Daily Devotional
Saturday, June 8, 2024 (NS), May 26, 2024 (OS)
No Fasting.
Saturday of the Fifth Week
The commemoration of the holy Apostle Karpos of the Seventy.
Scripture Readings
Paschalion — Movable Calendar
Saturday of the Fifth Week
Epistle
The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 37]. In those days:
15 35Paul and Barnabas were spending time in Antioch, teaching and preaching as good tidings the word of the Lord, with many others also. 36And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return now and visit our brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are holding fast.” 37And Barnabas determined to take with them John, who is called Mark. 38But Paul kept on thinking it not meet to take along that one, since he withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. 39Then a sharp contention arose, so as to separate them from one another: and Barnabas, having taken Mark, sailed away to Cyprus; 40and Paul, having chosen for himself Silas, went forth, having been commended to the grace of God by the brethren. 41And he passed through Syria and Cilicia, rendering more firm the churches.
Gospel
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 38]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:
10 27“The sheep, those that are Mine, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28“And I give them eternal life, and in no wise shall they ever perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29“My Father, Who hath given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30“I and the Father are one.” 31Then the Jews took up stones again that they might stone Him. 32Jesus answered them, “Many good works I showed you from My Father. For what kind of work among these are ye trying to stone Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we are not about to stone Thee, but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “Ye are gods [Ps. 81(82):6]”’? 35“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came to pass—and the Scripture is not able to be broken— 36“do ye say of Him, Whom the Father sanctified and sent forth into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest,’ because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37“If I do not the works of My Father, cease believing Me. 38“But if I do, even if ye believe Me not, believe the works, that ye might come to know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
Menaion — Fixed Calendar
The commemoration of the holy Apostle Karpos of the Seventy.
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.
Gospel
No reading given.
Lives of the Saints (Prologue)
June 8th – Civil Calendar
May 26th – Church Calendar
1. The Holy Apostle Carpus.
One of the Seventy, he was a follower and companion of the Apostle Paul, who installed him as Bishop of Varna in Thrace. But he also preached the Gospel in Crete, where he was host to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. St. Dionysius testifies that he was a man with an exceptionally pure mind, of great humility and guilelessness. He further relates how the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to Carpus in a vision with His angels, and how he never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision. He endured many assaults for the name of Christ, and finally suffered at the hands of the faithless Jews and was murdered. His soul entered into the kingdom of God, to delight forever in the vision of the Lord in glory.
2. The Holy Apostle Alphaeus.
He was the father of two of the Twelve Apostles: Iakovos the son of Alphaeus, and Matthew the Evangelist. He entered peacefully into rest.
3. Our Holy Father John of Psychaita.
He left the world at an early age and retired to the Lavra of Psychaita in Constantinople, where he labored in asceticism for many years for the love of Christ. He was exiled in the eighth century for his veneration of the holy icons.
4. The Holy New-Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica.
This martyr of Christ’s was born in Thessalonica during the Turkish oppression. He was tricked by the Turks as a young man into accepting Islam, and at first his conscience did not trouble him for such an act, and he went on pilgrimage with some other Moslem pilgrims and became a dervish. But, living as a dervish in Thessalonica, he began to repent bitterly, and in his repentance the thought came to him that there was no way in which he could cleanse himself from the terrible sin except with his own blood. So, having repented and resolved on martyrdom, he appeared before the Turks dressed as a Christian. They threw him into prison and put him to various tortures. But Alexander would only cry out: ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die!’ Finally the Turks sentenced him to death, which filled the repentant Alexander with joy, realizing that the sentence was a sign of God’s forgiveness of his sins and acceptance of his sacrifice. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794, and was glorified in the Church both in heaven and on earth.
FOR CONSIDERATION
We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord Who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, one a pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St. Carpus related this event to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).
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.