Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Fourteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 195]. Brethren:

12 ¹⁰I am well pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for Christ’s sake; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹I have become foolish in boasting! Ye compelled me. For I ought to be commended by you; for I lacked nothing of the exceedingly super apostles, even though I am nothing. ¹²Indeed the signs of the apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and works of power. ¹³For what is it in which ye were less than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. ¹⁴Behold, I am ready to come to you a third time. And I will not burden you; for I seek not your things, but you. For the children ought not to lay up in store for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵Now I with the greatest pleasure will spend and will be expended utterly for your souls, even if loving you more abundantly, I am being loved the less. ¹⁶But let it be so, I did not burden you; but being crafty, I took you with guile. ¹⁷I did not take advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent forth to you, did I? ¹⁸I besought Titus, and with him I sent the brother. Titus did not take advantage of you in anything, did he? We walked in the same spirit, did we not? We walked in the same steps, did we not? ¹⁹Again, do ye think that we are making a defense to you? We speak before God in Christ; but we do all things, beloved, for your building up.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 16]. At that time:

4 ¹⁰When Jesus was alone, those about Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable of the sower. ¹¹And He began to say to them, “To you it hath been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, everything is done in parables, ¹²“that ‘seeing they see and perceive not, and hearing they hear and understand not, lest they should turn again and their sins be forgiven them [cf. Is. 6:9, 10].’” ¹³And He saith to them, “Know ye not this parable? And how will ye know all the parables? ¹⁴“The sower soweth the word. ¹⁵“And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown; and whenever they hear, Satan straightway cometh and taketh away the word which hath been sown in their hearts. ¹⁶“And these in like manner are the ones who are sown upon the rocky places who, whenever they hear the word, straightway, receive it with joy; ¹⁷“and they have no root in themselves, but are temporary. Then after affliction or persecution ariseth on account of the word, straightway they are made to stumble. ¹⁸“And these are the ones who are sown in the midst of thorns; such as hear the word, ¹⁹“and the cares of this age, and the deceit of wealth, and the desires concerning the rest entering in choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. ²⁰“And these are the ones who were sown on the good ground, such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit: one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.” ²¹And He was saying to them, “The lamp doth not come, in order that it might be put under the bushel or under the couch, doth it? It is in order that it might be placed upon the lampstand, is it not? ²²“For nothing is hidden, except that it should be made manifest; nor did a secret thing take place, but that it should come to light. ²³“If anyone hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the return of the relics of the holy Apostle Bartholomew from Anastasiopolis to Lipari, and the holy Apostle Titus of the Seventy, Bishop of Crete.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Titus [§ 300].

For Gk. usage, see Tit. 1:1-5, 2:15-3:2, 12-15; for Sl. usage, see Tit. 1:1-4, 2:15-3:3, 12, 13, 15.

1 ¹Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s elect, and full knowledge of the truth which is according to piety, ²in the hope of eternal life, which the God, Who cannot lie, Himself promised before the times of the ages, ³but manifested in His own seasons His word in a proclamation, which I was entrusted with, according to the command of God our Savior; ⁴to Titus, my genuine child according to the common faith: grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

⁵For this cause I left thee behind in Crete, in order that thou shouldest set right the things wanting, and ordain presbyters in every city, as I ordered thee....

2 ¹⁵These things be speaking and exhorting and reproving with all command; let no one despise thee.

3 ¹Be reminding them to submit themselves to rulers and authorities, to obey a superior, to be ready for every good work, ²to speak evil of no one, to not be contentious, but equitable, showing forth meekness toward all men. ³For we also were once without understanding, disobedient, deceived, slaving for various desires and pleasures, passing life in wickedness and envy, hateful, hating one another....

¹²Whenever I should send Artemas to thee, or Tychikos, hasten to come to me in Nicopolis, for I have decided to winter there. ¹³Send forth with haste Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, in order that nothing may be lacking to them. ¹⁴And let ours also be learning to set before themselves good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

¹⁵All those with me salute thee. Greet those who love us in faith.

Grace be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

5 ¹⁴“Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. ¹⁵“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. ¹⁶“Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

¹⁷“Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place. ¹⁹“Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 7th – Civil Calendar
August 25th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Bartholomew.

