Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 173]. Brethren:

3 ⁴We have such trust through Christ toward God: ⁵Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, ⁶Who also made us fit ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive. ⁷But if the ministration of death, which in letters was engraved in stones, came into being in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look intently into the face of Moses on account of the glory of his face, which glory is being put to an end, ⁸how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be much more in glory? ⁹For if the ministration of condemnation is glory, much rather the ministration of righteousness aboundeth in glory. ¹⁰For indeed that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect, on account of the glory which surpasseth. ¹¹For if that which is being put to an end was in the midst of glory, much rather that which remaineth is in glory.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 96]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

23 ²⁹“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the sepulchers of the righteous, ³⁰“and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹“Therefore ye bear witness against yourselves that ye are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³²“Fill ye up also the measure of your fathers. ³³“Serpents, offspring of vipers! How shall ye flee from the judgment of Gehenna? ³⁴“On this account, behold, I send forth to you prophets, and wise ones, and scribes: and some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵“that upon you should come all the righteous blood which is being poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶“Verily I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. ³⁷“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that killeth the prophets and stoneth those who have been sent forth to her! How often would I have gathered together thy children, in the way a hen gathereth together her chicks under her wings, and ye would not. ³⁸“Behold, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹“For I say to you, in no wise shall ye see Me henceforth, until ye shall say, ‘Blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord [Ps. 117(118):25(26)].’”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Transfiguration, and Hierodeacon Efplos of Catania of Sicily.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 99]. Brethren:

8 ²⁸We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose. ²⁹For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformable to the image of His Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰But whom He foreordained, these also He called; and whom He called, these also He justified; and whom He justified, these also He glorified. ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He Who indeed spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God? God is the One Who justifieth. ³⁴Who is the one who condemneth? Christ is the One Who died, but much more is He the One also Who was raised, Who also is at the right of God, Who also intercedeth for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶Even as it hath been written: “For on account of Thee, we are being put to death the whole day; we were counted as sheep of slaughter [Ps. 43(44):23(22)].” ³⁷But in all these things we more than conquer through the One Who loved us. ³⁸For I have been persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things coming, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 24th – Civil Calendar
August 11th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Euplus.

He was a deacon from Catania in Sicily. The Emperor Diocletian sent a commander, Pentagurus, to Sicily to exterminate any Christians that he found there. Pentagurus did not find a single Christian, for they had hidden from the persecutor and did not show themselves. Then someone accused Euplus of taking a book to some secret Christians and reading to them. This book was the holy Gospel. He was therefore soon taken for trial, and with the book hung round his neck, put in prison. After seven days of imprisonment and hunger, he was put to torture. When they whipped him with iron flails, Euplus mockingly said to the torturing judge: ‘You fool; don’t you see that these tortures are, to me, like a cobweb? If you can, find other, harsher tortures, as these are like playthings.’ Finally, they led Christ’s martyr to the scaffold. Then St. Euplus opened the holy Gospel and read from it to the people for a long time. Many turned to the Christian Faith, and St. Euplus was beheaded, in the year 304, and went to the heavenly kingdom. His wonder-working relics lie in a village near Naples called Vico della Batonia.

2. The Holy Martyr Susanna the Virgin, and others with her.

The daughter of Gavinius, a Christian priest in Rome, she was niece to Pope Gaius, of blood and kin with the reigning emperor, Diocletian. This emperor had an adopted son, Maximian Galerius, who wanted to marry Susanna, but she was utterly dedicated to Christ the Lord and had no desire for marriage, especially with an unbaptized man. Susanna brought those who had requested her for the emperor’s son, the patricians Claudia and Maxima, to the Christian Faith with all their households. Infuriated by this, the emperor issued orders and the executioners took Claudia and Maxima, with their families, to Ostia, where they were burned and their ashes cast into the sea. Susanna was beheaded in Gavinius’ house. The emperor’s wife, Serena, a secret Christian, took Susanna’s martyred body by night and buried it, and Pope Gaius turned the house where Susanna was killed into a church and held services there. Soon after this bride of Christ suffered, her father Gavinius and Pope Gaius also suffered. They all suffered with honor for the Lord, and received wreaths of glory, in the years 295 and 296.

3. St. Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Born in Greece, he became a monk in his youth and lived in asceticism, first away from the Holy Mountain and then on it in various monasteries, staying longest in Vatopedi and Dionysiou. He was beloved by all on the Holy Mountain, both for his rare wisdom and for his meekness. He was made Bishop of Thessalonica against his will, and two years later, went to Constantinople in the course of his work and was there chosen for the vacant patriarchal throne. He was banished by the sultan to Jedrene, where he lived in exile. Prince Radul of Wallachia asked the sultan for him, and made him his archbishop. Because of Radul’s transgressions, Niphon left the province of Wallachia and went to the Holy Mountain, to the community of Dionysiou, where he lived in asceticism till the age of ninety, going to the kingdom of God in 1508. He compiled the ‘Prayer at Departing’ that is read at funerals.

4. Our Holy Fathers Basil (Vasily) and Theodore (Feodor) of the Kiev Caves.

They both died under the tyranny of the covetous Prince Istislav, in 1098. The life of St. Theodore is especially instructive to the covetous. Theodore was very rich, but he gave all his wealth to the poor and became a monk. He then repented and grieved for his riches, and was greatly tempted by a spirit of covetousness, from which he was freed by St. Basil.

FOR CONSIDERATION

If a man sets off on the right path, let him follow that path with both feet and not have one foot on the right path and the other on the wrong. For the Lord said through the prophet about the righteous who work unrighteousness: ‘The righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die’ (Ezekiel 18:24). The Wallachian Prince Radul was a righteous man and did many good works. He brought St. Niphon out of exile in Jedrene and made him archbishop in Bucharest. But he suddenly committed a grievous sin: he gave his sister to be wife to the foul Moldavian prince, Bogdan, while Bogdan’s wife was still alive, and refused to heed Niphon’s protests. Niphon prophesied an evil end to him, drove him publicly out of the Church and left the province. Immediately after this, there was a drought and a great famine in the region, and Radul fell into an incurable sickness, his whole body being one great, suppurating sore which no one could come near to for the stench. When they buried him, his grave shook for three days, like the grave of the Empress Evdoxia, the persecutor of St. John Chrysostom.

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.