Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§§ 208, 209]. Brethren:

3 ²³Before faith came, we were being guarded under the law, having been closed up to the faith about to be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law hath become our tutor until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many as were baptized into Christ, ye put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise.

4 ¹Now I say, as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; ²but he is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time of the father. ³So we also, when we were infants, were enslaved under the elements of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵in order that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive what is our due, the adoption as sons.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 25]. At that time:

6 ³⁰The apostles were gathered together to Jesus, and related to Him all things, both as much as they did and as much as they taught. ³¹And He said to them, “Come ye yourselves privately to a desolate place, and rest yourselves a little.” For those coming and those going were many, and they did not even have an opportunity to eat. ³²And they went away by the ship privately to a desolate place. ³³And the crowds saw them going, and many recognized Him, and ran together there on foot from all the cities, and went before them, and came together to Him. ³⁴And Jesus, after He came out, saw a great crowd and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵And much time already having elapsed, His disciples came to Him and said, “The place is desolate, and already it is a late hour. ³⁶“Dismiss them in order that they might go away into the fields and villages round about, and buy bread for themselves; for they have not what they might eat.” ³⁷But He answered and said to them, “Give ye them to eat.” And they say to Him, “Shall we go away and buy bread worth two hundred denarii and give them to eat?” ³⁸But He saith to them, “How many loaves have ye? Go and see.” And having known, they say, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹And He enjoined them to make all recline by companies upon the green grass. ⁴⁰And they laid back in rows, like beds in a garden, up to a hundred and up to fifty. ⁴¹And having taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to the heaven and blessed and broke the loaves, and kept on giving them to His disciples that they might set them before them; and the two fish He divided to all. ⁴²And all ate and were filled. ⁴³And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments, and from the fish. ⁴⁴And they who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

⁴⁵And straightway He constrained His disciples to embark into the ship, and to go before to the other side toward Bethsaida, until He should dismiss the crowd.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, and the holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Gal. 4:22-27 [§ mid 210]; for Sl. usage, see Gal. 4:22-31 [§§ mid 210, 211].

4 ²²Abraham had two sons: one by the maidservant, and one by the free woman. ²³But on the one hand, the one of the maidservant hath been born according to the flesh; and on the other hand, the one of the free woman through the promise, ²⁴which things are allegorized. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai which bringeth forth to slavery, which is Agar— ²⁵for the Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and correspondeth to the present Jerusalem, and she doth slave with her children— ²⁶but the Jerusalem above is free, which is Mother of us all. ²⁷For it hath been written: “Rejoice, thou barren, who bearest not; break forth and cry thou who travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate more than of her who hath the husband [Is. 54:1].” ²⁸Now we, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰But what saith the Scripture? “Cast out the maidservant and her son; for in no wise shall the son of the maidservant inherit with the son of the free woman [cf. Gen. 21:10].” ³¹So then, brethren, we are not children of a maidservant, but of the free woman.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 36]. The Lord said:

8 ¹⁶“No one, having lit a lamp, covereth it with a vessel or putteth it underneath a bed, but placeth it upon a lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light. ¹⁷“For nothing is secret which shall not become manifest, nor hidden that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸“Be taking heed then how ye hear: for whosoever hath, it shall be given to him; and whosoever hath not, even what he seemeth to have shall be taken away from him.”

¹⁹And His Mother and brethren came to Him, and were not able to meet with Him on account of the crowd. ²⁰And it was reported to Him by some who said, “Thy Mother and Thy brethren are standing outside, wishing to see Thee.” ²¹And He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 22nd – Civil Calendar
September 9th – Church Calendar

1. Ss. Joachim and Anna.

St. Joachim was of the tribe of Judah, and a descendant of King David. Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, of the tribe of Levi as was Aaron the high priest. This Matthan had three daughters: Mary, Zoia and Anna. Mary was married in Bethlehem and bore Salome; Zoia was also married in Bethlehem and bore Elisabeth, the mother of St. John the Forerunner; and Anna was married in Nazareth to Joachim, and in old age gave birth to Mary, the most holy Mother of God. Joachim and Anna had been married for fifty years, and were barren. They lived devoutly and quietly, using only a third of their income for themselves and giving a third to the poor and a third to the Temple, and they were well provided for. Once, when they were already old and were in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, the high priest, Issachar, upbraided Joachim: ‘You are not worthy to offer sacrifice with those childless hands.’ Others who had children jostled Joachim, thrusting him back as unworthy. This caused great grief to the two aged souls, and they went home with very heavy hearts. Then the two of them gave themselves to prayer to God that He would work in them the wonder that He had worked in Abraham and Sarah, and give them a child to comfort their old age. God sent them His angel, who gave them tidings of the birth of ‘a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world.’ Anna conceived at once, and in the ninth month gave birth to the holy Virgin Mary. St. Joachim lived for eighty years and Anna for seventy-nine, and they both entered into the kingdom of God.

2. Commemoration of the Third Ecumenical Council.

This council met in 431 in Ephesus, in the time of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger. Two hundred fathers gathered at it. The council condemned Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, for his heretical teaching on the most holy Virgin Mary and the birth of the Lord. Nestorius would not call the holy Virgin the Mother of God, but only the Mother of Christ. The holy fathers, in condemning Nestorius’ teaching, confirmed that the holy Virgin be called the Mother of God. Besides this, it confirmed the decisions of the First and Second Councils, especially the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, laying down that no one may add anything to, or take anything from, this Creed.

3. The Holy Martyr Severian.

He was a nobleman of Sebaste. At the time of the martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9th), he succoured them in prison, encouraging and serving them. After their glorious death, he was also arrested, whipped and tortured for Christ, and finally hanged from a tree with a heavy stone round his neck and another hanging from his feet. Praising God for everything, he breathed his last in the reign of the Emperor Licinius, in the year 320.

4. St. Theophanes, Confessor and Faster.

After a life pleasing to God, in which he underwent much suffering for Christ, he died peacefully in the year 299.

5. St. Niketas the Man of God.

He lived in Constantinople in the twelfth century. His life was so pleasing to God that the doors of the church opened of themselves before him, and the icon lamps lit spontaneously. At the desire of Sozon, a deacon, and at Niketas’ prayers, a priest with whom Sozon had quarreled and with whom he remained estranged, appeared from the other world. There appeared first a row of priests robed in white, then a row in red vestments. Sozon recognized his adversary among them, and made his peace with him. This happened at night in the church at Vlachernai.

FOR CONSIDERATION

One must give alms, not with pride but with humility, considering those to whom one gives alms as better than oneself. Does not the Lord Himself say: ‘inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you did it unto Me’ (Matt, 25:40)? Theophanes the Confessor, while still a boy, had a mind enlightened by the light of Christ. He was walking around the streets one day when he saw a naked child freezing in the street. He quickly took off his own clothes and wrapped the child in them, and thus warmed it and restored it to life. He returned home naked, and his astonished parents asked him where his clothes were. Theophanes replied: ‘They’re clothing Christ!’ He was given Christ’s grace, and was later a great ascetic, confessor of the Faith and wonder-worker. If we give alms, whether in some other man’s name or our own but not in the name of Christ, we cannot escape pride, which, as soon as it appears in the heart, brings to naught all the good works we have done. When we give to a beggar as a beggar and not as Christ, we can escape neither pride nor disdain. What is the good of giving alms to a man, with the increase of one’s own pride and the scorning of the man? A virtue is no virtue if it is mixed up with sin, as milk is not milk if it is mixed with petrol or vinegar.

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.