Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Twelfth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 183]. Brethren:

7 ¹Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing to perfection holiness in the fear of God.

²Make room for us; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we defrauded no one. ³I speak not for condemnation; for I have said before that ye are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. ⁴Great is my boldness toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf; I have been filled with comfort, I am superabounding with joy over all our affliction. ⁵For, even after we came into Macedonia, our flesh hath had no rest, but in every way we were being oppressed: fights from outside, and fears from inside. ⁶But God, the One Who comforteth the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus; ⁷and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted over you, when he brought back tidings of your yearning, your mourning, your zeal for me; so as for me to rejoice the more. ⁸For though I sorrowed you in the epistle, I do not feel regret, though I was feeling regret; for I see that the epistle sorrowed you, though for an hour. ⁹Now I rejoice, not that ye were sorrowed, but that ye were sorrowed to repentance; for ye were sorrowed in accordance with God, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. ¹⁰For the sorrow in accordance with God worketh out repentance to salvation, not to be regretted.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 5]. At that time:

1 ²⁹Jesus came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with Iakovos and John. ³⁰And the mother-in-law of Simon was lying down ill with a fever. And straightway they speak to Him about her. ³¹And He came and took hold of her hand, and raised her up. And immediately the fever left her, and she began ministering to them. ³²And evening having come to pass, when the sun did set, they kept on bringing to Him all those who were ill, and those possessed by demons. ³³And the whole city was gathered together at the door. ³⁴And He cured many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not allowing the demons to talk, because they knew Him.

³⁵And having risen up very early at night, He went out and departed into a desolate place, and was praying there.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Forefeast of the Dormition, the Prophet Micah, and the translation of the precious relics of our venerable Father Theodosios, Abbot of the Kiev Caves.

Epistle

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

or

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§§ 176, 177]. Brethren:

4 ⁶It is God Who said, “Let there be light [cf. Gen. 1:3]” to shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the preeminence of the power may be of God, and not from us. ⁸In every way we are afflicted, but not straitened; we are at a loss, but not utterly at a loss; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. ¹¹For we, the living, are always being delivered to death on account of Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. ¹²So that indeed death energizeth itself in us, but life in you. ¹³But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which hath been written: “I believed, wherefore I spoke [Ps. 115(116):1(10)],” we also believe, and therefore speak, ¹⁴knowing that the One Who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also through Jesus, and shall present us with you. ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, which abounded through the majority, might cause the giving of thanks to abound more to the glory of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 27th – Civil Calendar
August 14th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Prophet Micah the Second.

Of the tribe of Judah and from the village of Morasth, from which he took the name ‘the Morasthite,’ he was a contemporary of the prophets Isaias, Amos and Hosea, and the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He denounced the vices of his people and denounced also the prophets who prophesied ‘of wine and strong drink’. He foretold the fall of Samaria, which would come about because the city’s elders take a bribe and the priests teach for hire, and prophets divine for money. ‘Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps’. But, of all his prophecies, the most important are those of the Messiah, and especially of the place of His birth. He named Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah, ‘whose goings-forth have been from of old, from everlasting’ (5:2). It is not known certainly whether this prophet was killed by the Jews or died peacefully (see Jer. 26:18-19), but it is known that he was buried in his village, and that his relics were found, together with the relics of the Prophet Abbakum, in the time of the Emperor Theodosios the Great, by a mysterious revelation received by the Bishop of Eleftheropolis.

2. The Hieromartyr Markellos, Bishop of Apameia.

Born in Cyprus of rich and eminent parents, he was well-educated, and married and had children. After coming to an agreement with his wife and children, now grown, he withdrew to follow the monastic life in Syria. He became known for his compassion, meekness and spiritual learning, because of which the people of Apameia chose him as their bishop. As a bishop, he labored with zeal to bring pagans to the Christian Faith. When an idolatrous temple was burned down, the idolaters seized Markellos, and on the pretext of his having caused it, threw him into the fire, in about 389. We find in St. Markellos’ ‘Life’ that the blessing of water is mentioned, and its use.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Keep yourself from a parental curse, for it is a terrible thing. Value and seek your parents’ blessing, for it will accompany you throughout your life. The wise Sirach says: ‘The blessing of the father establisheth the houses of the children; but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations’ (Sirach 3:9). The curse with which Noah cursed the descendants of Ham has stayed with them to this day, but the sons of Jacob have had fortune in life, according to their father’s blessing. St. Sergius, as a young man, asked his parents’ blessing to become a monk. His aged parents begged their son to wait and stay with them till their death, and then become a monk. Bishop Hermogenes speaks of an occasion when a son ill-treated his wife. When his mother, in tears, began to chide him for this, the son set on his mother, beat her and cracked her head against the wall. The despairing mother cried out: ‘Lord, let my son be accursed, and receive no blessing from Thee or from me!’ That same day, he began to tremble all over his body, and lived in this state for thirteen whole years, unable even to lift a spoon to his mouth. After thirteen years, he confessed and received Communion, and after that became a little eased and very soon died.

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.