Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 102]. Brethren:

9 ¹⁸God, to whom He will, 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?” ²⁰Yea rather, O man, who art thou that answerest against God? The thing formed shall not say, shall it, to the one who formed it, “Why didst thou make me thus?” ²¹Or hath not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? ²²God, although willing to show wrath and to make His power known, bore in much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, ²³in order that He also might make known the wealth of His glory on the vessels of mercy—which He had afore prepared unto glory, ²⁴even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. ²⁵As He saith also in Osee, “I will call that which is not My people, My people; and that which is not beloved, beloved [cf. Hos. 2:23]. ²⁶“And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, ‘Ye are not My people,’ there shall they be called sons of the living God [cf. Hos. 1:10].” ²⁷And Esaias also crieth out concerning Israel, “And if the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved [cf. Is. 10:22]; ²⁸“for He is consummating the word, and cutting it short in righteousness, because the Lord shall make a word which hath been shortened upon the earth [cf. Is. 10:23].” ²⁹And according as Esaias foretold, “Except the Lord of Sabaoth left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah [Is. 1:9].” ³⁰What then shall we say? That the nations which pursued not righteousness came upon righteousness, but a righteousness which is of faith; ³¹but Israel which pursued a law of righteousness, arrived not unto a law of righteousness. ³²Why? Because it was not by faith, but as by the works of the law. For they stumbled at the stone of stumbling. ³³Even as it hath been written: “Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offense; and everyone who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed [cf. Is. 28:16].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 40]. At that time:

11 ²After John heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent two of his disciples, ³and said to Him, “Art Thou the coming One, or do we look for another?” ⁴And Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what ye are hearing and seeing: ⁵“the blind are recovering their sight and the lame are walking; the lepers are being cleansed and the deaf are hearing; the dead are being raised and the poor are being preached the Gospel. ⁶“And happy is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” ⁷And as these went their way, Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What went ye out into the wilderness to behold? A reed being shaken by the wind? ⁸“But what went ye out to see? A man who hath been clothed in soft garments? Behold, those wearing soft garments are in the houses of kings. ⁹“But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and much more than a prophet. ¹⁰“For this is he about whom it hath been written: ‘Behold, I send forth My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee [cf. Mal. 3:1].’ ¹¹“Verily I say to you, there hath not arisen among those born of women a greater than John the Baptist; but the least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he. ¹²“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of the heavens is being taken by force, and the forceful seize it. ¹³“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴“And if ye are willing to receive it, he is Elias, who is about to come. ¹⁵“The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Tychon the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Amathus in Cyprus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 29th – Civil Calendar
June 16th – Church Calendar

1. St. Tikhon, Bishop of Amathus.

A wonder-worker, Tikhon was chosen unanimously as bishop on the death of blessed Mnemonius, and consecrated by the renowned Epiphanios for the diocese of Amathus. The purity of his life and his zealous adherence to Orthodoxy recommended him for this rank. There were still pagans in Cyprus at that time, and Tikhon undertook with apostolic zeal to turn the unbelievers into believers, and he had great success in this. After lengthy toil in the Lord’s vineyard, he entered into the eternity of the blessed in about 425. He is named a wonder-worker because of the many miracles that he performed during his lifetime. His father was a baker, and whenever his father left him alone in the shop, he would distribute the bread to the poor without payment. His father reproached him once for doing this, so he prayed to God and their storehouse became so full of grain that they could open the door only with difficulty. Another time he planted a dry slip from a vine and the vine grew green and bore fruit in its season.

2. The Holy Martyrs Tigrios and Eftropios.

They were both priests with St. John Chrysostom. When evil men drove St. John from Constantinople, the cathedral was set on fire, the flames from it rising high and falling upon the houses of those who were persecuting this light of the Church. The people saw the finger of God at work in this event, but St. John’s enemies blamed his followers for the fire. Many of them suffered because of this, including the priest Tigrios and the reader Eftropios. The civil governor, an unbaptized Greek called Optatios, started a particularly venomous hunt for the followers of St. John. Tigrios had been the slave of a rich man in his youth and had been castrated. Set free from slavery, he had devoted himself entirely to the service of the Church and shone in that service like a ray of light. Optatios gave this ‘meek, humble, merciful and hospitable’ man over to vicious torture and then sent him into exile, to Mesopotamia, where he died while still in captivity. Eftropios, chaste and pure from his earliest youth, without vice or guile, was flogged with bull-whips and staves and finally hanged. When Christians took his body for burial, a melodious angelic chanting was heard in the sky above them.

FOR CONSIDERATION

In enumerating the miracles of the Christian Faith, we must not forget those innumerable and great miracles, the changes of heart and character in people truly converted to the Faith. How many senseless evildoers has the Faith tamed! How many bloodthirsty robbers has it turned into innocent lambs! How many debauched men into men of chaste life! How many persecutors has it made into defenders! How many self-seeking and avaricious men has it made compassionate! How many cowards has it turned onto the path of self-sacrifice! Metropolitan Philaret wrote thus about the Russian Prince Vladimir: ‘A lover of all the passions, he could not have loved them more, yet the pagan Vladimir found Christianity and became a model of pure and chaste married life. He put away from himself all the women and the concubines, and lived with Anna, a faithful and devout woman. A malicious, vengeful and bloodthirsty fratricide while a pagan, he became, as a Christian, the most compassionate friend of the deprived and unfortunate. They had free access to him, and he distributed both food and money to them with a generous hand. And he even went further than that: he said that the sick were in no state to come to the palace, so he ordered that meat and fish, bread, yeast and honey be taken round the streets. The words of the Gospel: “Blessed are the merciful”, penetrated into the very depths of his heart and became a principle of life for him.’

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.