Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 67]. Beloved:

2 ⁹The Lord knoweth how to deliver the pious out of temptation, and to keep the unjust who are under punishment until a day of judgment, ¹⁰and, most of all, those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise dominion. They are daring, self-willed! They tremble not at blaspheming dignities; ¹¹whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a reviling condemnation against them before the Lord. ¹²But these—as irrational animals, in accordance with nature, having been born for capture and corruption, blaspheming in which things they are ignorant—shall be destroyed in their corruption, ¹³and are about to receive the wages of unrighteousness, since they deem it pleasure living softly in the day. Spots they are and blemishes, revelling in their deceits, feasting with you, ¹⁴having eyes full of an adulteress and of incessant sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart which hath been exercised with greedy desires, children of a curse! ¹⁵Forsaking the straight way, they were led astray, following the way of Balaam, son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. ¹⁶But he had reproof of his own transgression of the law: the dumb beast of burden which spoke in a man’s voice hindered the madness of the prophet. ¹⁷These are waterless fountains, clouds being driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness hath been kept forever. ¹⁸For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they entice with the desires of the flesh, by licentious acts, the ones who verily escape from those who conduct themselves in error, ¹⁹promising them freedom who are themselves slaves of corruption; for by whom anyone hath been defeated, by the same hath he been enslaved. ²⁰For if, after they escaped the pollutions of the world by a full knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they then are again entangled in these and defeated, the last state hath become worse to them than the first. ²¹For it would have been better for them not to have acknowledged the way of righteousness, than, having acknowledged it, to have turned from the holy commandment which was delivered to them. ²²But the word of the proverb hath happened to them: “The dog returned to its own vomit [cf. Prov. 26:11]”; and, “The sow, having washed herself, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 60]. The Lord said to His disciples:

13 ¹⁴“Whenever ye see ‘the abomination of the desolation [cf. Dan. 9:27, 12:11],’ which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not—the one who readeth, let him understand—then let those in Judæa flee to the mountains. ¹⁵“And the one who is on the housetop, let him not come down into the house, nor go in to take away anything out of his house. ¹⁶“And the one who is in the field, let him not return to the things behind, to take up his outer garment. ¹⁷“And woe to those who are with child, and to those who give suck in those days! ¹⁸“But be praying that your flight might not take place in winter. ¹⁹“For there shall be affliction in those days, such as hath not been the like from the beginning of creation which God created until the present, and never shall be. ²⁰“And if the Lord did not shorten those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose for Himself, He shortened the days. ²¹“And then if anyone should say to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ; behold, there,’ do not begin to believe it. ²²“For false christs and false prophets shall be raised up, and shall produce signs and wonders, with a view to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. ²³“Be taking heed; behold, I have told you all things beforehand.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

25. The commemoration of our father among the saints, Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

for Sl. usage, see [1 Cor. 12:7-11].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 36]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

10 ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰“The thief cometh not, except that he might steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. ¹²“But the hireling, who indeed is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth the sheep. ¹³“Now the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not about the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are Mine, and am known of those that are Mine. ¹⁵“Even as the Father knoweth Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also it is needful for Me to bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 7th – Civil Calendar
January 25th – Church Calendar

1. St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople.

Born in Nazianzus of a Greek father (who later became a Christian and a bishop) and a Christian mother, he studied in Athens before his Baptism with St. Basil the Great and Julian the Apostate. He often foretold to Julian that he would be an apostate and a persecutor of the Church, and so it came to pass. Gregory was especially influenced by his mother, Nonna. He was baptized when he had completed his studies. St. Basil consecrated him bishop of Sasima, and Emperor Theodosios called him to the vacant archiepiscopal throne of Constantinople. His works were manifold, the best-known being his theological writings, for which he received the title ‘the Theologian’. He is particularly famed for the depth of his Sermons on the Holy Trinity. He also wrote against the heretic Macedonius, who taught wrongly that the Spirit was a creature of God, and against Apollinarius who taught that Christ did not have a human soul but that His divinity was in place of His soul. He also wrote against the Emperor Julian the Apostate, his one time school-fellow. In the year 381, when a quarrel broke out in the council concerning his election as archbishop, he withdrew himself, declaring: ‘Those who deprive us of the (archiepiscopal) throne cannot deprive us of God.’ He then left Constantinople and went to Nazianzus, remaining there in retirement, prayer and the writing of instructive books until his death. And, although he was in weak health all his life due to the ceaseless attacks of the heretics, he lived to the age of seventy. His relics were later taken to Rome, and his head to the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow. He was, and remains, a great and wonderful light of the Orthodox Church, as much for the meekness and purity of his character as for the unsurpassable depth of his mind. He entered into rest in the Lord in the year 389.

2. Our Holy Father Publius.

A senator at first, Publius came to know the light of Christ, left his honors and gave his goods to the poor and himself to the ascetic life in the vicinity of his town, Zeugma, on the Euphrates. He founded two communities and entered into rest in the Lord in the year 380.

3. Our Holy Father Mares.

He was distinguished by external beauty and a sweet singing voice. He retired from the world and lived in a hut for thirty-seven years in fasting and prayer and in cleansing his heart from thoughts. He entered into rest in the Lord as an elderly man of ninety in the year 430.

4. The Holy Martyr Felicitas and her seven sons.

She, together with her seven sons, was condemned to death for her Christian Faith in 164, in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus. She begged God only that she should not be killed before her sons, so that she might be able to encourage them in their torture and death not to deny Christ. And so it came to pass, by the providence of God. This mother joyfully bade her sons farewell one after the other, until she had seen all seven executed. Then she also, with thanksgiving to God, embraced a martyr’s death. They all suffered in Rome, where their relics are preserved.

FOR CONSIDERATION

They deceive themselves who self-confidently assert that they know men well and that no one can deceive them. Who, but the one God Who knows the secrets of the heart, can guess what kind of spiritual being any man is? Even the great saints were mistaken in people. For example: St. Basil for a long time considered a hypocritical heretic to be a holy man, and defended him against his many attackers until he was in the end, in bitter disappointment, convinced of the other’s deceit. St. Gregory the Theologian baptized a philosopher called Maximus and loved him so greatly that he shared his house and table with him. But this Maximus was as wicked and cunning as a snake, and after a while he managed by intrigues and bribes to be accepted by the citizens of Constantinople as patriarch in place of St. Gregory. When, after many intrigues, this trial was removed, Gregory was upbraided for having kept his greatest enemy at his side. ‘We are not to blame,’ replied the saint, ‘if we cannot see through a man’s wickedness. God alone knows man’s inner secrets. And we are told by the commandments to open our hearts with fatherly love to anyone who approaches us.’ The good, kindly man cannot easily comprehend the wickedness of the wicked man.

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.