Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Twenty-Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 289]. Child Timothy:

6 ¹⁷Be commanding the rich in the present age not to be high-minded, nor to have hope in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, Who granteth us richly all things for enjoyment; ¹⁸be commanding them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be ready to impart, to be sociable, ¹⁹laying up in store for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they might lay hold of eternal life.

²⁰O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to thy care, turning thyself away from the profane and vain utterances and oppositions of that falsely-named knowledge, ²¹which some professing for themselves missed the mark concerning the faith.

Grace be with thee. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 100]. The Lord said this parable:

20 ⁹“A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to vinedressers, and went abroad for considerable periods of time. ¹⁰“And at the season he sent forth a slave to the vinedressers, in order that they might give him from the fruit of the vineyard; but the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty. ¹¹“And he continued to send them another slave. But they beat that one also, and dishonored him, and sent him away empty. ¹²“And he continued to send a third. But they wounded this one also and cast him out. ¹³“And the lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, the beloved; perhaps they will respect him after they see him.’ ¹⁴“But after the vinedressers saw him, they began reasoning among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance might become ours.’ ¹⁵“And they cast him forth out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶“He will come and destroy these vinedressers, and will give the vineyard to others.” And after they heard it, they said, “May it not be.” ¹⁷And He looked at them and said, “What then is this that hath been written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner [Ps. 117(118):22; cf. Is. 28:16]’? ¹⁸“Everyone who falleth upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will crush him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Prophet Abbakoum.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 105]. Brethren:

11 ²God did not thrust away His people whom He foreknew. Or do ye not know what saith the Scripture in the case of Elias, how he pleadeth with God against Israel, saying, ³“Lord, they killed Thy prophets and dug down Thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life [cf. 3 Kgs. (1 Kgs.) 19:10, 14]”? ⁴But what saith the divine answer of God to him? “I left to Myself seven thousand men, who bowed not a knee to Baal [cf. 3 Kgs. (1 Kgs.) 19:18].” ⁵So then, also in the present time there hath come to be a remnant according to an election of grace. ⁶And if by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace no longer becometh grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise the work is no longer work. ⁷What then? What Israel seeketh for, this it did not obtain; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened. ⁸Even as it hath been written: “God gave them a spirit of stupefaction, eyes so as not to see, and ears so as not to hear, unto this day [cf. Is. 29:10].” ⁹And David saith, “Let their table be for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling block, and for a recompense to them [cf. Ps. 68(69):27]. ¹⁰“Let their eyes be darkened, so as not to see, and bow down their back continually [Ps. 68(69):28].” ¹¹I say then, they did not stumble that they should fall, did they? May it not be! But by their falling away, salvation is come to the nations, so as to provoke them to jealousy. ¹²Now if their falling away is the wealth of the world, and their loss the wealth of the nations, how much more their fullness?

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 15th – Civil Calendar
December 2nd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Prophet Abbakum (Habakkuk).

The son of Sapnat, of the tribe of Simeon, he prophesied six hundred years before Christ, in the time of King Manasseh, and foretold the devastation of Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, Abbakum went into the land of the Ishmaelites, whence he returned to Jerusalem and made his living working on the land. One day, when he was carrying lunch to the workers in the fields, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him and said: ‘Go, carry the meal that thou hast into Babylon, unto Daniel who is in the lion’s den.’ Abbakum replied: ‘Lord, I never saw Babylon, neither do I know where the den is’ (Daniel 14:33 in the Greek text). Then the angel seized him by the hair and carried him straight to Babylon, over an immense distance, to the lion’s den where Daniel had been cast by King Cyrus because he would not worship idols. ‘O Daniel, Daniel,’ cried Abbakum, ‘take the dinner which God hath sent thee!’ And Daniel took it and ate. Then the angel of God again took hold of Abbakum and carried him back to his field in Judea. Abbakum preached and prophesied about the liberation of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ. He entered into rest in great old age and was buried at Keilah. His relics were discovered during the reign of Theodosios the Great.

