Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirty-Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the General Epistle of Saint Iakovos [§ 55]. Brethren:

3 ¹¹A fountain doth not gush forth the sweet and the bitter out of the same opening, doth it? ¹²My brethren, a fig tree is not able to produce olives, is it, or a vine, figs? Thus not even one fountain is able to produce salt and fresh water.

¹³Who is wise and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show forth out of a good manner of life his works in meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if ye have bitter jealousy and intriguing in your hearts, cease boasting and lying against the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom which descendeth from above, but is earthly, material-minded, demoniacal. ¹⁶For where jealousy and intriguing are, there is confusion and every bad thing. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above indeed is first pure, then peaceable, equitable, easily entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, impartial and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

4 ¹From what place come wars and fights among you? They are from this place, from your desires after pleasure which war in your members, are they not? ²Ye desire and have not. Ye murder and are jealous and are not able to attain. Ye fight and war, but ye have not, because ye ask not for yourselves. ³Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask wrongly for yourselves, that ye might consume it in your desires for pleasure. ⁴O adulterers and adulteresses! Ye know, do ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is rendered an enemy of God. ⁵Or think ye that the Scripture saith emptily, “The spirit that dwelleth in us desireth to envy”? ⁶But He giveth greater grace. Wherefore it saith, “God setteth Himself against the proud, but giveth grace to the humble [cf. Prov. 3:34].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 51]. The Lord said:

For Gk. usage, see Mk. 11:22-26; for Sl. usage, see Mk. 11:23-26.

11 ²²“Be having faith in God. ²³“For verily I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, ‘Be thou taken away and be thou cast into the sea,’ and doubt not in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith is coming to pass, it shall be to him whatsoever he shall say. ²⁴“On this account I say to you, all things, whatsoever ye ask for yourselves when ye pray, keep on believing that ye are receiving them, and they shall be to you. ²⁵“And whenever ye stand praying, be forgiving if ye have anything against anyone, in order that your Father Who is in the heavens might also forgive your transgressions. ²⁶“But if ye forgive not, neither will your Father Who is in the heavens forgive your transgressions.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of Nativity, and our venerable mother among the saints, Melanie the Younger, nun of Rome.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 13th – Civil Calendar
December 31st – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Mother Melanie the Roman.

Born in Rome of devout and very wealthy parents, she was forced by them to marry a young nobleman, Pinian. She was taken very seriously ill in giving birth to her second child, and told her husband that she would be healed only if he vowed before God to live with her in the future as brother and sister. Her husband agreed and Melanie, in her deep joy, was healed. When it pleased God to take both children to Himself, they agreed to sell all their possessions and give the proceeds to the destitute, the Church and the monasteries. They traveled through many lands and cities, everywhere doing good works. They visited famous spiritual guides in Upper and Lower Egypt, and received much instruction and inspiration from them. During all that time, Melanie lived in strict fasting, fervent prayer and the reading of the holy Scriptures. She followed the practice of reading the Scriptures right through, the Old and New Testaments, every three years, living with her husband as with a brother and fellow-ascetic. Going to Alexandria, they received the blessing of the patriarch, St. Cyril. After that, they went to Jerusalem and settled on the Mount of Olives. There Melanie became an anchoress, and gave herself completely to pondering, fasting and prayer. She lived thus for fourteen years, after which she came out, to help others to salvation, and founded monasteries for men and women. At the invitation of her kinsman, the senator Volusianus, a pagan, she went to Constantinople and brought him to the Christian Faith. She then returned to the Mount of Olives, where she went to God in 438, at the age of fifty-seven.

2. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Zoticus, Protector of the Poor.

He was eminent both of birth and rank. He moved to Constantinople, cast off all worldly things and received ordination to the priesthood, founding a home for the poor, containing a place for the treatment of infectious diseases, and ministering to those cared for in it. He was a close acquaintance of the Emperor Constantine the Great. In retaliation for the gold that Zoticus had had from him for his plague-victims, Constantine’s son, Constantius, tied him behind a wild ass, which was driven about until he died of his wounds. He suffered in the fourth century.

3. Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid.

Born on the island of Evia (Euboea), and educated in Constantinople by the most eminent teachers of his day, he became a priest in the Great Church. He was chosen as bishop, and sent, against his will, to Ochrid, where he spent about twenty-five years (from about 1082 to 1108). Chomatianus of Ochrid calls him ‘the wisest archbishop’. He was a man of enormous learning, both secular and theological, of refined Byzantine tastes, and was by nature melancholy and sensitive. Theophylact felt himself among the Slavs of Ochrid like an exile among barbarians. He wrote commentaries on the Four Gospels and on other books of the New Testament. These are the finest works of their sort after St. John Chrysostom, and are read to this day with great benefit. Of his other works, we know of his Letters, and a Life of St. Clement of Ochrid. In old age, Theophylact withdrew from Ochrid to Thessalonica, and finishing his earthly course, went to the blessedness of eternity.

FOR CONSIDERATION

How wisely holy men and women were able to handle their wealth! How skillfully they bought heavenly goods with their earthly riches! Oh, how low a value they set on earthly goods in themselves, treating them as dust and ashes! When St. Melanie visited the hermits in Egypt with the intention of giving them some financial help, she was astounded at their utter scorning of goods and wealth. Thus, she visited one hermit, Ephestion, and saw nothing in his cell but mats, a bowl for water, a little dry bread and a salt pot. Discovering in advance that the elder would not take money from her, she seized the opportunity to hide several gold pieces in the salt pot. But, as she was on the way back, she heard the elder running after her and calling her to stop. She stopped. The elder held the gold out to her on his palm, saying: ‘I don’t need this; take what’s yours.’ Melanie said to him: ‘If you don’t need it, give it to someone else.’ He replied: ‘No one around here would have any use for it.’ When Melanie would not take the gold back, the elder swung his arm and threw the gold into the river, and then returned to his cell.

During an outbreak of plague in Constantinople, the Emperor Constantius ordered that everyone affected be immediately thrown into the sea. St. Zoticus brought together those infected, and took them to his house to look after them there. When his money ran out, he went to the emperor and asked for money to buy precious pearls for him. The emperor gave him some money, and with this, he gathered further plague-victims and looked after them. One day, the emperor asked Zoticus for the promised pearls, and Zoticus took him and showed him the men in his house, saying: ‘These, O emperor, are living pearls, which I have acquired with toil and money for your salvation.’ The furious emperor condemned Zoticus to death. Zoticus entered into eternal life, and the emperor remained to expiate and repent of his sin.

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.