Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 277].

3 ⁶Brethren, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to withdraw yourselves from every brother who walketh disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they received from us. ⁷For ye yourselves know how it is needful to imitate us, for we led not a disorderly life among you; ⁸nor did we eat bread from anyone as a gift, but with toil and travail, working night and day, in order not to burden any of you; ⁹not that we do not have authority, but in order that we might render ourselves an example to you, for you to imitate us. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat. ¹¹For we hear that some among you are walking disorderly, not working at all, but are busybodies. ¹²Now such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that working with quietness they may eat their own bread. ¹³But ye, brethren, do not begin to lose heart in doing good. ¹⁴And if anyone obey not our word through the epistle, be noting for yourselves that man and cease associating with him, in order that he might be ashamed. ¹⁵And yet do not continue to deem him as an enemy, but be admonishing him as a brother. ¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace continually in every way. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷The greeting of Paul by mine own hand, which is a token in every epistle; so I write.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§§ 82, mid 83]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

16 ¹⁵“Ye are they who justify yourselves before the face of men, but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination before the face of God. ¹⁶“The law and the prophets were until John; from that time the kingdom of God is being preached as good tidings, and everyone is forcing himself into it. ¹⁷“But it is easier for the heaven and the earth to pass away than one tittle of the law to fall. ¹⁸“Everyone who divorceth his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery; and everyone who marrieth her who hath been divorced from a husband committeth adultery.”...

17 ¹Then He said to His disciples, “It is impossible that the stumbling blocks should not come, but woe to him through whom they come! ²“It is more profitable for him if a millstone turned by an ass is put about his neck, and he is cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³“Be taking heed to yourselves. Now if thy brother should sin against thee, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him. ⁴“And if seven times in the day he should sin against thee, and seven times in the day he should return to thee, saying, ‘I repent,’ thou shalt forgive him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Prophet Obadios (Obadiah), and the holy Martyr Barlaam of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and our fathers among the saints, Barlaam and Ioasaph the Prince of India.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians [§ 250]. Brethren:

1 ¹²Give thanks to the God and Father Who rendereth us sufficient for the portion of the lot of the saints in the light, ¹³Who delivered us from the power of the darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴in Whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, ¹⁵Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For in Him were all things created, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or authorities. All things through Him and to Him have been created. ¹⁷And He is before all things, and in Him all things have come into existence. ¹⁸And He is the head of the body, the Church, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might come to hold first place.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 2nd – Civil Calendar
November 19th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Prophet Obadiah.

Obadiah (Obdios) lived at the court of King Ahab, but when the king turned away from true worship and bowed down to idols, Obadiah did not follow the king’s example, but continued to serve the one, true God. When the wicked Queen Jezebel, because of her feud with Elias, hunted down all the prophets of God, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them in two caves, feeding them till the persecution was over (III Kings 18:4). A contemporary of the great Prophet Elias, Obadiah revered him greatly and hearkened to him in all things, being a follower and pupil of his. He lived nine hundred years before Christ, and entered peacefully into rest.

2. The Holy Martyr Barlaam.

He was born in Antioch, and was harshly tortured by the dishonorable judge for his faith in Christ the Lord. The judge decided to use ridicule, and to put such pressure on him that he would offer sacrifice to idols. He accordingly took him to the temple and applied fire to his palm, putting incense on the fire with the thought that the martyr would be forced by the pain to throw the fire and incense from his hand in front of the idols, and thus involuntarily offer them incense. But this heroic soldier of Christ held the fire on his palm, and would not cast it before the idols, until his fingers were burned and fell off, and his palm was burned through and fell to the ground with the fire. ‘He had a right hand stronger than fire,’ said St. Basil the Great, ‘for, though the flames consumed it, still the hand held the fire as ash.’ St. Chrysostom writes: ‘The angels looked from the heights; the archangels beheld, for the scene was majestic, surpassing in truth all human nature. Lo, who would not wish to see a man who made such an ascetic endeavor and did not feel that which it is common to man to feel; a man who was himself the altar of sacrifice, and the sacrifice, and the priest?’ When his hand had burned off, his body fell dead to the ground and his soul went to the eternal rest of his Lord and Savior. This glorious and heroic elder suffered in the year 304.

3. Our Holy Fathers Barlaam and Ioasaph the Heir.

They were Indian ascetics. Ioasaph was son and heir to King Abenner. By God’s providence he was visited by the elder Barlaam, who taught him the Christian Faith and baptized him. After that, the elder went off into the mountains to live in asceticism, and Ioasaph remained to wrestle with many temptations in the world and to overcome them by the grace of God. Ioasaph finally succeeded in bringing his father to Christ. When he had been baptized, King Abenner lived a further four years in deep repentance (for he had committed grave sins in his persecution of Christians) and then finished his earthly course and went to the better life. The young Ioasaph entrusted the kingdom to his friend Barachias, and himself went off into the desert to live in asceticism for the sake of Christ. His one desire on earth was to see his spiritual father, Barlaam, once more. God, in His mercy, fulfilled his desire, and one day, Ioasaph stood before Barlaam’s cave, and called: ‘Bless me, father!’ The elder Barlaam lived in asceticism in the desert for seventy years, living a hundred years in all. St. Ioasaph handed over his kingdom at the age of twenty-five and went into the desert, where he lived a further thirty-five years. They both had great love for the Lord Jesus, brought many to the true Faith and entered into the eternal joy of their Lord.

4. The Holy Martyr Heliodoros.

He was from the town of Magidos in Pamphylia, and was tortured for the Christian Faith in the time of the Emperor Aurelian (270-275). While undergoing harsh torture, he heard a voice from heaven: ‘Fear not; I am with thee!’ Thrown into a white-hot copper ox, he prayed fervently to God, and God saved him. The white-hot ox was suddenly cooled, and Heliodoros emerged alive. The judge cried to him that some sort of magic had done that, but to this the martyr replied: ‘My magic is Christ!’ He was then beheaded and went to the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A tale by the elder Barlaam to Ioasaph: A man was fleeing from a unicorn. Fleeing thus, he fell into a pit and grabbed hold of a tree. Thinking he was out of danger, he looked down and saw two bears, one black and one white, gnawing alternately and with great persistence at the roots of the tree in an attempt to gnaw them through and bring the tree crashing down. Looking even further down, he saw a huge and deadly snake, which, with jaws wide open, was waiting to devour him when the tree had been felled. He then saw four smaller, poisonous snakes around his feet. Looking upwards through the tree, he saw a small honeycomb in the branches, and forgetting all the danger that encompassed him, stretched out his hand to reach that small sweetness in the tree. The interpretation is this: the unicorn represents death, which from Adam till now pursues a man to kill him; the pit filled with all sorts of dangers is this world; the tree is the path of our life; the white and black bears are day and night, which alternate in order to shorten our days; the huge and terrible snake is hell; the four poisonous snakes are the four elements of which our bodies are composed; the small honeycomb in the tree is that small sweetness that life offers to man. Oh, when will men learn not to be enraptured by this empty sweetness, and forgetful of the terrible dangers that surround them and draw them down to eternal ruin?

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.