Daily Devotional

Thursday, June 6, 2024 (NS), May 24, 2024 (OS)

No Fasting.

Thursday of the Fifth Week

The commemoration of our venerable Father Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 35]. In those days:

For Gk. usage, Acts 14:20-15:5; for Sl. usage, Acts 14:20-27.

14 ²⁰Paul went away with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹And having preached the Gospel to that city and having made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, ²²adding strength to the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that “through many temptations it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God.” ²³And after they ordained presbyters for them in every church, and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in Whom they had believed. ²⁴And after they passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. ²⁵And having spoken the word in Perga, they came down to Attaleia. ²⁶And from that place they sailed off to Antioch, from which place they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. ²⁷And after they came and gathered together the Church, they reported how much God did with them, and that He opened to the nations a door of faith. ²⁸And they were spending there not a little time with the disciples.

15 ¹And certain men, having come down from Judæa, were teaching the brethren, “Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye are not able to be saved.” ²Then after there arose no little disputation for Paul and Barnabas with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas and certain others from among them to go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and presbyters, about this question. ³They indeed therefore were sent forth under escort by the Church and were passing through Phœnicia and Samaria, telling in detail the conversion of the nations; and they were causing great joy to all the brethren. ⁴And having come into Jerusalem, they were received by the Church and the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how much God did with them.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 35]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

9 ³⁹“For judgment I came into this world, in order that they who see not may see; and they who see might become blind.” ⁴⁰And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not also blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If ye were blind, ye should not have sin; but now ye say, ‘We see’; therefore your sin remaineth.

10 ¹“Verily, verily, I say to you, the one who entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but goeth up from another place, that one is a thief and a robber. ²“But the one who entereth by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. ³“To this one the doorkeeper openeth, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. ⁴“And whenever he should put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵“But a stranger in no wise will they follow, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.” ⁶This parable Jesus spoke to them; but they understood not what it was which He spoke to them. ⁷Then said Jesus to them again, “Verily, verily, I say to you that I am the door of the sheep. ⁸“All, as many as came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep heard them not. 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.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain.

Epistle

No reading given.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

5 ¹⁴“Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. ¹⁵“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. ¹⁶“Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

¹⁷“Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place. ¹⁹“Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

for Sl. usage, see [Mt. 11:27-30].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 6th – Civil Calendar
May 24th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Simeon the Stylite of the Wondrous Mountain.

This wondrous and holy man was born in Antioch in 521, in the reign of the Emperor Justin I the Elder. His father perished in an earthquake and he was left alone with his mother, Martha. When he was six years old, he went away into the desert to John, a spiritual teacher there, and under his guidance, gave himself to a strict asceticism of fasting and prayer, to the wonderment of all who saw him. Whilst enduring fearful demonic trials, he received great comfort and grace from the Lord and His angels. Christ the Lord appeared to him in the form of a handsome youth, and after this vision, Simeon’s heart was inflamed with great love for Christ. He spent many years on a pillar, praying and singing psalms. Led by God, he took himself off to the mountain called ‘Wondrous’ by the Lord Himself, and is known as ‘of the Wondrous Mountain’ because of this. The measure of his love for God was such that rare grace was given him, by the help of which he was able to heal every sort of illness, tame wild beasts and perceive the most distant regions of the earth and the hearts of men. He was taken to see the heavens, conversed with angels, harried the demons, prophesied, spent thirty days at a time without sleep and even longer without food, receiving nourishment at the hands of angels. The words of the Savior: ‘He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do’ (Jn 14:12), were completely fulfilled in him. In the year 596, at the age of seventy-five, Simeon went to the Lord, to the eternal enjoyment of the vision of the face of God in the company of the angels.

2. The Holy Martyr Meletius Stratelates, with 1218 soldiers and their wives and children.

Accused of the destruction of a pagan temple in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, Meletius gave forth his holy soul nailed to a tree. Many solders under his command, who refused to deny Christ their Lord, suffered with honor in the second century, and went to the kingdom of Christ our God.

3. Our Holy Father Nikita the Stylite.

He lived an unrestrained and vicious life as a youth. When once he happened to enter a church, he heard the words of the Prophet Isaias: ‘Wash you (your sins), make you clean’ (1:16). The words penetrated deeply into his soul, and effected a complete change in his life. Nikita left his home, his wife and his land and entered a monastery close to Pereyaslavl, where he labored until his death in strict asceticism. He enveloped his body in chains and shut himself up in a pillar, being therefore known as a stylite. God granted him great grace, and he healed people afflicted with various torments. He healed Michael, Prince of Chernigov, of palsy. One day some evildoers saw the chains on him, and seeing them gleam, thought them to be silver, so they killed him one night, took the chains off him and carried them away. This happened on May 16th, 1186. He appeared to a certain elder, Simeon, after his death and told him to place the chains, when they were found, in the grave beside his body.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘To the pure, all things are pure,’ says the apostle. The food that a man eats cannot be called unclean in itself; however, some foods may evoke impure thoughts and desires in a man. St. Simeon the Stylite pondered beautifully on this in a conversation with his elder, John. The elder said: ‘A man cannot make either food or drink impure, because the Lord says in the Scriptures: “Even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Gen. 9:3)’. Holy Simeon replied: ‘Although food cannot make a man impure, it can cause impure thoughts to arise and darken the mind; it can give birth to the passions and flesh them out, transforming a spiritual man into a carnal, and turning his thoughts to earthly desires.’ Is not the water that falls from a cloud pure? But when too much rain falls, the crops rot because of it. Likewise, strong food brings about the corruption of a man’s spiritual and moral being.

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.