Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 187]. Brethren:

8 ¹⁶Thanks be to God, the One Who keepeth on giving earnestness into the heart of Titus for you. ¹⁷For indeed he accepted the exhortation; and being more than ordinarily earnest, of his own accord he went out to you. ¹⁸And we sent with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all of the churches— ¹⁹and not only that, but who was also ordained by the churches as our fellow traveler in the matter of this grace, which is ministered by us to the glory of the same Lord and your eagerness— ²⁰avoiding this for ourselves, lest anyone should blame us in this abundance which is ministered by us, ²¹we thought beforehand for what is good not only before the Lord, but also before men. ²²And we sent with them our brother whom we often proved to be earnest in many things, but now much more earnest by reason of his great confidence which he hath toward you. ²³Whether it be necessary to say anything on behalf of Titus, he is my partner and a fellow worker in regard to you; or whether ye wish to hear anything regarding our brethren, they are apostles of the churches, Christ’s glory. ²⁴Therefore show ye to them, and to the person of the churches, the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf.

9 ¹For indeed, concerning the ministration which is to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; ²for I know your eagerness, concerning which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia hath been prepared from last year; and the zeal of you provoked the majority. ³But I sent the brethren, that the basis for our boasting which is on your behalf should not be empty in this respect, that, just as I was saying, ye may be prepared; ⁴lest perchance if the Macedonians should come with me and find you unprepared, we—that we may not say, ye—should be put to shame in this basis of the boasting. ⁵Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they should go before to you, and prepare beforehand your previously announced blessing, that the same is to be ready, even as a blessing, and not as extortion.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 12]. At that time:

For Gk. usage, see Mk. 3:13-21; for Sl.usage, see Mk. 3:13-19.

3 ¹³Jesus went up into the mountain and called to Himself whom He Himself was wanting; and they went forth to Him. ¹⁴And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach, ¹⁵and to have authority to cure the diseases and to cast out the demons: ¹⁶And to Simon He gave the name, Peter; ¹⁷and Iakovos the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of Iakovos; and He gave them the name Boanerges, which is, sons of thunder; ¹⁸and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and Iakovos the son of Alphæos, and Thaddæos, and Simon the Cananite, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariote, who also delivered Him up.

²⁰And they come into a house; and a crowd cometh together again, so that it is not possible for them even to eat bread. ²¹And after those with Him heard of it, they went out to lay hold of Him; for they were saying, “He is beside Himself.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Eftychios, disciple of St. John the Theologian.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 6th – Civil Calendar
August 24th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Eftyches.

One of the lesser apostles, born in Sebastopol, he was a disciple and friend of the Apostles John the Theologian and Paul. Although he was not included in the Seventy, he was called an apostle by virtue of having been a disciple of the great apostles, and because he showed true apostolic zeal in the service of the Gospel. Consecrated as a missionary bishop, St. Eftyches travelled widely, having an angel as a companion, and he also received heavenly bread from an angel while in prison. When his body was flayed with serrated iron rods, his blood ran down mingled with a sweet myrrh. He was thrown into the flames and before wild beasts, and was finally beheaded with the sword in Sebastopol.

2. The Holy Martyr Tation.

Born in Mantinaeas near Claudioupolis in Bithynia, he suffered under Diocletian. After harsh torture, he was buried alive and thus gave his holy soul into God’s hands.

3. The Holy Martyr Syra.

A kinswoman of St. Golinduc (July 12th), she was a Persian, the daughter of an eminent priest of fire-worship. Brought up in paganism, the maiden Syra heard of Christ from some godly Christian woman, and her little heart became inflamed with love for the Lord. In a time of sickness, while still unbaptized, she begged dust from the church of the Christian priest, but he refused to give it to her in her unbaptized state. Then she, with great faith, touched the priest’s garments and was healed. This miraculous healing confirmed her yet more fully in the Christian Faith. Her soulless father put her to harsh torture, during which she received encouragement and support from heavenly visions. Cruelly strangled with a cord and then drowned, in 558 at the age of eighteen, in the time of the Persian King Chozroes I, this holy maiden thus gloriously finished her earthly course and entered into the heavenly community of the angels.

4. Our Holy Father Arseny of Komel.

Born in Moscow of noble parents, he received the monastic schema as a young man in the community of St. Sergius of Radonezh. A model monk, he was chosen as abbot, but he yearned for a life of prayerful solitude and withdrew to the forest of Komel, where he lived in asceticism till his death, fighting courageously with great diabolical temptations. He entered into rest in the Lord in 1550.

5. St. George Limniotes (“of the Lake”).

A confessor and a great ascetic of Olympus, he suffered in about 216, at the age of ninety-five.

In the Greek Great Synaxarion, St. Dionysius, Archbishop of Aegina, who died in 1624, is also commemorated (translation of his relics). Many miracles have been wrought over his relics.

FOR CONSIDERATION

If you ask many people why they do not go to church, they usually reply: ‘I haven’t got time; I must work.’ Look at these people, who only work and never go to church, devoting themselves only to their work, and compare them with people who set aside time both for work and for prayer, and you will soon be convinced that these latter are different. They are better-off, and which is more important, more contented. It is told of two neighbors who were tailors that they were very different in their work and in their prayer, in their possessions and in their contentment. One of them had a large family and the other was single. The first had the habit of going to church each morning, and the lone one never went to church. The first not only worked less, but was a less skilled workman than the other, but he had all he needed and the other was in straitened circumstances. The latter asked the former how it was that he had everything although he worked less. The prayerful man replied that he went to church every day, and found some gold on the way. He invited his neighbor to go with him to pray, promising that they would share the gold that they found. His neighbor began going regularly to church, and they both soon became one in their abundance and their contentment. They found no gold on the road, but the gold of God’s blessing increased the abundance of these true men of prayer. To those who ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,’ God will add the increase of all that is necessary to them for their bodily life.

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.