Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ mid 333]. Brethren:

12 ²⁸Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be having gratitude by which we may worship God well pleasingly with reverence and piety. ²⁹For also, “Our God is a consuming fire [cf. Deut. 4:24].”

13 ¹Let brotherly love abide. ²Cease being forgetful of hospitality, for by this some entertained angels unawares. ³Be mindful of those in bonds as bound with them, of those being ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body. ⁴Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. ⁵Let your manner of life be without covetousness, being satisfied with things at hand; for He hath said, “In no wise will I leave thee, nor in any wise will I abandon thee [cf. Deut. 31:6].” ⁶So that being of good courage we may say, “The Lord is a helper to me, and I will not be afraid; what shall man do to me [cf. Ps. 117(118):6]?”

⁷Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: ⁸Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 39]. At that time:

11 ¹There was a certain sick man, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” ⁴And after Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God might be glorified by it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶When He heard therefore that “he is sick,” then indeed He remained in the place which He was for two days. ⁷Then after this He saith to His disciples, “Let us go into Judæa again.” ⁸The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone Thee, and goest Thou there again?” ⁹Jesus answered, “There are twelve hours in the day, are there not? If anyone walk about in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; ¹⁰“but if anyone walk about in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹These things He said, and after this He saith to them, “Our friend Lazarus hath fallen asleep; but I go that I might awaken him.” ¹²Then said His disciples, “Lord, if he hath fallen asleep, he shall recover.” ¹³But Jesus had spoken about his death; but they thought that He spoke about taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Therefore Jesus then said to them openly, “Lazarus died. ¹⁵“And I rejoice on your account that I was not there, in order that ye might believe; but let us go to him.” ¹⁶Then Thomas, the one who was called Didymos, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we might die with Him.”

¹⁷Then after Jesus came, He found that he already had been in the sepulcher four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to join the women around Martha and Mary, in order that they might console them concerning their brother. ²⁰Then Martha, when she heard that “Jesus is coming,” went to meet Him; but Mary was sitting in the house. ²¹Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died. ²²“But even now I know that whatsoever Thou Thyself shalt ask of God, God will give it to Thee.” ²³Jesus saith to her, “Thy brother shall rise up.” ²⁴Martha saith to Him, “I know that he shall rise up in the resurrection in the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believeth in Me, though he die, he shall live; ²⁶“and everyone who liveth and believeth in Me, in no wise shall ever die. Believest thou this?” ²⁷She saith to Him, “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Who cometh into the world.” ²⁸And after she said these things, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, and saith, “The Teacher is present and calleth thee.” ²⁹And the latter, when she heard, rose up quickly and came to Him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha went to meet Him. ³¹The Jews then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, after they saw that Mary quickly rose up and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the sepulcher that she might weep there.” ³²Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came down with her weeping, He rebuked His deep feelings in the spirit and troubled Himself, ³⁴and said, “Where have ye laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus wept. ³⁶Then the Jews were saying, “Behold, how He was loving him.” ³⁷But some of them said, “Was not this One able, Who opened the eyes of the blind, to have caused that this one should not die?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again rebuking His deep feelings in Himself, cometh to the sepulcher. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it. ³⁹Jesus saith, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the one who was dead, saith to Him, “Lord, already he stinketh, for it is the fourth day.” ⁴⁰Jesus saith to her, “I said to thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God, did I not?” ⁴¹Then they took away the stone where the dead one was laid. And Jesus lifted His eyes upwards, and said, “Father, I give thanks to Thee that Thou heardest Me. ⁴²“But I know that Thou hearest Me always; but on account of the crowd which stood around I said it, that they might believe that Thou didst send Me forth.” ⁴³And after He said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ⁴⁴And the one who was dead came forth, his feet and hands having been bound with graveclothes; and his face had been bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

⁴⁵Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Niketas the Confessor, Abbot of Medikion, and our holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 4^th of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 16th – Civil Calendar
April 3rd – Church Calendar

1. St. Niketas the Confessor.

He was born in Bithynia, in the town of Caesarea. His father, Philaret, losing his wife, became a monk. Niketas remained with his paternal grandmother. After he had grown up and finished his schooling, he went to a monastery in Medikion, where Nikephoros, the abbot, tonsured him as a monk. After seven years of toil and asceticism, he was ordained hieromonk by Patriarch Tarasios. After the deaths of Nikephoros and Niketas’ great friend, Athanasius, the brethren chose Niketas as abbot, much against his will. St. Niketas was a holy example of life and asceticism to his brethren for many years. But when Leo V, the Armenian, came to the throne, following the devout Empress Irene and the pious Emperors Nikephoros and Michael, the iconoclast heresy sprang up again. The emperor deposed Patriarch Nikephoros and sent him into exile, and in his place put a heretic, Theodotus Kassiteras, a man of impure life. Niketas was imprisoned and tortured, but remained unwavering in his Orthodoxy. He was taken from prison to prison and tortured by hunger and thirst, by cold and heat and malice. But he remained utterly unwavering. A certain Nicholas pestered him particularly with his derision and malice. But one night the dead father of this Nicholas appeared to him in a dream and said: ‘Leave that servant of God alone!’ From that moment Nicholas repented, and not only refrained from pestering him but prevented others doing likewise. When the Emperor Leo the Armenian had made an evil end, the throne passed to the Orthodox Emperor Michael Balbus, who freed all the Orthodox sufferers. Niketas retired to a lonely place near Constantinople, where he spent the remaining days of his earthly life in prayer and thanksgiving to God. When he died, his body was taken to his monastery, and during that journey, many of the sick, on touching his body, were healed. His relics were placed close to the graves of his spiritual father, Nikephoros, and his friend Athanasius. This great hierarch entered into rest in 824.

2. St. Paul the Wretched.

A Russian by birth, he was enslaved by the Turks as a boy. Refusing to betray the Christian Faith and embrace Islam, he was tortured and beheaded in Constantinople in 1683.

3. The Holy Martyr Ulphianos.

A young man from the city of Tyre, he was tortured for Christ by the governor, Urban, the torturer of St. Amphianos (April 2nd). He was finally sewn into a sack, together with a dog and a snake, and thrown into the sea. He suffered and was glorified in 306.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘I look to die a thousand deaths’—thus wrote St. Athanasius the Great to his flock in Egypt in the time of the terrible Arian heresy. Every spiritual man can say the same thing when he looks in spirit and sees the net in which the whole world is caught. The more spiritual the man, the thicker the net is seen to be. This is the will of God: that the most spiritual be saved by the narrowest path. And the psalmist himself said: ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous.’ But, in the end, victory and glory fall to their lot. They only need to be armed with faith and patience. He who believes, understands his sufferings. He who arms himself with patience will see victory and glory. To those who love God, the narrowest way is sufficiently spacious, the greatest pains are the light yoke and the bitterest death is the joy of the wedding.

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.