Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sixth Sunday of Pascha, or the Sunday of the Blind Man

Mode Plagal One — Eighth Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 38]. In those days:

16 ¹⁶It came to pass, as we went to prayer, that a certain young girl, possessing a spirit of Python, met us, who was producing much business for her masters by divining. ¹⁷She followed after Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are slaves of God, the Most High, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸And she kept doing this for many days. But Paul was worn out, and turned around to the spirit, and said, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out from her.” And he came out the same hour. ¹⁹And after her masters saw that the hope of their business was gone, they laid hold of Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. ²⁰And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, ²¹“and declare customs, which are not allowed for us to receive, nor to do, being Romans.” ²²And the crowd rose together against them; and the magistrates tore off their garments, and kept on commanding to beat them with rods. ²³And after they laid on them many stripes, they cast them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely, ²⁴who, having received such an order, cast them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks. ²⁵And at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God; and the prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶And suddenly there occurred a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and the bonds of all were loosed. ²⁷The jailer, having been awakened out of sleep and seeing the doors of the prison opened, drew a sword, and was about to kill himself, believing the prisoners to have escaped. ²⁸But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “By no means begin to do any evil to thyself; for we are all here.” ²⁹And after he asked for lights, he leaped in and became tremulous, falling down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰And having brought them forth outside, he said, “Sirs, what is necessary for me to do in order that I might be saved?” ³¹And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.” ³²And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, and to all those in his house. ³³And having taken them in that hour of the night, he washed their wounds. And he was baptized, he and all his, immediately. ³⁴And having brought them into his house, he set a table before them, and rejoiced, having believed in God, with all his house.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 34]. At that time:

9 ¹As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. ²And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this one or his parents, that he should be born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this one sinned nor his parents, but in order that the works of God should be made manifest in him. ⁴“It is needful for Me to be working the works of the One Who sent Me while it is day; night cometh when no one is able to be working. ⁵“Whenever I may be in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶Having said these things, He spat on the ground, and made clay out of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind one with the clay, ⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is interpreted, Sent forth). He went therefore and washed, and came seeing.

⁸Then the neighbors and those who saw him that was formerly blind were saying, “This is the one who sat and begged, is it not?” ⁹Some were saying, “This is he”; but others, “He is like him.” But that one kept on saying, “I am he.” ¹⁰Then they began to say to him, “How were thine eyes opened?” ¹¹That one answered and said, “A Man Who is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ And I went and washed, and received sight.” ¹²Then they said to him, “Where is that Man?” He said, “I know not.”

¹³They brought him who was once blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴And it was a sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. ¹⁵Then again the Pharisees also began asking him how he received sight. And he said to them, “He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This Man is not from God, because He keepeth not the sabbath.” Others were saying, “How is a man, a sinner, able to do such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷They say to the blind one again, “What sayest thou concerning Him, in that He opened thine eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” ¹⁸Then the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he was blind and received sight, until which time they called the parents of him who received sight. ¹⁹And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, whom ye say that he was born blind? How then doth he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; ²¹“but how he now seeth, we know not, or who opened his eyes, we know not; he is of age; ask him. He shall speak for himself.” ²²The parents said these things because they were fearing the Jews; for already the Jews had agreed among themselves that if anyone should confess Him to be the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. ²³For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” ²⁴Then a second time they called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this Man is a sinner.” ²⁵Then that one answered and said, “If He is a sinner, I know not; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶But they said to him again, “What did He do to thee? How did He open thine eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, “I told you already, and ye did not hear; why again do ye wish to hear it? Ye do not also wish to become His disciples, do ye?” ²⁸Then they reviled him, and said, “Thou art a disciple of that One; but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹“We know that God hath spoken to Moses; but this One, we do not know from what place He is.” ³⁰The man answered and said to them, “Why in this is a marvellous thing, that ye do not know from what place He is, and yet He opened mine eyes. ³¹“Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if anyone be serving God and doing His will, He heareth this one. ³²“From of old it was not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one who hath been born blind. ³³“If this One were not from God, He could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered and said to him, “In sins thou wast born, all of thee, and dost thou teach us?” And they cast him out. ³⁵Jesus heard that they cast him out; and having found him, He said to him, “Believest thou in the Son of God?” ³⁶That one answered and said, “And Who is He, Sir, that I might believe in Him?” ³⁷And Jesus said to him, “Thou hast both seen Him and the One Who talketh with thee is that One.” ³⁸And he said, “I believe, O Lord.” And he made obeisance to Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Theodore the Sanctified, disciple of St. Pachomios the Great.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 29th – Civil Calendar
May 16th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodore the Sanctified.

