Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Thirty-Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the General Epistle of Saint Iakovos [§ 54].

3 ¹Brethren, cease becoming many teachers, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment; ²for in many things we all stumble. If anyone stumble not in word, this one is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ³Behold, we put bits in the mouths of the horses, in order that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. ⁴Behold also the ships, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about by a very small rudder, wheresoever the impulse of him who steereth may will. ⁵Thus also the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a forest a little fire kindleth! ⁶And the tongue is a fire, the world of injustice. So the tongue, the one which defileth the body, is being set in our members and setteth on fire the wheel of birth; and it is set on fire by Gehenna. ⁷For every species, not only of beasts and of birds, but also of reptiles and things of the sea as well, is being tamed and hath been tamed by the human species. ⁸But not one of mankind is able to tame the tongue; it is an unrestrainable evil, full of death-bearing poison. ⁹With it we bless the God and Father, and with it we curse men who have come into being according to the similitude of God. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not thus to be happening.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 55]. At that time:

12 ¹⁸Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus; and they questioned Him, saying, ¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if anyone’s brother should die, and leave behind a wife, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother. ²⁰“There were then seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and when he died, he left no seed. ²¹“And the second took her, and died, and neither did he leave seed. And the third in like manner. ²²“And the seven took her, and left no seed. Last of all the woman died also. ²³“Therefore, in the resurrection, whenever they rise, of which of them shall she be wife? For the seven had her to wife.” ²⁴And Jesus answered and said to them, “Ye are led astray, are ye not, on this account, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God? ²⁵“For whenever they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels who are in the heavens. ²⁶“But concerning the dead, that they are being raised, ye read, did ye not, in the book of Moses, in the passage concerning the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob [cf. Ex. 3:6]’? ²⁷“He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore are greatly led astray.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Forefeast of Theophany, and the Synaxis of the holy Seventy Apostles.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

For Sl. usage, see [Rom. 8:8-14].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 2].

1 ¹⁸No one hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, that One declareth Him.

¹⁹And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent forth priests and Levites from Jerusalem that they should ask him, “Who art thou?” ²⁰He not only confessed and denied not, but also confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹And they questioned him, “What then? Art thou Elias?” And he saith, “I am not.” “Art thou the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²²Then they said to him, “Who art thou, that we might give an answer to those who sent us? What sayest thou about thyself?” ²³He said, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord [Is. 40:3],’ even as the Prophet Esaias said.” ²⁴And they who had been sent forth were from the Pharisees. ²⁵And they asked him, and said to him, “Why baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, saying, “I baptize in water, but there standeth One in your midst Whom ye know not. ²⁷“He it is, the One Who cometh after me, Who hath come to be before me, of Whom I am not worthy that I should loose the thong of His sandal.” ²⁸These things took place in Bethabara across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

For Sl. usage, see [Lk. 10:1-21]

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 17th – Civil Calendar
January 4th – Church Calendar

1. The Assembly of the Seventy Apostles.

In addition to the twelve great apostles, the Lord chose besides seventy other, lesser apostles, and sent them to preach to the Jews. He sent them out two by two before His face, to each town and place, saying: “Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves” (Lk. 10:1-5). But as Judas, one of the Twelve, fell away from the Lord, so some among these Seventy withdrew from Him, not with the intention of betraying Him but from human weakness and lack of faith (Jn. 6:66). And as Judas’ place was filled from among the other apostles, so the places of these were filled with others chosen. These apostles labored in the same way as the twelve great apostles; they were the assistants of the Twelve in the spreading and strengthening of the Church of God in the world. They suffered much torture and malice, from men and from demons, but their firm faith and burning love for the risen Lord made them conquerors of the world and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

2. St. Evstathius (Jevstatije), Archbishop of Serbia.

Born in the diocese of Budim (Budimlje), of God-fearing parents, he became a monk as a young man in Zeta, then moved on to greater asceticism at Hilandar. In time he became abbot of Hilandar, was then chosen to be Bishop of Zeta, and after some time had elapsed, to be Archbishop of Serbia. He was a man of great virtue and led Christ’s flock with zeal and love. He entered peacefully into rest at a great age in 1279, exclaiming as death drew near: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” His relics are preserved in the crypt of the church at Peć.

3. The Eunuch of Queen Candace.

The Apostle Philip baptized this negro eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). After his Baptism, the eunuch returned home and began to teach about Christ. He was the first apostle of the Faith among the negroes of Ethiopia. He died a martyr and was counted worthy of the kingdom of God.

4. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Onuphrius of Hilandar.

He was possessed of great anger towards his parents in his youth, and declared to the Turks that he wished to become one of them. He immediately repented of these words, went to Hilandar and there became a monk. Tormented by his conscience, he determined on martyrdom. So, with the blessing of his spiritual father, he went to Trnovo and presented himself to the Turkish authorities, stating that he was a Christian and mocking Mohammed, as a result of which he was slain on January 4th, 1818, at the age of 32. The body of this spiritual hero was lost, as the Turks threw it into the sea.

FOR CONSIDERATION

How do we reply to those who say that there is no room in our logic for Christ the worker of miracles? Answer simply: Place yourself within His. In His logic are contained all eternity and all transient goodness, so you could, if you wished, find a place therein for yourself. If you cannot fit a barrel into a thimble, you can fit a thimble into a barrel. Clement of Alexandria says: ‘Philosophers are as children until they become mature in Christ...’ for the truth is never contained only in the processes of rational thought. Christ came to make men new, and so also to make new the logic of men. He is our Logos and our logic. Thus we must direct our minds in accordance with His, not He with ours. He is the corrective of our minds. The sun does not adjust itself to our clocks, but they to the sun.

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.