Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint John [§ 69]. Brethren:

1 ⁸If we should say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we be confessing our sins, faithful is He and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we should say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

2 ¹My little children, these things I write to you, in order that ye might not sin. And if anyone should sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ²And He Himself is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. ³And in this we know that we have come to know Him, if we be keeping His commandments. ⁴The one who saith, “I have come to know Him,” and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this one. ⁵But whosoever may keep His word, truly in this one the love of God hath been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him. ⁶The one who saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as that One walked.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 62]. The Lord said to His disciples:

13 ³¹“The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but My words in no wise shall pass away.

³²“But concerning that day or the hour, no one knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, except the Father. ³³“Be taking heed, be vigilant, and be praying; for ye know not when the time is. ³⁴“It is as a man who went abroad, and left his house, and gave authority to his slaves, and to each one his work, and he commanded the porter that he should watch. ³⁵“Be watching then; for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh—at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning— ³⁶“lest coming suddenly he should find you sleeping. ³⁷“Now what I say to you, I say to all: Be watching.”

14 ¹Now after two days it was the passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might lay hold of Him by guile and put Him to death. ²But they were saying, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord, and our venerable Father Isidore of Pelusium.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].

6 ¹⁰Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; ¹²because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. ¹³For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; ¹⁶on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 17th – Civil Calendar
February 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Isidore of Pelusium.

He was an Egyptian, the son of eminent parents and a kinsman of the Patriarchs of Alexandria Theophilus and Kyril. Completing his secular studies, he renounced his riches and worldly standing and gave himself wholly to the spiritual life for the love of Christ. He was a great and ardent interpreter and defender of the Orthodox Faith. The historian Nikephoros states that St. Isidore wrote more than 10,000 letters to various people in which he reprimanded one, advised another, consoled a third, instructed a fourth. ‘It is more important to be proficient in good works than in golden-tongued preaching,’ he writes in one letter. In another, he says: ‘If a man wishes his virtues to appear great, let him regard them as small and then they will be truly shown to be great.’ The first and fundamental rule for Isidore was: first do and then teach, after the example of the Lord Jesus. At a time when St. John Chrysostom was undergoing persecution and the whole world was divided into two camps, one for and one against this great pillar of Orthodoxy, St. Isidore stood on the side of Chrysostom. He wrote to Patriarch Theophilus, saying what a great light St. Chrysostom was in the Church and begging that the hatred of him should cease. He lived long and labored greatly, glorifying Christ the Lord in his life and his writings, and entered into the kingdom of Christ in about 450.

2. Our Holy Father Nicholas the Confessor.

This saint was from the island of Crete. He went to Constantinople to visit his kinsman Theodore, abbot of the Studite monastery, and remained there to become a monk. As a monk, Nicholas followed all the ascetic practices that are prescribed for the soul’s salvation. During a persecution of the Church on the part of Leo the Armenian, Theodore and Nicholas were harshly tortured, humiliated, beaten with bull-whips and finally thrown into prison, where they spent three years. After the death of St. Theodore, Nicholas became abbot of the Studium. Even during his lifetime, God blessed him with the power to work miracles. He healed Evdokia the wife of the Emperor Basil, and Helen the wife of the patrician Manuel. To Theophilus Melisenus, a distinguished nobleman who had lost several children, he prophesied, in blessing his newborn daughter, that she would live and be fruitful, a prophecy that was later fulfilled to the joy of her parents. On the very day of his death, he called the monks together and asked them what they lacked. ‘Wheat,’ they replied. Then the dying man said: ‘He Who sustained Israel in the wilderness will send you abundant wheat in three days.’ And indeed, a boat full of grain, sent by the Emperor Basil, arrived below the monastery on the third day. Nicholas entered into the heavenly kingdom on February 4th, 868, at the age of 75.

3. The Holy New-Martyr Joseph.

He was born in Aleppo. When the Turks pressured him to embrace Islam, Joseph not only refused, but began to denounce the falsehood of Islam and to extol the Christian Faith. For this he was tortured and beheaded in 1686.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Isidore of Pelusium interprets certain words from holy Scripture: ‘Of two grinding grain, the one shall be taken and the other left’ (Matt. 24:41), to mean that many will give themselves to the spiritual life, but with very different dispositions; one sincerely and steadily, another slackly and conceitedly. The first will be taken into the kingdom of God, and the second left. What is the meaning of the Lord’s prayer about the Cup? Why did the Lord beg that the cup of suffering should pass from Him (Matt. 26:42)? It means that no one should seek danger, but that, when it comes, a Christian must accept and endure it courageously.

On the five foolish virgins (Matt. 25), St. Isidore says: ‘They all kept their virginity, but had no other virtues, such as that of compassion. Virginity by itself is not sufficient for entry into the kingdom of God. Virginity is of no use if the virgin is filled with pride and self seeking.’

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.