Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 48]. In those days:

25 ¹³Agrippa the king and Bernice came down to Cæsarea, greeting Festus. ¹⁴And when they spent more days there, Festus himself set forth to the king the matter relating to Paul, saying, “There is a certain man, a prisoner, who hath been left behind by Felix, ¹⁵“concerning whom, when I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges, requesting a judgment against him. ¹⁶“To whom I answered, ‘It is not a custom with Romans to be giving up any man to destruction before the one who is accused may have the accusers face to face, and may receive an opportunity of speaking in his own defense concerning the charge.’ ¹⁷“Therefore when they came together here, I made no delay. And on the next day I sat on the tribunal and commanded the man to be brought forth, ¹⁸“concerning whom after the accusers stood up, they did not bring even one charge of which I suspected. ¹⁹“But they were having certain subjects of dispute with him concerning their own religion, and about a certain Jesus Who had died, Whom Paul was affirming to be alive.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 55]. The Lord said to His disciples:

16 ²³“Verily, verily, I say to you that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you. ²⁴“Until now ye asked nothing in My name. Keep on asking, and ye shall receive, in order that your joy may be made full. ²⁵“These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; but an hour is coming when I will no longer talk to you in proverbs, but I shall announce plainly to you concerning the Father. ²⁶“In that day ye shall ask for yourselves in My name, and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you; ²⁷“for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. ²⁸“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.” ²⁹His disciples say to Him, “Behold, now Thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. ³⁰“Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and hast no need that anyone should question Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.” ³¹Jesus answered them, “Now do ye believe? ³²“Behold, an hour is coming and now hath come, that ye shall be scattered each to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³“These things I have spoken to you, in order that ye may have peace in Me. In the world ye shall have affliction; but be of good courage, I have overcome the world.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy and glorious Hieromartyr Elladios, and Hieromartyr Therapon, Bishop of Sardis, and the righteous Confessor John the Russian.

Epistle

For St. John:

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 292]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹Be thou empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; ²and the things which thou heardest from me in the midst of many witnesses, commit thou these things to faithful men who shall be competent also to teach others. ³Thou therefore suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. ⁴No one serving as a soldier is entangled with the affairs of life, in order that he might please the one who enlisted him. ⁵And if anyone also contend as an athlete in the games, he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully. ⁶The farmer who laboreth must be first to partake of the fruits. ⁷Be considering what I say; O may the Lord give thee understanding in all things! ⁸Be remembering Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, Who hath been raised from the dead, according to my Gospel, ⁹in which I suffer hardship even to bonds as a malefactor, but the word of God hath not been bound. ¹⁰On this account I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might also attain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

for Sl. usage, see [Gal. 5:22-6:2].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 24]. At that time:

6 ¹⁷Jesus stood upon a level place. And there was a crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of the people from all of Judæa and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases— ¹⁸even those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were cured. ¹⁹And all the crowd was seeking to touch Him, for power was coming forth from Him and healing all. ²⁰And He lifted up His eyes to His disciples, and began to say:
   “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
   ²¹“Blessed are ye who hunger now, for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh.
   ²²“Blessed are ye whenever men hate you, and whenever they separate you, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.
   ²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 9th – Civil Calendar
May 27th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Therapon, Bishop of Sardis.

He brought many Greeks to the Christian Faith and was cruelly persecuted by the pagans, being starved, imprisoned and flogged. They stripped him and threw him to the ground, bound him to four posts and beat him mercilessly, until they had stripped the flesh from his bones. However, the martyr still remained alive and the four dry posts became green and grew into tall trees from which many of the sick received healing. Finally St. Therapon was slain like a lamb and entered into the kingdom, to behold the glory of God in eternity. He suffered with honor in the time of Valerian, in about 259.

2. The Holy Martyrs Theodora and Didymus.

In the reign of the wicked Emperor Maximilian, there lived in Alexandria a maiden, Theodora, well-educated and of noble lineage. She was brought to trial before the pagans for her Christian Faith. After long interrogation and torture for the Faith, the prince, her tormentor, ordered that she be thrown into a brothel and the soldiers given free access to her to indulge their carnal lusts. Theodora prayed fervently to God to save her from defilement, and when she had prayed, a soldier called Didymus came in to her and told her that he was a servant of Christ. He dressed her in his soldier’s garb and himself in her dress, then let her out and remained in the brothel himself. He was seized and brought before the judge, where he acknowledged that he was a Christian and had saved Theodora, and was now prepared to die for Christ. He was condemned to death and taken out to the place of execution. Theodora ran up to him there and cried out: ‘Although you saved my honor, I did not ask you to save me from death. Yield the martyr’s death to me!’ Didymus replied: ‘My beloved sister, do not hinder my death for Christ, nor the washing of my sins in my blood.’ Hearing this exchange, the pagans condemned them both to death, and they were beheaded and their bodies burned. They suffered with honor and received eternal wreaths of glory in Alexandria in the year 304.

3. St. David (Davit) of Garesjei.

This David is one of the thirteen Georgian fathers (see May 7th). He is thus named for the Garesjei desert near Tiflis, where he lived the ascetic life. In old age, David decided to visit the Holy Land with several of his disciples. He left the direction of the monastery to two elders, Lucian and Dodo, and set out on the way. When they came to a hill from which Jerusalem was visible, David burst into tears and said: ‘How can I dare to walk in the steps of God incarnate with these sinful feet?’ and he told his disciples to go and worship at the holy places, but he himself took up three stones and set off to return. But the Lord did not let such humility remain hidden from the world, and an angel appeared to Elias, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and said to him: ‘Send at once for the elder who is even now returning to Syria; he has taken with him three stones, and is carrying off with him all the Holy Land’s grace. One stone is a sufficient blessing for him; let him return the other two to Jerusalem. He is called Abba David of Garesjei.’ The patriarch quickly sent men off to overtake the elder. They took two stones from him, and let him go on his way. The third stone lies on his grave to this day and possesses miraculous healing power.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Physical health is undoubtedly a gift of God. But physical well-being is not at all the greatest good of this world, as so many would say and write. Because, whatever physical health may be, it is transitory; and whatever is transitory cannot be man’s greatest good. Values that do not pass away are more precious than those that do, and so eternity is more precious than time. Intransitory values are counted as spiritual health. Saint John of Kronstadt writes: ‘Oh, I myself feel that, when I am quite well and do not tire myself with work, my spirit begins to die, the kingdom of God is not within me and my body begins to master me, and when the body is in control, then the devil finds an entrance.’

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.