Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 45]. In those days:

21 ⁸We who were Paul’s companions, after we finished our voyage from Tyre, came to Cæsarea and entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. ⁹And this same man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. ¹⁰And as we tarried there more days, a certain prophet, by name Agavos, came down from Judæa. ¹¹And having come to us, he also took up the belt of Paul, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus saith the Holy Spirit, ‘Thus shall the Jews bind in Jerusalem the man whose belt this is, and shall deliver him up into the hands of the Gentiles.’” ¹²And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³But Paul answered, “What are ye doing, weeping and breaking in pieces my heart? For I not only hold myself in readiness to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴And when he would not be persuaded, we held our peace and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 49]. The Lord said to His disciples:

14 ²⁷“Let not your heart continue being troubled, nor being fearful. ²⁸“Ye heard that I said to you, ‘I go away’ and ‘I come to you.’ If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father’; for My Father is greater than I. ²⁹“And now I have told you before it should come to pass, in order that whenever it should come to pass, ye might believe. ³⁰“No longer will I talk much with you; for the ruler of this world is coming, and hath nothing in Me. ³¹“But that the world might know that I love the Father, and even as the Father enjoined Me, thus I do. Arise, let us be going from this place.

15 ¹“I am the vine, the true one, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²“Every branch in Me which beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch which beareth fruit, He pruneth it, in order that it may bear more fruit. ³“Already ye are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴“Abide in Me, and I in you. Even as a branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, unless ye abide in Me. ⁵“I am the vine, ye are the branches. The one who abideth in Me, and I in him, this one beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye are not able to do anything. ⁶“Unless one abide in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is withered—and they gather them together and cast them into the fire—and is burned. ⁷“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask for yourselves whatever ye will, and it shall come to pass for you.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain.

Epistle

No reading given.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

5 ¹⁴“Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. ¹⁵“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. ¹⁶“Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

¹⁷“Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place. ¹⁹“Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

for Sl. usage, see [Mt. 11:27-30].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 6th – Civil Calendar
May 24th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Simeon the Stylite of the Wondrous Mountain.

This wondrous and holy man was born in Antioch in 521, in the reign of the Emperor Justin I the Elder. His father perished in an earthquake and he was left alone with his mother, Martha. When he was six years old, he went away into the desert to John, a spiritual teacher there, and under his guidance, gave himself to a strict asceticism of fasting and prayer, to the wonderment of all who saw him. Whilst enduring fearful demonic trials, he received great comfort and grace from the Lord and His angels. Christ the Lord appeared to him in the form of a handsome youth, and after this vision, Simeon’s heart was inflamed with great love for Christ. He spent many years on a pillar, praying and singing psalms. Led by God, he took himself off to the mountain called ‘Wondrous’ by the Lord Himself, and is known as ‘of the Wondrous Mountain’ because of this. The measure of his love for God was such that rare grace was given him, by the help of which he was able to heal every sort of illness, tame wild beasts and perceive the most distant regions of the earth and the hearts of men. He was taken to see the heavens, conversed with angels, harried the demons, prophesied, spent thirty days at a time without sleep and even longer without food, receiving nourishment at the hands of angels. The words of the Savior: ‘He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do’ (Jn 14:12), were completely fulfilled in him. In the year 596, at the age of seventy-five, Simeon went to the Lord, to the eternal enjoyment of the vision of the face of God in the company of the angels.

2. The Holy Martyr Meletius Stratelates, with 1218 soldiers and their wives and children.

Accused of the destruction of a pagan temple in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, Meletius gave forth his holy soul nailed to a tree. Many solders under his command, who refused to deny Christ their Lord, suffered with honor in the second century, and went to the kingdom of Christ our God.

3. Our Holy Father Nikita the Stylite.

He lived an unrestrained and vicious life as a youth. When once he happened to enter a church, he heard the words of the Prophet Isaias: ‘Wash you (your sins), make you clean’ (1:16). The words penetrated deeply into his soul, and effected a complete change in his life. Nikita left his home, his wife and his land and entered a monastery close to Pereyaslavl, where he labored until his death in strict asceticism. He enveloped his body in chains and shut himself up in a pillar, being therefore known as a stylite. God granted him great grace, and he healed people afflicted with various torments. He healed Michael, Prince of Chernigov, of palsy. One day some evildoers saw the chains on him, and seeing them gleam, thought them to be silver, so they killed him one night, took the chains off him and carried them away. This happened on May 16th, 1186. He appeared to a certain elder, Simeon, after his death and told him to place the chains, when they were found, in the grave beside his body.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘To the pure, all things are pure,’ says the apostle. The food that a man eats cannot be called unclean in itself; however, some foods may evoke impure thoughts and desires in a man. St. Simeon the Stylite pondered beautifully on this in a conversation with his elder, John. The elder said: ‘A man cannot make either food or drink impure, because the Lord says in the Scriptures: “Even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Gen. 9:3)’. Holy Simeon replied: ‘Although food cannot make a man impure, it can cause impure thoughts to arise and darken the mind; it can give birth to the passions and flesh them out, transforming a spiritual man into a carnal, and turning his thoughts to earthly desires.’ Is not the water that falls from a cloud pure? But when too much rain falls, the crops rot because of it. Likewise, strong food brings about the corruption of a man’s spiritual and moral being.

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.