Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 138].

7 ²⁴Brethren, wherein each was called, in this let him abide with God.

²⁵Now concerning the virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion, as one who hath been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful. ²⁶I think therefore this to be good on account of the present necessity—that for a man to be so is good. ²⁷Hast thou been bound to a wife? Cease seeking to be loosed. Hast thou been loosed from a wife? Cease seeking a wife. ²⁸But even if thou marry, thou hast not sinned. And if the virgin should marry, she did not sin. But such shall have affliction in the flesh, but I am trying to spare you. ²⁹Now this I say, brethren, the time hath been shortened henceforth, that even they who have wives be as though they did not have. ³⁰And they who weep, as though they wept not; and they who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they who buy, as though they possess not; ³¹and they who make use of this world, as though they did not use it to the full; for the fashion of this world passeth away. ³²But I wish you to be without care. The unmarried careth for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord. ³³But he who is married careth for the things of the world, how he shall please his wife. ³⁴The wife and the virgin also differ. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit, but she who is married careth for the things of the world, how she shall please her husband. ³⁵And this I say for your own profit, not that I might cast a noose upon you, but for that which is seemly, and for constant waiting on the Lord without distraction.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 61]. At that time:

15 ¹²The disciples of Jesus came to Him and said to Him, “Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard the saying?” ¹³But He answered and said, “Every plant which My Father, the heavenly One, did not plant shall be rooted out. ¹⁴“Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit.” ¹⁵And Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.” ¹⁶And Jesus said, “Are ye also still without understanding? ¹⁷“Do ye not yet perceive that everything that entereth into the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? ¹⁸“But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those defile the man. ¹⁹“For out of the heart cometh forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. ²⁰“These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not the man.”

²¹And Jesus went from that place and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Hermolaos and the Martyrs Hermippos and Hermocrates at Nicomedia, and the righteous Martyr Paraskeve of Rome.

Epistle

For the Hieromartyr:

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 284]. Child Timothy:

For Gk. usage, see 1 Tim. 3:13-4:5; for Sl. usage, see 1 Tim. 3:14-4:5.

3 ¹³They who have served well as deacons acquire a good degree for themselves and much boldness in faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly. ¹⁵But if I delay, I write in order that thou mayest know how one ought to be conducting oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, pillar and stay of the truth. ¹⁶And confessedly, great is the mystery of piety: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

4 ¹Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, ²speaking lies in hypocrisy, having been branded as to their own conscience, ³forbidding to marry, bidding to abstain from foods, which God created for partaking with giving of thanks by the faithful and those who have fully known the truth. ⁴For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away, if it is received with giving of thanks; ⁵for it is sanctified by the word of God and intercessory prayer.

For the righteous Martyr:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§§ 208, 209]. Brethren:

3 ²³Before faith came, we were being guarded under the law, having been closed up to the faith about to be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law hath become our tutor until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many as were baptized into Christ, ye put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise.

4 ¹Now I say, as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; ²but he is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time of the father. ³So we also, when we were infants, were enslaved under the elements of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵in order that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive what is our due, the adoption as sons.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 8th – Civil Calendar
July 26th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Hermolaus.

He was a priest in Nikomedia in the time of the Emperor Maximian, and was with the twenty thousand martyrs condemned by the emperor to be burned in their church (see December 28th). Hermolaus somehow escaped death on that occasion, together with two other priests, Hermippus and Hermocrates. Hermolaus baptized St. Panteleimon, with whom he was brought to trial, tortured and finally beheaded. Hermippus and Hermocrates suffered with them, and they were all crowned with wreaths of victory and glory in the kingdom of Christ. They suffered with honor in about 304.

2. Our Holy Mother, the Martyr Paraskeve.

Born in Rome of Christian parents, she was brought up from her earliest youth in the Christian Faith and gave herself wholeheartedly to the fulfilling of God’s commandments in her life. She brought others to the Faith by means of her true and deep faith and devout life. When her parents died, Paraskeve gave all her goods away to the poor and received the monastic schema. As a nun, she preached the truth of Christ with ever more burning zeal, not hiding from anyone, even though the Christian Faith was at that time subject to bloody persecution by the Roman authorities. Wicked Jews denounced Paraskeve for preaching a forbidden faith, and she was brought to trial before the Emperor Antoninus. All the emperor’s flattery was unavailing in shaking the faith of this servant of God. She was then put to torture by fire, and a white-hot helmet was placed on her head, but God saved her miraculously and she escaped and left Rome. She again began to go from city to city, there to bring the pagan people to the true Faith. In two more cities she was brought before princes and judges, and tortured for her Lord, performing on these occasions great miracles by the power of God and quickly recovering from her wounds. The pagans, as ever, called her miracles magic, and ascribed her recovery to the power and mercy of their gods. St. Paraskeve once said to a prince who was torturing her: ‘It is not your gods, O prince, who heal me, but my Christ, the true God.’ She was finally beheaded by a Prince Tarasios. Thus gloriously ended the fruitful life of this holy woman. Her relics were later taken to Constantinople. She suffered for Christ in the second century.

3. Our Holy Father Moses (Moisey) the Hungarian.

He was at the court of the young Prince Boris of Russia. Then, when the godless Svyatopolk murdered Boris, Moses escaped and fled to Kiev. A little later, he was taken to Poland as a slave by King Boleslav, and sold for 1,000 gold pieces to a young and depraved widow, the wife of one of Boleslav’s dead generals. This wicked woman tried to turn Moses to debauchery, but he would not be turned, having vowed to live chastely before the Lord. She then suggested marriage to him, but he refused. Moses secretly received monastic profession from a monk of the Holy Mountain, and appeared before his owner in his monastic schema. She bound him, and ordered that he be flogged and his private parts cut off. He spent five full years in hopeless enslavement to this evil woman, five years of pain and torture. But suddenly King Boleslav perished in a rebellion, in which this woman was also killed. Then Moses was free to go back to Kiev, where, with St. Anthony, he gave himself to prayer and silence. Overcoming all his vices, he helped many to free themselves from theirs; and his holy relics helped many (see the life of St. John the Long-suffering on July 18th). After ten years of silence in the Caves, St. Moses entered into rest on July 26th, 1043, and went to the eternal and virginal kingdom of Christ.

FOR CONSIDERATION

No passion is overcome without a great struggle. The holy fathers called the passion of concupiscence a mortal passion. When a dissolute man is saved from this passion, he is like a dead man raised to life. For those who live in the world, this passion is roused mainly through sight, but for those living in the desert it is roused mainly through thought and imagination. St. Sarah, that great ascetic, was tormented by the passion of lust for thirty years in the desert. She always succeeded, through prayer, in overcoming it and driving it from her. Once, this passion appeared to her in bodily form, and said to her: ‘You have overcome me, Sarah!’ Sarah humbly replied: ‘It is not I who have overcome you, but the Lord Christ.’ And, from that time, lustful thoughts left her forever. When St. Poemen was asked how a man could fight against lustful passions, he replied: ‘If a man guards his stomach and his tongue, he will be able to conquer himself.’ St. Anthony says that there are in the body three kinds of impulse: ‘...one natural, one from lack of restraint in food, and one from the demons’. Others have, further, spoken of lust taking its strength from anger and pride. But they were all in agreement that, alongside man’s sobriety and toil, God’s help is essential for a man to uproot the passion entirely. That it is possible for a man to keep himself pure is witnessed, among many others, by St. Moses the Hungarian, who lived fifty years in the world and ten in a monastery, sixty years in all, in utter, virginal purity.

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.