Daily Devotional

Friday, August 26, 2022 (NS), August 13, 2022 (OS)

Fast Day, but Wine and Olive Oil Allowed.

Friday of the Eleventh Week

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Transfiguration, and our venerable Father Maximos the Confessor (transferred to the 12^th of August on account of the Leave-taking), and our holy father among the saints, Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh and Wonder-worker of Zadonsk.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Eleventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 177]. Brethren:

4 ¹³Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to that which hath been written: “I believed, wherefore I spoke [Ps. 115(116):1],” we also believe, and therefore speak, ¹⁴knowing that the One Who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also through Jesus, and shall present us with you. ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, which abounded through the majority, might cause the giving of thanks to abound more to the glory of God. ¹⁶Wherefore, we are not fainthearted; but even if our outward man is being utterly destroyed, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For the lightness of our momentary affliction worketh for us a more and more surpassing eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 100]. The Lord said to His disciples:

24 ²⁷“For even as the lightning cometh forth from the east and appeareth as far as the west, so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸“For wheresoever the corpse may be, there will the eagles be gathered together.

²⁹“And straightway after the affliction of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. ³⁰“And then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in the heaven, and then the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory. ³¹“And He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost parts of the heavens unto their extremities. ³²“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch at once should become tender and put forth leaves, ye know that the summer is near. ³³“Thus also ye, whenever ye see all these things, know ye that it is near, even at the doors. ³⁴“Verily I say to you, in no wise shall this generation pass away until all these things shall have taken place. ³⁵“The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but My words in no wise shall pass away. ³⁶“But concerning that day and hour, no one knoweth, not even the angels of the heavens, except My Father only. ³⁷“But even as the days of Noah were, so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸“For even as in the days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark— ³⁹“and they knew not until the flood came and took all away—so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰“Then two shall be in the field: the one is taken and the one is left. ⁴¹“Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one is taken and one is left. ⁴²“Be watching then, for ye know not in what hour your Lord cometh. ⁴³“But know ye this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and not let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴“On this account, ye also keep on becoming ready, for in what hour ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. ⁴⁵“Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom his lord appointeth over his household, to give them food in due season? ⁴⁶“Happy is that slave whom his lord, after he cometh, shall find so doing. ⁴⁷“Verily I say to you, that he shall appoint him over all his possessions. ⁴⁸“But if that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My lord taketh time to come,’ ⁴⁹“and should himself begin to strike his fellow slaves, and to eat and to drink with the drunken, ⁵⁰“the lord of that slave shall come in a day in which he expecteth not, and in an hour in which he knoweth not, ⁵¹“and will cut him in twain, and will place his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be there the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

Epistle

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 26th – Civil Calendar
August 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Hippolytus.

Hippolytus was a military supervisor and prison governor in Rome, born and brought up a pagan. When St. Laurence the archdeacon was thrown into prison, Hippolytus was ordered by the emperor to keep a strict eye on this prisoner. Hippolytus saw with his own eyes how Laurence restored the sight of the blind Lucillus and how he healed many other of the sick, and he became a Christian. When St. Laurence baptized him, Hippolytus had a heavenly vision and said: ‘I see innocent souls in great joy’. He then took Laurence into his own home, and all those in it were baptized, including his old nurse Concordia, nineteen souls in all. When Laurence was slain for Christ, Hippolytus took the martyr’s body by night, wrapped it in a winding-sheet and buried it. This somehow came to the ears of the Emperor Valerian, and on the third day after Laurence’s death, Hippolytus was arrested and taken before the emperor. Refusing to deny the true Faith, he was struck on the mouth with stones. The emperor then ordered that he be stripped and flayed. Naked before the emperor, Hippolytus said to him: ‘You have not stripped me, but have begun to clothe me!’ They then threw him to the ground and flayed him mercilessly, but Hippolytus only cried out: ‘I am a Christian!’ The emperor, hearing that Hippolytus and his whole household were Christians, ordered that they all be brought. Old Concordia said: ‘We prefer to die in honor in the Christian Faith with our master than to live in dishonor with you.’ She was killed first, and then the other eighteen, all before Hippolytus’ eyes. Finally, Hippolytus was bound behind a wild horse and dragged hither and thither, until the martyr gave his soul to God.

2. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.

Born in 1724 in the village of Korotsk, in the Novgorod region, into a simple, peasant family, he received the monastic schema at the age of thirty-four and very soon, because of his ascesis and spiritual wisdom, was given higher and higher service until he was consecrated Bishop of Voronezh. He served as bishop for a little under seven years and then, because of ill-health, retired to the monastery of Zadonsk and entered into rest there in 1783. His wonder-working relics are kept there to this day. A great ascetic of the Russian Church, he was a rare shepherd, a man of prayer and the writer of beautiful spiritual works. In his wisdom, his holiness and asceticism, he could be counted an equal of the great fathers of the Orthodox Church of former times. Because of the many witnessed miracles that were performed over his relics, he was first proclaimed a saint by the people, and then officially by the Church in 1861.

3. Our Holy Mother, the Empress Irene, in monasticism, Xenia.

She was the wife of the Emperor Kalo-John (John II Komnenos, 1118-1143). Apart from her monastic asceticism and good works, she is famed for having founded the Monastery of the Pantocrator in Constantinople, one of the most famous and most beautiful monasteries in that city. St. Stefan of Dečani later lived there in asceticism.

4. Our Holy Father Seridos.

Famed for founding a community near Gaza in Palestine, in which famous men such as St. Barsanuphius, St. John, Abba Dorotheos, Dositheos and others lived the ascetic life, St. Seridos departed this earthly life in the sixth century and went to the eternal joy of his Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Give thanks to the Lord and do not forget His great ones, the poor and needy; they can do much for the Lord God.’ These are the words of the great Russian ascetic of the nineteenth century, Father Nazariah, abbot of Valaam. He spoke these words to the wife of a high dignitary in St. Petersburg who had fallen under the tsar’s displeasure because of some serious accusation. The accused official fell ill from anxiety and lay in bed. Hearing that Father Nazariah was in St. Petersburg, the wife of this official hurried off to find him, recounted to him the misfortune that had befallen and begged him to pray for her husband. ‘Have you got any small change?’ asked Father Nazariah. The woman brought some and gave it to him, and Father Nazariah went away. He returned the same evening and gladdened the woman with this news: ‘Glory to God! All those close to the tsar have promised their prayers!’ The woman naturally thought of Tsar Alexander Pavlovitch and his courtiers, while the elder was thinking of the beggars in the streets, among whom he had distributed the coins and whom he had set to pray for this woman’s husband. The news came that the tsar had ordered that the matter of this official be put to debate. This was just what the official had desired. When his wife began to thank Father Nazariah, he said: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, and do not forget His great ones, the poor and needy; they can do much for the Lord God.’

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.