Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sunday of the Twenty-Second Week

Mode Plagal One — Eleventh Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 215]. Brethren:

6 ¹¹See with what size letters I am writing to you with mine own hand. ¹²As many as wish to make a good show in the flesh, these constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted for the Cross of Christ. ¹³For not even they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised, in order that they might boast in your flesh. ¹⁴But may it not be for me to boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world hath been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision hath any strength, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ¹⁶And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

¹⁷Henceforth, let no one be giving me troubles, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 83]. The Lord said:

16 ¹⁹“There was a certain rich man, and he was clothing himself in purple and fine linen, making merry in splendor every day. ²⁰“And there was a certain beggar, by name Lazarus, who was full of sores and was cast toward his gateway, ²¹“and was desiring to be fed from the crumbs that were falling from the table of the rich man; yea, even the dogs, which came were licking his sores. ²²“And it fell due for the beggar to die and for him to be carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham; and the rich man also died, and was buried. ²³“And in Hades, being in torments, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham from afar, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴“And he cried aloud and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am suffering pain in this flame.’ ²⁵“But Abraham said, ‘Child, be mindful that thou didst have rendered to thee thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus likewise the bad things; but now, here, he is being comforted and thou art suffering pain; ²⁶“‘and besides all these things, between us and you a great chasm hath been firmly fixed, so that those wishing to pass through from this place to you are not able, nor may they pass through from that place to us.’ ²⁷“And he said, ‘I beg thee then, father, that thou wouldest send him to the house of my father, ²⁸“‘for I have five brothers, in order that he may bear witness to them, lest they also should come to this place of torment.’ ²⁹“Abraham saith to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰“But he said, ‘By no means, father Abraham; but if one from the dead should go to them, they will repent.’ ³¹“And he said to him, ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if one should rise from the dead.’”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostles Stachys, Amplias, Urbanos, Narcissus, Apelles, and Aristoboulos of the Seventy.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 13th – Civil Calendar
October 31st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostles Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles and Aristobulus.

They were of the Seventy. St. Stachys was a helper of St. Andrew the First-Called, who made him bishop of Byzantium. He built a church in Argyropolis, and governed his flock with faithfulness and zeal. After sixteen years as bishop, he entered peacefully into rest in the Lord. Amplias and Urban were also fellow-workers with St. Andrew, and were made bishop by him, Amplias in Lydda and Urban in Macedonia. They both died as martyrs for Christ the Lord. Narcissus was made Bishop of Athens by the Apostle Philip, and holy Apelles was Bishop of Heraklion in Trachis. Aristobulus, the brother of the Apostle Barnabas, preached the Christian Faith in Britain and died peacefully there. He is also commemorated on March 16th.

2. The Holy Martyr Epimachus.

Born in Egypt, he lived there in asceticism, and there finished his earthly course a martyr. In imitation of St. John the Baptist, he went off as a young man into the desert. In response to his great love for God, the Spirit of God instructed him in all truth, and with no other teacher, taught him how to live the ascetic life. Epimachus discovered how the pagans were torturing and slaughtering the Christians in Alexandria, so, all afire with zeal for the Faith, he went to the city and knocked down the idols. When the pagans began to torture him for this, he cried out: ‘Smite me, spit on me, put a crown of thorns on my head and a reed in my hand; give me gall to drink, crucify me and pierce me with a spear. The Lord endured all that, and I want to endure it!’ In the vast crowd that was watching the martyrdom of holy Epimachus, there was one woman with a blind eye. She wept bitterly on witnessing the soulless torture of the man of God, and when the torturers flayed his holy body, blood spurted from it and a drop fell on her eye. Suddenly she could see, and her blind eye became as whole as the other. Then the woman cried out: ‘Great is the God in Whom this sufferer believes!’ After that, St. Epimachus was beheaded and his soul entered into eternal joy, in about 250.

3. The Holy Martyr Nicholas of Chios.

A devout young man and a great zealot for the Christian Faith, Nicholas was born in the village of Karyes on the island of Chios. He was tortured and beheaded by the Turks in 1754, and gave his righteous soul into God’s hands.

4. Our Holy Fathers Spiridon and Nicodemus.

They were monks and prosphora-makers in the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. Spiridon was illiterate, but he knew the whole Psalter by heart and worked miracles during his lifetime. He entered into rest in 1148.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me’ (Matt. 10:38), says the Lord. Our holy father, the martyr Timothy of Esphigmenou (Oct. 29th) was at first a married man with two daughters. Later, as a monk, he resolved to suffer for Christ, and being already prepared for the road to suffering, asked his abbot’s blessing to return to his village of Kessana, to see his daughters and take leave of them. The abbot did not permit this, fearing that Timothy’s meeting with his daughters would soften him and turn him back from martyrdom for the Faith. But Timothy’s village lay on the way to Propontis, his destination. When he got to his village, he met one of his neighbors, chatted with him and sent greetings to his daughters through him. The neighbor urged him to turn back and see his daughters, and rest a little, but in vain; Timothy took his leave and hurriedly escaped, continuing on his way. His daughters, hearing from the neighbor about their father, hurried after him. And now a rare sight was seen: the daughters were hurrying to overtake and embrace their father, and the father was fleeing from his daughters in order not to sin against the abbot’s command. The daughters moved quickly, but he yet more quickly. The daughters hastened to embrace their father, and Timothy, fleeing from them, hastened to embrace death. The daughters became exhausted and turned back in despair, and the father slipped away. At the time of his death, Timothy asked his spiritual father, Germanos, to return to his village and tell his daughters of their father’s death by martyrdom. Germanos carried out the errand. The Turks beheaded Timothy and threw his body into a river, and Germanos managed to save only one of the martyr’s garments, which he took to Kessana. He found Timothy’s daughters and recounted to them the heroic death of their father, showing them the garment.

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.