Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the First Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 81]. Brethren:

1 ²⁸Even as they did not approve to have God in full knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do things which are not fitting; ²⁹having been filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, guile, malignity; being whisperers, ³⁰slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; ³²who, having fully known the ordinance of God that those who practise such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also consent to those who practise them.

2 ¹Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man—everyone that judgeth—for in what thou judgest the other, thou condemnest thyself; for thou who judgest dost practise the same things. ²But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who practise such things. ³But reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest those who practise such things, and doest them thyself, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or despiseth thou the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leadeth thee to repentance? ⁵But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou storest up to thyself wrath in a day of wrath and revelation of a righteous judgment of God, ⁶Who will render to each according to his works: ⁷to those on the one hand who with patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life; ⁸but to those on the other hand who are factious and disobey the truth, and suffer themselves to be persuaded to unrighteousness, anger and wrath— ⁹affliction and straits upon every soul of man that worketh out evil, both of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 13]. The Lord said:

5 ²⁷“Ye heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery [Ex. 20:14].’ ²⁸“But I say to you that everyone who looketh on a woman in order to lust after her did already commit adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹“And if thy right eye cause thee to stumble, remove it and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna. ³⁰“And if thy right hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna. ³¹“And it was said, ‘Whosoever shall divorce his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce [cf. Deut. 24:3].’ ³²“But I say to you that whosoever shall divorce his wife except it be on account of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her who hath been divorced committeth adultery.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Lucillian and those with him at Byzantium, the Virgin-martyr Paula, and the four child martyrs, Claudius, Hypatios, Paul, and Dionysios.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 16th – Civil Calendar
June 3rd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Lucillian and those with him: Claudios, Hypatios, Paul, Dionysius and the Virgin Paula.

Lucillian grew to old age as a pagan priest. Only as a grizzled old man did he learn the truth of Christianity and receive Baptism. His conversion to Christianity caused great excitement among the pagans of Nikomedia, and he was brought to trial for refusing to deny his new faith. He was harshly whipped, and all black and blue, thrown into prison. In the prison were four young men: Claudios, Hypatios, Paul and Dionysius, who had likewise been imprisoned for the Faith. The old man rejoiced in the company of these young men, and they in his, and they spent their time together in spiritual converse, prayer and the singing of psalms. When they were taken from the prison, they were tortured in various ways and then taken to Byzantium, where the young men were beheaded with the sword by the soldiers, and Lucillian crucified by the Jews. The wicked Jews pierced his body all over with nails. A maiden, Paula, openly took the martyrs’ bodies and gave them burial. She was denounced for this, and after torture, was beheaded, receiving a twofold wreath: of virginity and of martyrdom. Their martyrdom took place in the time of the Emperor Aurelian, between 270 and 275.

2. The Hieromartyr Lucian.

A Roman, renowned for his noble birth, wealth and learning, he was for a time a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Later, Pope Clement sent him, together with Dionysius the Areopagite, to Gaul to preach the Gospel, consecrating them bishop before they set out. Lucian sowed the seed of Christ’s teaching with great zeal, first in Gaul and then in Belgium. When the wicked Emperor Domitian began persecuting the Christians, men were sent from Rome to seek out the Christian missionaries and arrest them. They first seized and killed Dionysius, and then set off in pursuit of Lucian. Finding him in Belgium, together with his helpers, the priest Maxianus and the deacon Julian, they killed these two in one place and beheaded Lucian in another. When Lucian had been beheaded, his dead body rose from the ground, and taking its head into its hands (like St. Dionysius and St. John Vladimir), walked thus to the spot at which it wished to be buried. There it fell to the ground, and was there buried. A church was later built over his relics.

3. The Holy Martyr Dimitri, Tsarevitch of Russia.

He received a martyr’s death at the age of eight at the hands of the power-hungry Boris Godunov, in the town of Uglich in 1591. He appeared after his death to a monk and prophesied that a false Dimitri would appear, who would bring about Boris Godunov’s murder. This came to pass. Innumerable miracles were wrought at the grave of the martyred tsarevitch. His relics were dug up fifteen years later, whole and incorrupt, and were transferred solemnly to Moscow and buried in the Church of the Archangel Michael.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Oh, that we could fathom the mystery of God’s providence in the lives of men! We would be filled with fear and trembling in the face of every evil deed and every human sin. ‘I understood Thy works, O Lord, and was amazed.’ In great events, the mystery of God’s providence is clear even to men of little faith—as is shown in the end of the Tsarevitch Dimitri and the bloodthirsty and ambitious Boris Godunov. To attain the first place among the courtiers of Tsar Theodore, Godunov poisoned many of the nobles. When he had become first after the tsar, he decided to poison the tsar’s brother, the eight-year-old Dimitri. Through hired men, he several times administered the strongest poison to the young tsarevitch, who was unaffected by it. It came about by providence that the evil-doer killed his prey, though not in any way secretly: Godunov sent murderers who beheaded the tsarevitch in broad daylight, and thus Dimitri became known as a martyr and Godunov as a murderer throughout Russia. After that, a certain Dimitri arose and proclaimed himself tsarevitch (as though he were the true tsarevitch and some other had been killed), and set out with an army against Godunov. He overcame Godunov and reduced him to such desperate straits that he poisoned himself. He who had poisoned others himself ended by self-administered poison, and he who had murdered the innocent Dimitri was himself defeated by a man named Dimitri. He who has spiritual eyes to see, let him see the mystery of God’s providence!

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.