Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 186]. Brethren:

8 ⁷Even as ye abound in everything—in faith, and in word, and in knowledge, and in all earnestness, and in accordance with your love in us—see that ye be abounding in this grace also. ⁸I speak not by command, but as proving through the earnestness of others, the genuineness also of your love; ⁹for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich, He became poor for your sakes, that ye might become rich by the poverty of that One. ¹⁰And in this I give advice; for this is profitable for you, who began before not only to do, but also to will from last year. ¹¹But now also accomplish the doing of it, that even as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the accomplishment also out of that which ye are able. ¹²For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what one may have, not according to what one doth not have. ¹³For it is not that for others there may be ease and for you pressure; ¹⁴but in accordance with equality in the present time: your abundance for their want, that their abundance also might be for your want, so that there might come to be an equality— ¹⁵even as it hath been written: “The one who gathered much had nothing over; and the one who gathered little had no lack [cf. Ex. 16:18].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 11]. At that time:

3 ⁶The Pharisees were holding counsel with the Herodians against Jesus, how they might destroy Him.

⁷And Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea; and a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judæa, ⁸and from Jerusalem, and from Idumæa, and from beyond the Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, after they heard how much He was doing, came to Him. ⁹And He told His disciples that a small ship should be waiting on Him on account of the crowd, lest they should press hard upon Him. ¹⁰For He cured many; insomuch that they fell upon Him that they might touch Him for themselves, as many as had scourges. ¹¹And the spirits, the unclean ones, whenever they beheld Him, were falling down before Him and crying out, saying, “Thou art the Son of God.” ¹²And He was strictly warning them very much that they should not make Him manifest.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Dormition, and the holy Martyr Louppos (transferred to the 22^nd of August on account of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Dormition), and Hieromartyr Irenæos, Bishop of Lyons.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 5th – Civil Calendar
August 23rd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Loupos.

This holy man was a servant of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. When St. Demetrius was killed by being pierced with spears by order of the Emperor Maximian, Loupos dipped the hem of his garment and his ring in the martyr’s blood. Loupos worked many miracles in Thessalonica with this garment and ring, healing people of every pain and infirmity. The Emperor Maximian, who was still staying in Thessalonica, discovered this, and commanded that Loupos be tortured and killed. But the soldiers who drew their weapons on Loupos turned one on the other and wounded one another. After harsh torture, he was beheaded and entered into the heavenly kingdom.

2. The Hieromartyr Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons.

He was sent by St. Polycarp from Asia Minor to preach in Gaul. He became the first Bishop of Lyons and brought many pagans to Christianity. At the time of a persecution of Christians in the year 177, Pothinus was taken for trial; carried there, as he was ninety years old. ‘Who is the Christian God?’ the proconsul asked him. ‘You will find out, if you are worthy,’ old Pothinus answered him. The pagans assaulted him with sticks and stones, and belabored him without mercy. Thrown into prison, St. Pothinus died of the beating and entered into the heavenly kingdom.

3. The Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons.

He was in his youth a pupil of St. Polycarp, the disciple of the apostles, who sent him to preach in Gaul. After St. Pothinus’ death by martyrdom, Irenaeus was made bishop. In his numerous writings, Irenaeus both expounded the Orthodox Faith and defended it against heretics. He suffered for Christ in the time of the Emperor Severus, in 202, along with nineteen thousand Christians.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The mysterious power of the Cross, however inexplicable, is true and indisputable. St. John Chrysostom speaks of the custom that obtained in his time, of placing the sign of the Cross ‘on the imperial diadem and the soldiers’ accoutrements, and of making it on parts of the body: the head, the breast and the heart, both at the table of sacrifice and on lying down in bed.’ ‘If,’ he says, ‘we are striving to drive out demons, we use the Cross, and it is also of aid in healing sickness.’ St. Benedict made the sign of the Cross over a glass containing poison, and the glass shattered as if struck by a stone. St. Julian made the sign of the Cross over a cup of poison brought to him, and drank the poison, suffering no bodily harm from it. The holy martyr Vasilissa of Nikomedia protected herself with the sign of the Cross and stood in the midst of the flames, remaining completely untouched. The holy martyrs Audon and Senis crossed themselves when ravening wild animals were let loose on them, and the beasts became docile and meek as lambs. The sign of the Cross has been the most powerful weapon against great temptations from demons, from the early ascetics down to the present day. The most ferocious of the devil’s devisings are dispersed into nothing, like smoke, when a man signs himself with the Cross. Thus it was the good will of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that the erstwhile sign of wickedness and shame, the cross, should, after His crucifixion on the wood of the Cross, be the vehicle of all-conquering power and might.

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.