Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 30]. In those days:

12 ¹²Peter came to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was surnamed Mark, where a considerable number of them were gathered together and praying. ¹³And after Peter knocked at the door of the gateway, a maidservant, by name Rhoda, came to hearken. ¹⁴And having recognized the voice of Peter, from her joy she did not open the gateway, but she ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gateway. ¹⁵And they said to her, “Thou art mad.” But she was strongly affirming that it was so. And they kept on saying, “It is his angel.” ¹⁶But Peter continued knocking. And after they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷And having motioned to them with his hand to be silent, he set out in detail to them how the Lord brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Relate these things to Iakovos and to the brethren.” And going out, he went to another place.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 32]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

8 ⁴²“If God were your Father, ye would love Me; for I came forth out of God and am come; for neither have I come of Myself, but that One sent Me forth. ⁴³“Why do ye not understand My speech? Because ye are not able to hear My word. ⁴⁴“Ye are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father ye wish to do. That one was a manslayer from the beginning, and hath not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he may speak the lie, he speaketh out of the things which are his own; for he is a liar and the father of it. ⁴⁵“And because I speak the truth, ye believe Me not. ⁴⁶“Which of you reproveth Me concerning sin? But if I speak truth, why do ye not believe Me? ⁴⁷“The one who is of God heareth the words of God; on this account ye hear not, because ye are not of God.” ⁴⁸Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “We say well, do we not, that Thou art a Samaritan and hast a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I have not a demon; but I honor My Father, and ye dishonor Me. ⁵⁰“And I seek not Mine own glory; there is One Who seeketh and judgeth. ⁵¹“Verily, verily, I say to you, if anyone should keep My word, he in no wise shall ever see death.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Simon the Zealot.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 56]. At that time:

13 ⁵⁴After Jesus came into His own country, He was teaching the crowds in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, “From what place hath this One this wisdom and the works of power? ⁵⁵“This is the carpenter’s Son, is it not? His Mother is called Mariam, is she not, and His brothers, Iakovos, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶“And His sisters are all with us, are they not? From what place then hath this One all these things?” ⁵⁷And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁸And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.

or

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 6]. At that time:

2 ¹A marriage took place in Cana of Galilee, and the Mother of Jesus was there. ²And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the marriage. ³And after they fell short of wine, the Mother of Jesus saith to Him, “They have no wine.” ⁴Jesus saith to her, “What is it to Me and to thee, woman? Mine hour is not yet come.” ⁵His Mother saith to the servants, “Whatsoever He saith to you, do it.” ⁶And there were standing there six stone waterpots, according to the purification of the Jews, containing two or three measures each. ⁷Jesus saith to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the top. ⁸And Jesus saith to them, “Draw out now, and bear it to the master of the feast.” And they brought it. ⁹Now when the master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, and knew not from what place it was—but the servants who had drawn the water knew—the master of the feast called the bridegroom, ¹⁰and saith to him, “Every man first setteth forth the good wine, and whenever they have drunk freely, then the inferior. As for thee, thou hast kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹This did Jesus in Cana of Galilee as the beginning of the signs, and it made manifest His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 23th – Civil Calendar
May 10th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot.

One of the twelve great apostles, he was born in Cana of Galilee. The Lord Jesus came to his wedding with His Mother and His disciples, and when the wine ran out, the Lord changed water into wine. Seeing this wonder, the newly-married Simon left his home and parents and bride, to go after Christ. Simon was called the Zealot because of his great and burning zeal for the Savior and His Gospel. After receiving the Holy Spirit, he went off to preach the Gospel in Mauretania in Africa. As a result of his success in bringing many to the Faith of Christ, he was tortured and finally crucified like his Lord, Who had prepared a crown of glory for him in His immortal kingdom.

2. The Holy Martyrs Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprinus.

They were brothers, sons of Vitalius, a governor in southern Italy, and were men of great nobility and strong faith. They were brought to judgement for their faith in Christ and taken from one judge to another, from one torturer to another. They were finally taken to Sicily and killed there, in the time of the Emperor Licinius. Alphaeus had his tongue torn out and died from the loss of blood. Philadelphus was burned in an iron coffin, and Cyprinus in fire. Their incorrupt relics were found in 1517. The three brothers appeared to St. Euthalia (see March 2nd).

3. Our Holy Mother Isidora the Fool for Christ.

She lived in the fourth century, and was a nun in a women’s monastery in Tabennisi. She pretended to be mad in order to conceal her virtues and asceticism. She did the dirtiest jobs, fed herself from left-over scraps from the plates, was the servant of each and all and was despised by everyone. At that time, an angel of God appeared secretly to the great ascetic Pitirim, and told him about Isidora. Pitirim came to the monastery, and when he saw Isidora, bowed down to the ground, and she did the same before him. The sisters told him that she was mad. ‘It is you that are mad,’ replied Pitirim. ‘She is greater before God than either you or me. I only beg God to give me also that which is destined for her at the dreadful Judgement!’ Then the sisters were ashamed, and begged Pitirim and Isidora to forgive them. From that time, they all began to show honor to Isidora. But she, to escape this honor, fled from the monastery and finished her monastic life in obscurity in about 365.

4. Blessed Thaïs.

Thaïs was a rich maiden, a Christian, in Egypt. She decided not to marry, but to give her possessions to the hermit monks. But, when she had given away all her goods, she gave herself to a life of debauchery. Hearing of this, the hermits begged Abba John Kolovos to do something, and he went to Alexandria and began to weep in Thaïs’ hearing. When she heard the elder weeping for her sins, she repented at once, left her house and everything she had and went into the desert after the saint. One night when she was sleeping and John was standing in prayer, he saw an angel in a nimbus of light coming down to take Thaïs’ soul. And John saw that her sudden but deep repentance was more pleasing to God than the years-long but shallow repentance of many of the hermits.

FOR CONSIDERATION

In one of his prayers, St. Ephraim the Syrian turns to God with these words: ‘On that dreadful and amazing day, Thou shalt say to us sinners, O Lord: “You men know well what I have undergone for you.... What have you suffered for Me?” What shall I say to that; I who, though penitent, am evil, sinful and polluted? The martyrs will point to their wounds, their sufferings, the severed parts of their bodies, and to their endurance to the end. The ascetics will point to their asceticism, to their long fasts and vigils, to their liberality, their tears and their endurance to the end. But I, idle, sinful, transgressing as I am, what shall I be able to point to? Spare me, O merciful One! Spare me, O Thou Lover of mankind!’

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.