Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 192]. Brethren:

11 ⁵I reckon to have come behind in nothing of the exceedingly super apostles. ⁶But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in every way we have been made manifest to you in all things. ⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I preached the Gospel of God to you as a free gift? ⁸I stripped other churches, having received wages from them with a view to your ministration. ⁹And when I was present with you, and in need, I burdened no one; for that which I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will keep myself. ¹⁰As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting in regard to me in the regions of Achaia shall not be fenced in. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knoweth. ¹²But what I do, also I will do, that I might cut off the occasion of those wishing an occasion, that in what they boast, they might be found even as we. ¹³For such are false apostles, guileful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And a marvellous thing it is not; for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, of whom the end shall be according to their works. ¹⁶Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish; but if otherwise, receive me even if as foolish, in order that I also might boast a little. ¹⁷What I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this basis of the boasting. ¹⁸Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹For ye bear with fools gladly, being wise yourselves; ²⁰for ye bear it if anyone enslave you, if anyone devour you, if anyone take from you, if anyone exalt himself, if anyone smite you on the face. ²¹I speak by way of dishonor, as though we weakened.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 15]. At that time:

4 ¹Jesus began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered together to Him, so that He stepped into the ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole crowd was on the land toward the sea. ²And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³“Hearken: Behold, the one who soweth went out to sow. ⁴“And it came to pass, as he was sowing, some seed indeed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵“And other seed fell upon the rocky place, where it had not much earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. ⁶“But after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it was dried up. ⁷“And other seed fell into the thorns; and the thorns shot up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸“But other seed fell into the good ground, and it kept on yielding fruit that was springing up and increasing: and one was bearing thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.” ⁹And He was saying to them, “The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Dormition, and the holy Martyr Agathonikos of Nicomedia, and his companions, Zotikos, Zenonos, Theoprepios, Akindynos, and Severianos, and the holy Martyr Louppos (transferred to this date on account of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Dormition on the 23^rd of August).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 4th – Civil Calendar
August 22nd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Agathonikos and Zotikos, and others with them.

St. Agathonikos was a citizen of Nikomedia and a Christian. He turned the Greeks from idolatry with great fervor, and instructed them in the true Faith. The imperial governor, on orders from the Emperor Maximian, was persecuting Christians with great harshness. In this persecution, he seized St. Zotikos in a place called Carpe, crucified his disciples and took him off to Nikomedia, where he also seized and bound Agathonikos, Princeps, Theoprepios, Akyndinos, Severianos, Zeno and many others. They were taken, securely bound, to Byzantium. On the way, Zotikos, Theoprepios and Akyndinos died from exhaustion and of their wounds. Severianos was killed near Chalcedon and Agathonikos and the others were taken to Thrace, to a place called Silybria, where, after torture before the emperor himself, they were beheaded with the sword and entered into eternal life and the joy of their Lord.

2. The Holy Martyr Eulalia.

At the time of a terrible persecution of Christians in Spain, there was a maiden called Eulalia, born of Christian parents in Barcelona. Utterly consecrated to Christ her Bridegroom, and steeped in the holy Scriptures, she applied herself steadfastly to voluntary asceticism of soul and body. When the torturer, Dacian, who was mercilessly slaughtering Christians in Spain, came to Barcelona, Eulalia slipped away from her parents by night, came before the torturer, and in the presence of many of the people, denounced him as a murderer of innocent people, and also pulled down idols, openly confessing her faith in Christ the living Lord. Dacian commanded in fury that she be stripped and beaten with rods, but the holy maiden showed that she did not feel the pain of the torture for her Christ. Then the torturer had her tied to a tree in the form of a Cross, and ordered that her flesh be burned with torches. The torturer asked her, where was her Christ to save her? Eulalia answered: ‘He is here with me, but you cannot see Him because of your impurity.’ Under great torture, Eulalia gave her soul to God, and when she breathed her last, the people saw a white dove emerge from her mouth. Then a sudden snowstorm came and covered the naked body of the martyr like a white garment. On the third day, St. Felix came, and in grief, wept before the hanging body of Eulalia, and a smile appeared on the saint’s dead face. Her parents came, and together with other Christians, buried the body of the holy maiden. She suffered for her Lord and entered into eternal joy at the beginning of the fourth century.

3. The Holy Martyr Anthusa, and others with her.

The daughter of rich, pagan parents in Seleukeia in Syria, Anthusa heard of Christ and believed in Him with all her heart. She went secretly to Bishop Athanasius, who baptized her, and an angel of God appeared at that moment. After that, Anthusa went off to the desert to live in asceticism, not daring to return to her parents. She lived in the desert for thirty-three years, until, while kneeling in prayer on a rock, she gave her soul into God’s hands. She was buried, at her prior request, under this rock. Athanasius and two of Anthusa’s servants, Charismus and Neophytus, were beheaded for their faith in Christ in the time of the Emperor Valerian, in about the year 257. They suffered with honor and were crowned with wreaths.

FOR CONSIDERATION

When once a man has truly repented, he must think no more of the sins committed, lest he fall again into sin. St. Anthony advises: ‘Guard yourself, that your mind be not fouled with the memory of former sins, and that the memory of them be not renewed within you.’ And, in another place, he says: ‘Don’t establish the sins that you have formerly committed in your soul by pondering on them, lest they be renewed in you. Be assured that they are forgiven from the moment that you turn to God in repentance. Be in no doubt about this.’ It was said of St. Ammon that he achieved such perfection that, in his great goodness, he no longer recognized the existence of evil. When he was asked what was the ‘narrow and hard’ way, he replied: ‘It is the curbing of one’s thoughts and the mortifying of one’s own will for the fulfilling of the will of God.’ He who curbs sinful thoughts thinks neither of his own sin nor of another’s, nor of anything corruptible or earthly. The mind of such a man is constantly in heaven, where there is no evil. Thus, little by little, evil is cast out from us, even in our thoughts.

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.