Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Palm Sunday

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 247]. Brethren:

4 ⁴Be rejoicing in the Lord always; again I will say, be rejoicing. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to all men. The Lord is near: ⁶Cease being anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and by entreaty, with giving of thanks, let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are worthy of respect, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are pleasing, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, be considering these things. ⁹And what ye learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things be practising; and the God of peace shall be with you.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 83]. At that time:

21 ¹When Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, toward the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent forth two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village, the one opposite you; and straightway ye shall find an ass which hath been tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. ³“And if anyone should say anything to you, ye shall say, ‘The Lord hath need of them’; and straightway he will send them.” ⁴Now all this came to pass in order that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, saying, ⁵“Say to the daughter of Sion [Is. 62:11], ‘Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek, and mounted on an ass, and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden [cf. Zach. 9:9].’” ⁶And the disciples went and did even as Jesus commanded them, ⁷and brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments upon them, and He sat down upon them. ⁸And the greater part of the crowd spread their garments in the way; and others were cutting branches from the trees and were strewing them in the way. ⁹And the crowds, those going before and those following, were crying out, saying, “Hosanna, to the Son of David; blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord [cf. Ps. 117(118):25(26)]; hosanna in the highest.” ¹⁰And after He entered into Jerusalem, all the city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds were saying, “This is Jesus the Prophet, the One from Nazareth of Galilee.”...

¹⁵But after the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders which He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna, to the Son of David,” they were indignant, ¹⁶and said to Him, “Hearest Thou what these say?” And Jesus saith to them, “Yes; did ye never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise for Thyself [Ps. 8:2]’?” ¹⁷And He left them behind and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 41].

12 ¹Six days before the passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had died, whom He raised from the dead. ²So they made a supper for Him there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with Him. ³Then Mary, having taken a pound of very precious perfumed ointment of pure spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the perfumed ointment. ⁴Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariote, Simon’s son, who was about to deliver Him up, saith, ⁵“Why was this perfumed ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” ⁶But he said this, not that he was caring for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box, and was taking away what was put in it. ⁷Then Jesus said, “Let her alone, for the day of My laying out for burial hath she kept it. ⁸“For ye have the poor among yourselves always, but Me ye have not always.” ⁹A great crowd of the Jews therefore knew that He was there, and they came not because of Jesus only, but also in order that they might see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. ¹⁰But the chief priests took counsel that they might put to death Lazarus also, ¹¹because by reason of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

¹²On the morrow a great crowd which came to the feast, after they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, ¹³took the palm branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and were crying, “Hosanna, blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel [cf. Ps. 117(118):25(26)].” ¹⁴And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat upon it, even as it is written: ¹⁵“Cease fearing, O daughter of Sion, behold, thy King cometh, sitting on a colt of an ass [cf. Zach. 9:9].” ¹⁶But the disciples knew not these things at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written in reference to Him, and that these things they did to Him. ¹⁷Then the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead bore witness. ¹⁸On this account the crowd also went to meet Him, because it heard that He had done this sign.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy Father George, monk of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnesus, and our holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 3rd of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 17th – Civil Calendar
April 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer.

He was born in Sicily of devout and virtuous parents, Plotinus and Agatha. After the death of his parents, he moved to Thessalonica, where he became a monk. As a monk, he was an example to all in fasting, restraint, ceaseless supplication, psalmody, vigils and toil. The Bishop of Thessalonica ordained him hieromonk. The famous Gregory of Decapolis, visiting Thessalonica, loved Joseph with heart and soul for his rare character, and took him back with him to his monastery in Constantinople. When the flame of iconoclasm sprang up again under Leo the Armenian, Joseph was sent to Rome to call the pope and the Roman Church to battle for the true Faith. But pirates captured him on the way and took him to Crete, where he was kept in prison for six years by the heretics. Joseph rejoiced that he was made worthy to suffer for Christ, and thanked God constantly, regarding the iron chains with which he was bound as golden ornaments. In the sixth year, around Nativity, the wicked emperor was murdered at the morning service in church. At the same moment, St. Nicholas appeared to Joseph in the prison and said to him: ‘Get up and follow me.’ Joseph felt himself lifted up in the air, and found himself all at once in Constantinople. His arrival was a source of rejoicing to all the Orthodox faithful. He composed canons and hymns for many of the saints. He had the gift of insight, because of which Patriarch Photius made him spiritual father and confessor to his priests, recommending him as ‘a man of God, an angel in the flesh, a father of fathers’. In great old age he gave his soul into the hands of the God he had served so faithfully in work and song. He died peacefully on the eve of Holy Thursday in 883.

2. The Holy Martyr Pherbutha, her widowed sister and their slave.

In the reign of the Persian King Sapor, a bishop, St. Simeon, was executed. His sister, Pherbutha, was taken to court for the queen’s pleasure. Pherbutha was unusually beautiful, and she therefore had many suitors, including pagan priests and soothsayers. Pherbutha refused them all, thus bringing down great wrath upon her head. When, just at that time, the queen fell ill, all the priests informed the king that the queen had been poisoned by Pherbutha, and as a means of healing, proposed that Pherbutha, her sister and their slave, as Christians, be sawn to pieces, that three parts of their bodies be placed on one side and three on the other, and that the queen be taken through between them. The king agreed to this bloody suggestion of the soothsayers,’ and Pherbutha, her sister and their slave-girl suffered in this way for Christ in 343, thereby meriting an unfading wreath in the deathless kingdom of their Lord.

3. Our Holy Father Zosimas.

A monk of the Jordan community in the reign of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger, he found St. Mary of Egypt, gave her Communion and buried her. He entered into rest in the Lord, at the age of 100, in the 6th century.

4. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Niketas.

He was a Slav from Albania. As a monk of the Holy Mountain, he went to Serres, where he disputed with the mullahs about the Faith. Being unable to overcome him by reason, the Turks put him to torture, under which St. Niketas died and gave his soul to God in 1808.

FOR CONSIDERATION

He who glorifies God, him God glorifies. This is demonstrated clearly and abundantly in the lives of the saints. St. Joseph the Hymnographer indeed glorified God in his labors, his sufferings and his compositions. And God glorified him both in life and in death. During his lifetime, St. Nicholas appeared to him in prison and set him free. And when St. Joseph was wondering whether to compose a Canon to St. Bartholomew or not, this apostle appeared to him, clad in white garments, and told him that it was pleasing to God that he compose that canon. When Joseph died, a citizen of Constantinople learned of the glory with which God glorifies those who are pleasing to Him. This man had come to the church of St. Theodore the Phanariot to beg the saint to reveal to him where a runaway servant of his was hiding (for St. Theodore was famed among the people as a saint who revealed where something lost or stolen was to be found, and had therefore acquired the title ‘the Phanariot,’ or ‘the Revealer’). This man prayed for three days and nights, and having received no reply of any sort from the saint, prepared to leave. At that moment, St. Theodore appeared to him in a vision and said: ‘What are you angry about? Joseph the Hymnographer’s soul has parted from his body, and we have been with him during this time; and when he entered into rest tonight, all of us, whom he had glorified in song, carried his soul to heaven and brought him before the face of God. So, I’m late in coming to you.’

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.