Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sunday of the Third Week

Mode Two — Third Eothinon

Epistle

For the Third Sunday

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 88]. Brethren:

5 ¹Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through Whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. ³And not only so, but we boast in afflictions also, knowing that the affliction worketh out patience; ⁴and patience, a tested character; and a tested character, hope. ⁵And the hope doth not put to shame, for the love of God hath been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us. ⁶For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸But God commendeth His own love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

For the New-martyrs Under the Turkish Yoke

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 99]. Brethren:

8 ²⁸We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose. ²⁹For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformable to the image of His Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰But whom He foreordained, these also He called; and whom He called, these also He justified; and whom He justified, these also He glorified. ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He Who indeed spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God? God is the One Who justifieth. ³⁴Who is the one who condemneth? Christ is the One Who died, but much more is He the One also Who was raised, Who also is at the right of God, Who also intercedeth for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶Even as it hath been written: “For on account of Thee, we are being put to death the whole day; we were counted as sheep of slaughter [Ps. 43(44):23(22)].” ³⁷But in all these things we more than conquer through the One Who loved us. ³⁸For I have been persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things coming, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel

For the Third Sunday

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 18]. The Lord said:

6 ²²“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³“But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is the darkness? ²⁴“No one is able to serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye are not able to serve God and mammon. ²⁵“On this account I say to you, cease being anxious for your soul, what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. The soul is more than food and the body is more than raiment, is it not? ²⁶“Look at the birds of the heaven, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor do they gather into storehouses; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Ye much more excel them, do ye not? ²⁷“And which of you, by being anxious, is able to add one cubit onto his stature? ²⁸“And why are ye anxious about raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, nor do they spin. ²⁹“And I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself as one of these. ³⁰“But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into an oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ³¹“Therefore do not become anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ ³²“For all these things the nations seek after; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all of these things. ³³“But be seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

For the New-martyrs Under the Turkish Yoke:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 106]. The Lord said to His disciples, “Be taking heed of men:

21 ¹²“For they shall lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors on account of My name; ¹³“but it shall prove to be a testimony for you. ¹⁴“Therefore settle it for yourselves in your hearts not to premeditate to make a defense; ¹⁵“for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all those who oppose you shall not be able to contradict nor withstand. ¹⁶“And ye shall be delivered up also by parents, and kinfolk, and friends, and brethren; and they shall put some of you to death. ¹⁷“And ye shall be hated by all for My name’s sake. ¹⁸“But a hair of your head in no wise shall perish. ¹⁹“In your patience win your souls.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Wonder-workers and Unmercenaries Kosmas and Damian who were martyred at Rome.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 153]. Brethren:

12 ²⁷Ye are the body of Christ, and members severally.

²⁸And God set for Himself some in the Church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then works of power, then free gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. ²⁹All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All do not have works of power, do they? ³⁰All do not have free gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? ³¹All do not interpret, do they? But keep on desiring earnestly the better gifts of grace. And yet I show you a more surpassing way.

13 ¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophecy, and know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains from one place to another, but I have not love, I am nothing. ³And if I dole out all of my goods, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but I have not love, I am being profited nothing. ⁴Love is long-suffering, is kind; love is not jealous; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; ⁵doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil; ⁶rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; ⁷covereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸Love never falleth away.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ mid 34]. At that time:

10 ¹After Jesus called to Himself His twelve disciples, He gave to them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every weakness.... ⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, “Do not begin to go into the way of the nations, and do not begin to enter into a city of the Samaritans. ⁶“But go rather to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel. ⁷“And as ye go, be preaching, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens hath drawn near.’ ⁸“Be healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons; freely ye received, freely give.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 14th – Civil Calendar
July 1st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Cosmas and Damian.

Unmercenary doctors and wonder-workers, these two saints were brothers. Born in Rome, baptized as children and given a Christian education, they were endowed by God with the gift of healing, generally by the laying-on of their hands, of both men and animals. They sought no reward for their work, only urging the sick to faith in Christ the Lord. Inheriting great wealth, they compassionately divided it among the poor and needy. The Emperor Galerius was on the throne in Rome at that time. Persecutors of the Christian Faith brought these two holy brothers, bound in chains, before him. After prolonged interrogation, the emperor charged them to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. Cosmas and Damian not only refused to obey the Emperor; they urged him to forsake dead idols and come to the knowledge of the one, true God. ‘Our God is not created, but is the Creator of all, and your gods come of the imaginings of men and the hands of artists. If there were no artists to make your gods, you would have nothing to worship.’ After a miracle was performed on the emperor himself—healing him of a grave infirmity—the emperor declared his faith in Christ and let the holy brothers go in peace. They continued to glorify Christ our God and to heal the sick, and were themselves glorified on all sides by the people. A doctor, a former teacher of theirs, envying their fame, lured them into the hills on the pretext of collecting herbs and stoned them to death. They suffered with honor for the Christian Faith in 284. Their memory endures in the Church on earth, and their souls went to the kingdom of the Lord, to live eternally in glory and joy.

2. Our Holy Father Peter the Patrician.

This saint was a nobleman of Constantinople and a military commander in the time of the Emperor Nikephoros I (802-811). In a war against Bulgaria, the emperor was killed and Peter, together with fifty other Greek generals and princes, was captured and cast into prison. He was miraculously delivered from prison by St. John the Theologian. He then forsook all worldly glory, left his wife and son and withdrew to Mount Olympus, where, as a monk and a disciple of St. Ioannikios the Great, he lived in monasticism for thirty-four years. After the deaths of his wife and son, he settled in Constantinople, where he spent eight further years in fasting and prayer and entered into rest in the Lord in 865, at the age of seventy-seven.

3. The Holy Martyr Potitus.

A thirteen-year-old youth from Sardinia, he endured many trials for the sake of Christ, both from his father and from the official persecutors of Christianity. Potitus was beheaded in the time of the Emperor Antoninus (138-161), after healing and baptising the emperor’s daughter, Agnes.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Christians affirm the link between this world and the next in their prayers and alms for the dead. The Church in this world and the next is one Church, one body, one being; as the root of a tree beneath the earth is one organism with its trunk and branches above the earth. From this it is clear how we, being part of the Church on earth, can receive help from the saints in the Church in heaven, and that departed sinners can, in the other world, receive help from us on earth. St. Athanasius says, ‘As with wine inside a barrel, which, when the vineyard flowers, senses it and flowers together with it, so it is with the souls of sinners. They receive some release from the bloodless Sacrifice, offered for them in charity,’ wrought for the sake of their peace. St. Ephraim the Syrian uses the same example of wine and vineyard, then concludes: ‘And thus, when there exists such mutual sensitivity even among plants, do not the departed feel yet more keenly the prayers and sacrifices made for them?’

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.