Daily Devotional

Thursday, May 26, 2022 (NS), May 13, 2022 (OS)

No Fasting.

Thursday of the Fifth Week

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Glykeria at Heraclea.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 35]. In those days:

For Gk. usage, Acts 14:20-15:5; for Sl. usage, Acts 14:20-27.

14 ²⁰Paul went away with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹And having preached the Gospel to that city and having made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, ²²adding strength to the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that “through many temptations it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God.” ²³And after they ordained presbyters for them in every church, and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in Whom they had believed. ²⁴And after they passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. ²⁵And having spoken the word in Perga, they came down to Attaleia. ²⁶And from that place they sailed off to Antioch, from which place they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. ²⁷And after they came and gathered together the Church, they reported how much God did with them, and that He opened to the nations a door of faith. ²⁸And they were spending there not a little time with the disciples.

15 ¹And certain men, having come down from Judæa, were teaching the brethren, “Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye are not able to be saved.” ²Then after there arose no little disputation for Paul and Barnabas with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas and certain others from among them to go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and presbyters, about this question. ³They indeed therefore were sent forth under escort by the Church and were passing through Phœnicia and Samaria, telling in detail the conversion of the nations; and they were causing great joy to all the brethren. ⁴And having come into Jerusalem, they were received by the Church and the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how much God did with them.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 35]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

9 ³⁹“For judgment I came into this world, in order that they who see not may see; and they who see might become blind.” ⁴⁰And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not also blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If ye were blind, ye should not have sin; but now ye say, ‘We see’; therefore your sin remaineth.

10 ¹“Verily, verily, I say to you, the one who entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but goeth up from another place, that one is a thief and a robber. ²“But the one who entereth by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. ³“To this one the doorkeeper openeth, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. ⁴“And whenever he should put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵“But a stranger in no wise will they follow, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.” ⁶This parable Jesus spoke to them; but they understood not what it was which He spoke to them. ⁷Then said Jesus to them again, “Verily, verily, I say to you that I am the door of the sheep. ⁸“All, as many as came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep heard them not. ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Glykeria at Heraclea.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 26th – Civil Calendar
May 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Glykeria.

The daughter of a governor of Rome, she became poor after her father’s death and went to live in Trajanopolis in Thrace. In the time of the wicked Emperor Antoninus, Glykeria was brought to offer sacrifice to the idol of Zeus. She traced the Cross on her forehead, and when the governor asked her where was her lamp (for they all carried lamps in their hands), Glykeria indicated the Cross on her forehead and said: ‘This is my lamp!’ At her prayers, the idol was struck by lightning and broken into pieces. The governor was furious with her and commanded that she be thrown into prison. He sealed the door of the prison, intending to starve the maiden to death, but an angel of God appeared to Glykeria and gave her heavenly food. After a certain time, when the governor reckoned that the maiden must have died of hunger, he opened the prison and was astounded to see her in good health, bright and merry. The warder, Laodicius, seeing this marvel, himself confessed Christ the Lord and was at once beheaded. After that, Glykeria was thrown into a burning furnace, but she remained untouched by the flames. Standing in the midst of the fire, she praised the Lord, commemorating the wonder with the Three Children in the burning fiery furnace in Babylon. Finally, she was thrown to the lions, and praying to God, this holy maiden gave her soul into the hands of the Lord for Whom she had heroically suffered much torture. She suffered with honor in the year 141. A healing myrrh flowed from her relics, which healed the sick of the gravest illnesses.

2. The Holy Martyr Alexander.

He was a Slav, an eighteen-year-old soldier in the army of the Emperor Maximian. He refused to obey the imperial order to offer sacrifice to the Roman idols, because of which it fell to Captain Tiberian to tell him either to deny Christ or be tortured and killed. As all this advice was in vain, Tiberian arrested him and took him through Macedonia to Constantinople, whither he himself had an errand. In every place, the young Alexander was harshly tortured, but in every place also, Christians came out to him, begging his blessing and encouraging him in his sufferings. His mother, Pimenia, followed him. In the course of this journey, Alexander was many times visited by an angel of God, who eased his pains and encouraged him. In one place called Carasura, the martyr worked a miracle by his prayers: when the soldiers who were escorting him were tormented by thirst, he made a spring of cold water come out of a dry place. On the bank of the River Ergina, Tiberian ordered that the executioner behead Alexander and throw his body into the river. When the executioner swung his axe above Alexander’s head, he saw angels of God around him, resplendent with light, and was afraid and stayed his hand. Alexander asked him why he had done this, and he said that he had seen some young men in a nimbus of light surrounding him. Desiring to die and so be united with the Lord, Alexander prayed to God to take the angels away, so that the executioner would not be afraid. And so the executioner completed his work, in 298. Pimenia retrieved the body of her son and gave it burial. There were many healings at the martyr’s grave. After his death, he appeared to his mother and gave her tidings of her own imminent departure to the other world.

3. Our Holy Fathers John, Evthymius, George and Gabriel of Iviron.

They were the founders of the famous Iviron (Georgian) Monastery on the Holy Mountain. St. John (Ioane) lived in asceticism first in the Lavra of Athanasius, and then founded his own monastery, Iviron. He entered into rest in 998. Evthymius (Ekvtime) and George (Giorgi) translated the holy Scriptures into Georgian. Evthymius died in 1028 and George in 1066. Gabriel was found worthy to receive the wonder-working Portaïtissa icon of the Mother of God which was brought to the monastery by the sea.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Athanasius writes thus on the power of the death of Christ and His Cross: ‘Whose death has ever driven away demons? And whose death has ever been the cause of fear to demons, as was the death of Christ? Wherever the name of the Savior is invoked, there the demons are driven out. What has tamed man’s spiritual passions to such an extent that prodigals become chaste and murderers are no longer servants of the sword, and the fearful become brave? Has not the Christian Faith? Has not the sign of the Cross? And what else has so convinced man of immortality as the Cross of Christ and His bodily Resurrection?’ The death of the Sinless One and the Cross of the Lover of mankind have brought a greater and more enduring victory than all the kings of the earth with their milliard soldiers. For when has an army ever overcome one single demon? Only the invocation of the name of the Crucified puts the armies of demons to flight. Oh, when will all Christians know what riches they have in the name of Christ, and what a weapon in His Cross?

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.