Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 62].

4 ¹²Beloved, cease being astonished by the strangeness of the proving by fire which is taking place among you, in order to test you, as if a strange thing were happening to you, ¹³but according as ye take part in the sufferings of Christ, be rejoicing, that also in the revelation of His glory ye might rejoice exultingly. ¹⁴If ye are being reproached in the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of the glory and power and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. On the one hand, according to them, He is being blasphemed, but on the other hand, according to you, He is being glorified. ¹⁵For let none of you be suffering as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a busybody in the matters of others. ¹⁶But if any suffer as a Christian, let him cease being ashamed, but keep on glorifying God in respect to this. ¹⁷For it is the time for the judgment to begin from the house of God; but if first from us, what shall be the end of those who disobey the Gospel of God? ¹⁸And “if the righteous one scarcely is saved, where shall the ungodly one and sinner appear [cf. Prov. 11:31]?” ¹⁹Therefore, they who suffer indeed according to the will of God, let them be committing their souls in well doing, as to a faithful Creator.

5 ¹The presbyters who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow presbyter and witness of the sufferings of the Christ, who also am a partaker of the coming glory to be revealed: ²Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising the episcopal office, not by constraint, but willingly, not for sordid greed of gain, but readily, ³neither as exercising lordship over the clergy, but becoming examples to the flock; ⁴and after the chief Shepherd hath been made manifest, ye shall carry off the unfading crown of the glory. ⁵In like manner ye younger ones, be subject to the elders. And all being subject to one another, gird yourselves with humility; for God “setteth Himself against the proud, but giveth grace to the humble [Prov. 3:34].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 57]. The Lord said:

12 ³⁸“Be wary of the scribes, who wish to walk about in full dress, and love salutations in the marketplaces, ³⁹“and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at the dinners, ⁴⁰“who devour the houses of the widows, and for a pretense offer long prayers! These shall receive greater judgment.”

⁴¹And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and was beholding how the crowd cast money into the treasury. And many who were rich were casting in much. ⁴²And one poor widow came and cast in two lepta, which is a quadrans. ⁴³And He called to Himself His disciples, and saith to them, “Verily I say to you that this poor widow hath cast in more than all of those who cast into the treasury; ⁴⁴“for all cast in out of that which is superfluous to them, but she, out of her need, cast in as much as she had, her whole means of living.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and our venerable Father George the Chozebite, and our venerable Mother Domnike of Constantinople.

Epistle

No reading given.

Gospel

For the Mid-feast:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 11]. At that time:

3 ²²Jesus came, and His disciples, to the Judæan land; and there He was spending time with them, and was baptizing. ²³And John was also baptizing in Ænon near Saleim, because there was much water there. And they were coming and were being baptized. ²⁴For John had not yet been cast into the prison. ²⁵Then there arose an inquiry from the disciples of John with a Jew about purification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He Who was with thee across the Jordan, to Whom thou hast borne witness, behold, this One is baptizing, and all are coming to Him.” ²⁷John answered and said, “A man is able to receive nothing unless it hath been given to him from the heavens. ²⁸“Ye yourselves bear witness to me that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but that ‘I have been sent forth before that One.’ ²⁹“The one who hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy then, which is mine, hath been made full. ³⁰“It is needful for that One to go on increasing, but for me to go on decreasing. ³¹“The One Who cometh from above is above all. The one who is out of the earth is of the earth, and speaketh of the earth; the One Who cometh out of the heavens is above all. ³²“And what He hath seen and heard, this He testifieth; and no one receiveth His testimony. ³³“The one who receiveth His testimony hath set his seal to this, that God is true.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 21st – Civil Calendar
January 8th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Julian and Vasilissa.

They were both of rich and noble families, and though married, agreed to live in celibacy as brother and sister. They gave their goods to the poor and embraced the monastic state; Julian founding a men’s monastery of about 10,000 monks and Vasilissa one for about a thousand nuns. When a violent persecution of Christians was launched under Diocletian, Vasilissa besought God that none of her nuns should suffer torture nor repudiate the Orthodox Faith. The Lord hearkened to the petition of His worthy servant, and during the next six months, took all the nuns to Himself, one by one, and finally their abbess Vasilissa. Before her own death, Vasilissa had a vision of her sisters in the other world. They were all bathed in light and were rejoicing like the angels. They appealed to their spiritual mother to join them as quickly as possible.

Julian’s monastery was burned by fire, and Julian was inhumanely tortured, being killed only after the most horrible sufferings. The Lord inspired and strengthened him in his torments and he endured them with heroism, keeping faith and glorifying the name of Christ. Together with Julian were beheaded the son and wife of the persecutor Marcian, Celsus and Maronilla, who, seeing Julian’s heroic and patient sufferings, were themselves converted to Christianity. Also martyred with him were twenty Roman soldiers, seven brothers from that locality, a priest named Anthony and a man called Anastasius whom Julian, at the time of his own martyrdom, raised from the dead by his prayers. They all suffered with honor for Christ and became citizens of the kingdom of heaven in about the year 313.

2. Our Holy Father George the Chozebite.

He lived the ascetic life in the seventh century in the Chozebite community on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, where our holy Father John the Chozebite first lived as a monk.

3. St. Domnica.

A pagan, she came from Carthage in the reign of the Emperor Theodosios to Patriarch Makarios, accompanied by four girls who were likewise ignorant of God. He baptized them and blessed them to live as nuns. St. Domnica devoted herself to asceticism with whole-hearted zeal, and did not falter in that zeal right up to the time of her death at a great age. She entered into rest in about the year 474. By the illumination of the Holy Spirit, she was able to predict the future and perform miracles through prayer.

4. St. Gregory, Bishop of Ochrid.

A pious teacher and pastor of Christ’s flock, he entered into rest in the year 1012. On an inscription in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Ochrid, he is called ‘Gregory the Wise’.

FOR CONSIDERATION

On a tablet in the Church of St. Sophia are inscribed the words: ‘Wash your sins, not just your face.’ Whoever entered this church read this inscription and remembered that the Christian Faith demands moral purity—purity of soul, heart and mind. For the whole spirit of man is concentrated in his heart, as the Lord said: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart.’ The most complete outward purity is of no help whatever in the attaining of the kingdom of heaven. Oh, when will we learn to give as much attention to washing ourselves from sin as we devote daily to the washing of our faces? God will then see into our hearts as in a mirror.

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.