Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Sixteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 217]. Brethren:

1 ⁷We have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace, ⁸which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed for Himself in Himself, ¹⁰in regard to a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to recapitulate all things in the Christ, both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, ¹¹in Him, in Whom we also were allotted inheritors, having been foreordained according to the purpose of the One energizing all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹²for us to be the praise of His glory, who have hoped before in the Christ; ¹³in Whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation—in Whom having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴Who is an earnest of our inheritance until redemption of the preserved possession to the praise of His glory.

¹⁵On this account I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus and the love which is toward all the saints, ¹⁶cease not giving thanks on behalf of you, making mention of you at the time of my prayers, ¹⁷in order that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the full knowledge of Him.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 32]. At that time:

8 ¹The crowd being very great and having nothing that they might eat, Jesus called to Himself His disciples, and saith to them, ²“I am moved with compassion toward the crowd, because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing that they might eat. ³“And if I should dismiss them fasting to their home, they shall be faint in the way; for some of them have come from afar.” ⁴And His disciples answered Him, “From what place shall anyone here be able to fill these with bread in a wilderness?” ⁵And He asked them, “How many loaves have ye?” And they said, “Seven.” ⁶And He commanded the crowd to recline on the ground. And having taken the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and kept on giving them to His disciples, in order that they might set them before them; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷And they had a few small fish; and He blessed them, and said to set them also before them. ⁸And they ate and were filled; and they took up over and above seven provision baskets of fragments. ⁹And they who ate were about four thousand; and He dismissed them. ¹⁰And straightway He embarked into the ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanoutha.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Nativity of the Theotokos, and Hieromartyr Autonomus, Bishop of Italy.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 25th – Civil Calendar
September 12th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Autonomos.

A bishop, he left Italy for Bithynia in Asia during Diocletian’s persecution, going to a place called Soreos, where he brought many to the Christian Faith and built them a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. He stayed in the house of a devout Christian, Cornelius, whom Autonomos ordained priest and then consecrated bishop. Not far from the town of Soreos was a place called Limnae, entirely inhabited by pagans. St. Autonomos went to this place and quickly brought many to the light by the Gospel of Christ. This roused the pagans, and they hurried one day to the church of the Archangel Michael in Soreos, and during divine service, slew Autonomos in the altar, killing also many other Christians in the church. In the time of the Emperor Constantine, a noble courtier, Severian, built a church over St. Autonomos’ grave. Two hundred years after his death, St. Autonomos appeared to a soldier called John. This soldier dug up the saint’s relics and found them to be completely incorrupt, and many of the sick received healing from them. Thus God glorified him who glorified Him while in the body.

2. The Hieromartyr Cornutos, Bishop of Iconium.

Born in Nikomedia, in the village of Sarsalus, he was already very old when a persecution arose under Decius and Valerian. A torturer, Perinius, came to Nikomedia and began to seek out the Christians. They went out of the city and hid, but their aged bishop would not leave and presented himself to Perinius, proclaiming himself a Christian. The torturer bound him hand and foot and ordered that he be dragged through the town until his blood flowed. He gave his holy soul to God under the sword.

3. The Holy Martyr Julian, with his 40 companions.

They all suffered in about the year 300, being first tortured and then beheaded. In the face of death, St. Julian prayed thus: ‘To those who take some of my dust, grant, O Lord, the forgiveness of their sins and the subduing of their passions; may marauding birds never invade their fields, nor grasshoppers nor caterpillars, nor any other such dangerous or deadly thing; and do Thou receive my soul in peace.’

4. Our Holy Father Daniel of Thasos.

An ascetic and the founder of a great monastery, he was a contemporary of St. Ioannikios the Great and was present when Ioannikios visited the island of Thasos, where the people besought him to free them from an infestation of snakes. The saint prayed to God, and the snakes, in large numbers, rushed into the sea and were drowned.

5. The Holy Martyrs Makedonios, Tatianos and Theodoulos.

They suffered for Christ the Lord in the time of Julian the Apostate at Myropolis in Phrygia. They were harshly tortured for destroying the statue of an idol, and burned on an iron grid until they gave their souls to God. While they were burning over the fire, these courageous men cried out mockingly to the torturer: ‘Why not try our meat, to see if it’s done!’ and also, like the glorious Archdeacon Laurence: ‘Turn us over; we’re done on this side!’ Seeing and hearing the holy martyrs on the fire, the torturers were infinitely more confused and frightened than they were.

FOR CONSIDERATION

What sort of relationship must a man have with God? Uninterrupted and constant. ‘Cleave to God as a son to his father,’ counsels St. Anthony. St. Alonius says: ‘If a man does not have a heartfelt sense that, besides him and God, there is no one else in the world, he cannot find peace of soul.’ The one God is enough, and more than enough, for all that the heart of man can desire. Blessed Theodora took on a strange child without a word, accepting it from her slanderers as her own. Out of love, she brought the child up in the fear of God. At the time of her death, she counselled the child thus: ‘What more does a man need than God and His divine love? He is our treasure, our riches, our food and drink, our clothing and shelter, our health and strength, our mirth and joy, our hope and our confidence. Strive to find Him, my son. If you find the one God, that is enough for you, you will find more joy in Him than if you had found the whole world.’ In thus saying, St. Theodora was not speaking from books or using another’s words; she was speaking from her own experience. She had lived for seven years driven out and scorned by men, and during this time she had discovered by experience that God was all in all to her, and that the one God is sufficient for all that the heart of man can desire.

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.