, and stood a long time expressing her gratitude and praise to God and begging Him not to deny her a martyr’s death. A voice was heard from heaven: ‘Go; and it shall be to thee as thou desirest,’ and Aquilina went into the city. The city gates opened of their own accord for her, and she passed through them and went to the governor’s palace like a ghost, standing before his bed and showing herself to him. The governor was seized with unspeakable terror when he saw the maiden whom he had thought dead. On the following day, he ordered the executioner to take Aquilina out and behead her with the sword. Before her execution, she knelt in prayer and surrendered her spirit into God’s hands, leaving her dead body to be beheaded by the executioner. Her relics gave healing to many of the sick. St. Aquilina was twelve years old when she suffered for the Lord; she endured her Passion and was crowned with a wreath of martyrdom in the year 293.

2. St. Triphyllius, Bishop of Levcosia in Cyprus.

A pupil of St. Spiridon and later his fellow-bishop on the island of Cyprus, he was a merciful man, pure in thought, chaste in his life, a living fountain of tears, and a great ascetic. He governed Christ’s flock well, and when he went to his rest, received his crown among the great hierarchs in heaven. He entered peacefully into rest in 370.

3. St. Anna and her son John.

Taken as an orphan into the house of a nobleman and treated as an adopted child, she was cared for and educated in that house. The rich man considered her worthy to be married to his son. When the old man died, the family urged the son to put his wife away because of her low birth and to marry another more suited to his rank and wealth. The rich man’s son feared God and did not want to do this. Seeing her husband in difficulties with his family, Anna secretly left him and ran off to a distant island where there was not a living soul. She was pregnant, and soon gave birth to a son. They labored on the island for thirty years in fasting and prayer. Then, by divine providence, a hieromonk landed on the island. He baptized her son and named him John. Anna lived her ascetic life in the fifth century and died peacefully.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Meekness and gentleness adorned the saints and gave them the strength and the motive not to return evil for evil. When the Emperor Constantius, Constantine’s son, fell ill in Antioch, he summoned St. Spiridon to come and pray over him. In company with his deacon, Triphyllius, St. Spiridon left Cyprus, and arriving at the imperial court in Antioch, asked for admittance. He was clad in poor clothing, with a simple woven cap on his head and a palm staff in his hand, and he was clutching to his breast a small earthenware pot in which he had some oil that had been set before the Holy Cross (such being the custom among Christians in Jerusalem). Dressed in this way, worn out by fasting and the journey, the saint gave no hint of his rank and dignity. And so, when he wished to set foot in the emperor’s court, one of the imperial servants, taking him for a pauper, struck him a blow on one cheek. The meek and forgiving saint turned the other cheek to him. When he managed, with great difficulty, to reach the emperor, he placed his hand on Constantius’ head, and the emperor immediately recovered.

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.