2. The Holy Martyr Myrope.

Myrope was born in Ephesus of Christian parents. After the death of her father, she went to the island of Chios with her mother, and there suffered for Christ. The passion of this holy virgin took place soon after the passion and death of the soldier-martyr Isidore (May 14th). When the torturers had beheaded Isidore, the courageous Myrope took the body away secretly and buried it in a special place. The wicked prince Numerian heard that the martyr’s body had been stolen, and threatened to execute the guards. Hearing that innocent people were to suffer for her act, blessed Myrope came before the authorities and confessed that it was she who had taken the martyr’s body and buried it. On the prince’s orders, Christ’s holy virgin was savagely beaten, and cast into prison covered with wounds. But the Lord did not leave His martyr comfortless. A heavenly light illumined the prison in the dead of night, and many angels, with St. Isidore in their midst, appeared to her. ‘Peace to thee, Myrope,’ St. Isidore said to her, ‘thy prayer has ascended to God, and thou shalt soon be with us and receive the crown prepared for thee’. The holy martyr was filled with joy, and at that moment surrendered her soul into God’s hands. A sweet fragrance came forth from her body and filled the whole prison. One of the guards who witnessed all this was moved to belief in Christ and was baptized, and soon thereafter suffered a martyr’s death. St. Myrope entered into eternity in the year 251.

3. St. Uroš, King of Serbia.

The son of King Dušan, he ruled during the difficult time of the fall of the Kingdom of Serbia. Humble, pious and gentle, he refused to attempt to restrain the power of the powerful nobles by force. Amongst these was Vukašin, who brought about his death. Good King Uroš suffered a martyr’s death on December 2nd, 1367, at the age of thirty-one. Killed by men, he was glorified by God. His wonder-working relics were preserved in the monastery of Jazak in the Fruška Gora, whence they were taken to Belgrade in 1942, during the Second World War, and placed in the Cathedral beside the bodies of Prince Lazar and Despot Stefan Štiljanović. During the reign of this benevolent king, the monastery of St. Naum was built beside Lake Ochrid by one of Uroš’s nobles, Gregory (Grgur).

4. Our Holy Father Athanasius, the Recluse of the Kiev Caves.

After a long life of asceticism, this holy man died and was washed, attired and prepared for burial. He lay dead for two days, then suddenly returned to life. When they came to bury him, they found him sitting up and weeping. He shut himself in his cell and lived a further twelve years on bread and water. He entered into rest in the Lord in 1176.

5. St. Jesse, Bishop of Tsiklan.

One of the thirteen Syrian fathers (May 7th), he was a great wonder-worker. He changed the course of a distant river by his prayers, and caused it to flow close to the city of Tsiklan. His relics are preserved in the church dedicated to him in that Syrian city.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Who has ever come with tidings of the other world?’ This is a frequent question on the lips of unbelievers. One should reply: ‘Repent of your sins if you wish to find out; make yourselves worthy, and you will see.’ The Prophet Abbakum journeyed with an angel; St. Myrope saw a host of angels, with St. Isidore the Martyr among them. St. Athanasius of the Caves was dead to the world for two days and alive only in the next. Upon the return of his soul to his body, they all gathered round him, asking him: ‘How have you come back to life? What have you seen? What have you heard?’ He would say nothing about it, being deeply amazed at what he had seen in the other world, and would only say: ‘Save yourselves!’ When many of them pressed him hard to say what he had seen in the other world after his death, he replied: ‘If I should tell you, you would not believe me or want to listen to me.’ When they urged him yet further, he said: ‘Repent every moment, and pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His most pure Mother.’

Even in our own time, cases of seeming death occur. The visions and reports of those who have seemed to die and have then returned to life are not contradictory, but complement and augment one another. For example: every person who ‘dies’ sees some part of that other world that is vast, immeasurably larger than this world. Many see their long-dead kinsfolk and talk with them—this being quite a common occurrence. In 1926, in the village of Vevčani, Meletije P. was on his deathbed. He was talking with his children who had died twenty years earlier. When his living relatives said to him: ‘You’re rambling!’ he replied: ‘I’m not; I’m talking with them just as I’m talking with you, and I can see them just as clearly as I can see you!’

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.