He was a disciple of St. Pachomios, being born and growing up an unbeliever. Coming to the true Faith as a young man, he was baptized, and having heard of St. Pachomios, fled to him in his monastery, unknown to his parents. St. Pachomios made him a monk and came to love him for his rare zeal and his obedience. When his mother came to fetch him back home, he would not let her see him, but prayed to God to enlighten her with the truth. And indeed, his mother not only did not take her son back home, but herself did not return. Seeing a women’s monastery close by, ruled by Pachomios’ sister, she entered it and was tonsured. After a certain time, Paphnutios, Theodore’s brother, also came to the monastery and was tonsured. It once happened that the Bishop of Panopolis invited Pachomios to build a monastery for the many people who were desirous of the monastic life. Pachomios took Theodore with him, and entrusted to him the duty of building the monastery. Upon Pachomios’ death, Theodore became abbot of all Pachomios’ monasteries and lived until great old age, guiding a multitude of monks on the way of salvation. He entered peacefully into rest and went to the kingdom of eternal light in the year 368.

2. The Blessed Maiden Musa.

St. Gregory the Dialogist relates of her that she was a mere nine years old when the most holy Mother of God appeared to her on two occasions, surrounded by virgins bathed in light. When Musa expressed her desire to be included in the resplendent company of the Queen of heaven, the Mother of God told her that she would come for her and take her within a month, outlining for her how she should spend those thirty days. On the twenty-fifth day, Musa took to her bed and on the thirtieth day the most pure and holy Mother again appeared to her, calling to her in a quiet voice, to which Musa replied: ‘Here I am waiting, my Lady! I’m ready!’ and she breathed forth her spirit. She passed from this life to life eternal in the fifth century.

3. St. Nicholas Mystikos, Patriarch of Constantinople.

‘Mystikos’ signifies the senior member of the imperial council. This saint was such at first, then a high-ranking courtier, but after this he forsook the vanity of the world and was tonsured. He was renowned for the rare austerity of his life. The Emperor Leo VI had married four times, and the patriarch therefore forbade him entry to the church, and the priests who had married him were defrocked. The emperor cast the patriarch out and drove him into a monastery. The delegates of the Roman Pontiff, Sergius III, gave their approval to the emperor’s fourth marriage, but when the emperor died, Nicholas was restored to the patriarchal throne and called a council in 925, at which fourth marriages were in general forbidden to Christians. He died peacefully in 930.

4. The Holy New-Martyr Nicholas.

He was born in Metsovon of Epirus, of pious parents. He left home while quite young and traveled to Trikala, where he found employment with a Turkish baker. There he denied the Faith and embraced Islam. He then returned home and repented. A neighbor of his former employer came upon Nicholas one day and discovered his return to Christianity. He blackmailed Nicholas for several years. Finally, Nicholas decided that his succumbing to this blackmail was tantamount to further denying Christ, and he became determined to become a martyr to correct his denial of Christ. He confessed his intentions to his parish priest, who advised him not to proceed with his plan, lest he be unable to endure their tortures and fall a second time. Nicholas was determined, however, and his priest blessed and strengthened him for his ordeal. Nicholas then traveled back to Trikala, where he refused to pay his blackmailer any further. He was brought before the Turkish judge for having embraced and then renounced Islam. He was beaten with rods, and finally burned alive in Trikala on May 16, 1617. He was twenty-six years old. A pious Christian secretly recovered his skull from the ashes, and hid it in the wall of a house he was building at the time. Later, a man named Melandros bought the house. Every year, for several years, on the day of Nicholas’ martyrdom, Melandros beheld a strange light emanating from the wall of the house. He received a divine revelation in his sleep, disclosing that at the place the light appeared was hidden the holy skull of Nicholas the Martyr. Melandros dug into the wall where he had beheld the light, and found the martyr’s relics. Feeling himself unworthy to possess such a treasure, he turned it over to his brother, a monk at a monastery of Meteora. The martyr’s head is preserved to this day in one of the monasteries of the Meteora in Thessaly, and performs many miracles, heals the gravest sicknesses and is particularly renowned for driving locusts from crops.

5. Our Holy Fathers, the Martyrs of St. Sava’s.

In the time of the Emperor Herakleios, in about 610, forty-four monks of the community of St. Sava the Sanctified suffered for the Christian Faith. Their heroism and sufferings were recorded by St. Antiochus (Dec. 24th).

FOR CONSIDERATION

When Theodore the Sanctified was in Panopolis with his spiritual father, St. Pachomios, a philosopher came to him and sought to dispute with him about faith. The philosopher posed these three questions to Theodore: ‘Who was not born, but died? Who was born, but did not die? And who died, but did not decay?’ To those questions, St. Theodore made answer: ‘Adam was not born, but died. Enoch was born, but did not die. Lot’s wife died, but did not decay.’ The saint added this advice to the philosopher: ‘Take note of this sound advice of ours: shun vain questionings and scholastic syllogisms; draw near to Christ, Whom we serve, and you will receive the forgiveness of your sins.’ The philosopher was rendered speechless by such a shrewd answer, and went away ashamed. From this, one sees clearly the difference between a pagan philosopher and a Christian saint. The one loses himself in abstractions, in skilful juggling with words, in contests of logic and mental gymnastics, while the other centers his whole mind on the living God and on the salvation of his soul. The one is abstract and dead; the other is practical and alive.

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.