Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Twelfth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 179]. Brethren:

5 ¹⁰We must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of the Christ, in order that each one might receive for oneself the things done through the agency of the body, according to what one did, whether good or bad. ¹¹Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade men; but we have been made manifest to God, and I hope also to have been made manifest in your consciences. ¹²For we commend not ourselves again to you, but are giving you an occasion of boasting on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to face those who boast in what is for show and not in heart. ¹³For whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we judged this: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵and He died for all, in order that they who are living no longer are living to themselves, but to Him Who died for them and was raised.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 2]. In those days:

1 ⁹Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And straightway, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens being parted, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him; ¹¹and there came to be a voice out of the heavens, “Thou art My Son, the Beloved, in Thee I am well pleased.”

¹²And straightway, the Spirit driveth Him forth into the desert. ¹³And He was there in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts; and the angels were ministering to Him.

¹⁴Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time hath been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God hath drawn near; repent ye and believe ye in the Gospel.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Transfiguration, and Hierodeacon Efplos of Catania of Sicily.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 99]. Brethren:

8 ²⁸We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose. ²⁹For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformable to the image of His Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰But whom He foreordained, these also He called; and whom He called, these also He justified; and whom He justified, these also He glorified. ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He Who indeed spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God? God is the One Who justifieth. ³⁴Who is the one who condemneth? Christ is the One Who died, but much more is He the One also Who was raised, Who also is at the right of God, Who also intercedeth for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶Even as it hath been written: “For on account of Thee, we are being put to death the whole day; we were counted as sheep of slaughter [Ps. 43(44):23(22)].” ³⁷But in all these things we more than conquer through the One Who loved us. ³⁸For I have been persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things coming, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 24th – Civil Calendar
August 11th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Euplus.

He was a deacon from Catania in Sicily. The Emperor Diocletian sent a commander, Pentagurus, to Sicily to exterminate any Christians that he found there. Pentagurus did not find a single Christian, for they had hidden from the persecutor and did not show themselves. Then someone accused Euplus of taking a book to some secret Christians and reading to them. This book was the holy Gospel. He was therefore soon taken for trial, and with the book hung round his neck, put in prison. After seven days of imprisonment and hunger, he was put to torture. When they whipped him with iron flails, Euplus mockingly said to the torturing judge: ‘You fool; don’t you see that these tortures are, to me, like a cobweb? If you can, find other, harsher tortures, as these are like playthings.’ Finally, they led Christ’s martyr to the scaffold. Then St. Euplus opened the holy Gospel and read from it to the people for a long time. Many turned to the Christian Faith, and St. Euplus was beheaded, in the year 304, and went to the heavenly kingdom. His wonder-working relics lie in a village near Naples called Vico della Batonia.

2. The Holy Martyr Susanna the Virgin, and others with her.

The daughter of Gavinius, a Christian priest in Rome, she was niece to Pope Gaius, of blood and kin with the reigning emperor, Diocletian. This emperor had an adopted son, Maximian Galerius, who wanted to marry Susanna, but she was utterly dedicated to Christ the Lord and had no desire for marriage, especially with an unbaptized man. Susanna brought those who had requested her for the emperor’s son, the patricians Claudia and Maxima, to the Christian Faith with all their households. Infuriated by this, the emperor issued orders and the executioners took Claudia and Maxima, with their families, to Ostia, where they were burned and their ashes cast into the sea. Susanna was beheaded in Gavinius’ house. The emperor’s wife, Serena, a secret Christian, took Susanna’s martyred body by night and buried it, and Pope Gaius turned the house where Susanna was killed into a church and held services there. Soon after this bride of Christ suffered, her father Gavinius and Pope Gaius also suffered. They all suffered with honor for the Lord, and received wreaths of glory, in the years 295 and 296.

3. St. Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Born in Greece, he became a monk in his youth and lived in asceticism, first away from the Holy Mountain and then on it in various monasteries, staying longest in Vatopedi and Dionysiou. He was beloved by all on the Holy Mountain, both for his rare wisdom and for his meekness. He was made Bishop of Thessalonica against his will, and two years later, went to Constantinople in the course of his work and was there chosen for the vacant patriarchal throne. He was banished by the sultan to Jedrene, where he lived in exile. Prince Radul of Wallachia asked the sultan for him, and made him his archbishop. Because of Radul’s transgressions, Niphon left the province of Wallachia and went to the Holy Mountain, to the community of Dionysiou, where he lived in asceticism till the age of ninety, going to the kingdom of God in 1508. He compiled the ‘Prayer at Departing’ that is read at funerals.

4. Our Holy Fathers Basil (Vasily) and Theodore (Feodor) of the Kiev Caves.

They both died under the tyranny of the covetous Prince Istislav, in 1098. The life of St. Theodore is especially instructive to the covetous. Theodore was very rich, but he gave all his wealth to the poor and became a monk. He then repented and grieved for his riches, and was greatly tempted by a spirit of covetousness, from which he was freed by St. Basil.

FOR CONSIDERATION

If a man sets off on the right path, let him follow that path with both feet and not have one foot on the right path and the other on the wrong. For the Lord said through the prophet about the righteous who work unrighteousness: ‘The righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die’ (Ezekiel 18:24). The Wallachian Prince Radul was a righteous man and did many good works. He brought St. Niphon out of exile in Jedrene and made him archbishop in Bucharest. But he suddenly committed a grievous sin: he gave his sister to be wife to the foul Moldavian prince, Bogdan, while Bogdan’s wife was still alive, and refused to heed Niphon’s protests. Niphon prophesied an evil end to him, drove him publicly out of the Church and left the province. Immediately after this, there was a drought and a great famine in the region, and Radul fell into an incurable sickness, his whole body being one great, suppurating sore which no one could come near to for the stench. When they buried him, his grave shook for three days, like the grave of the Empress Evdoxia, the persecutor of St. John Chrysostom.

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.