Today is the commemoration of the translation of St. Bartholomew’s relics, while his main feast falls on June 11th. When this great apostle was crucified in Ourbanopolis in Armenia, Christians took his body and buried it in a leaden coffin. When numerous miracles had been wrought over the apostle’s grave, especially healings of the sick—which led to an increase in the number of Christians—the pagans took the coffin containing Bartholomew’s relics and cast it into the sea. At the same time, they threw in four other coffins with the relics of four martyrs: Papian, Lucian, Gregory and Acacius. By God’s providence, the coffins did not sink, but floated, carried by the waves, to various places: Acacius’ to the city of Askalon, Gregory’s to Calabria, Lucian’s to Messina, Papian’s to another place in Sicily and Bartholomew’s to the island of Lipara. By divine revelation, the Bishop of Lipara, Agathon, learned of the approach to Lipara of the relics of St. Bartholomew. Agathon, with his clergy and people, went out to the shore and awaited the coffin with great joy. On that occasion, many of the sick were healed by the holy apostle’s relics. They were placed in the church of St. Bartholomew and lay there until the time of Theophilus the Iconoclast (about 839), then, when the Moslems threatened the Liparites, the apostle’s relics were taken to the town of Benevento. Thus God glorified His apostle by miracles, both during his lifetime and after his death.

2. The Holy Apostle Titus.

One of the Seventy, he was born in Crete and educated in Greek philosophy and poetry. Led by a dream, he read the Prophet Isaias and came to doubt all Hellenic learning. Hearing of Christ the Lord, he went to Jerusalem with some other Cretans, and himself heard the words of the Savior and saw His mighty works. His youthful heart clave utterly to Christ. He was later baptized by the Apostle Paul, whom he served in the works of the Gospel as a son serves his father. Paul loved Titus so greatly that he sometimes called him his son (Titus 1:4), and sometimes his brother (II Cor. 12:18). Titus travelled widely with the great apostle of the nations, and was by him made Bishop of Crete. At the time of Paul’s suffering in Rome, Titus was there, and buried the body of his teacher and spiritual father. He then returned to Crete, where he had great success in baptising the pagans, and wisely governed the Church to great old age. He entered into rest at the age of ninety-four.

3. The Holy Confessors of Edessa.

They suffered greatly in imprisonment and exile for the Orthodox Faith in the time of the Emperor Valens, who held the Arian heresy. They were freed under the Emperor Theodosios.

4. St. Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople.

He governed the Church wisely from 536 to 552. Before that, he ran the Home of St. Sampson for the poor and needy (see June 27th). Pope Agapetus, who had come to Constantinople at that time to oppose and depose the heretical Patriarch Anthimos, participated in Menas’ consecration as bishop there. It is said that the following marvel came to pass in Constantinople in the time of Patriarch Menas: a Jewish boy went to church with his friends, and following their example, received holy Communion. The boy’s father, a glassblower, when he heard of his son’s action, seized him and threw him into the red-hot kiln that he had prepared for the firing of glass. The boy remained shut in this kiln for three days and nights, but when the kiln was opened, he was found alive and unharmed, preserved by God’s providence.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The superhuman courage of our Christian forbears and their readiness to undergo all manner of sufferings and voluntary death for Christ was a source of terror to their torturers. The Emperor Maximian, a fierce and shameless persecutor of Christians, commanded his proconsul in Antioch to set St. Andrew Stratelates free from prison, for fear that the people, who had more respect for Andrew than for the emperor, would revolt. The Emperor Valens commanded his eparch in Edessa to slay all the Christians who were opposed to Arius. The eparch had more human compassion than the emperor, and warned the Christians secretly by night not to leave the city the following day for the fields where they usually held their services (for the Arians had seized all the churches), or they would be slaughtered. Heedless of this warning, the Christians all went to the field in the morning with great joy, rejoicing that they would suffer for the true Faith. The eparch, coming out of the city with his soldiers, saw a Christian woman with a child in her arms, hurrying past the soldiers near the field. The eparch said to her: ‘Have you not heard that the eparch is coming with all his soldiers, to kill everyone he finds?’ The woman replied: ‘I have; and that is why I’m hurrying to die for Christ with the others.’ The eparch continued: ‘But why are you taking that child with you?’ The woman replied: ‘I want my child to be made worthy of martyrdom along with me.’ Seeing and hearing this, the eparch returned in fear to the city and informed the emperor. The emperor was filled with fear, and withdrew his order to massacre.

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.