Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 111]. Brethren:

13 ¹Let every soul be subject to authorities which govern. For there is no authority except from God; and the existing authorities have been appointed by God. ²So that the one who sets himself against the authority hath withstood the ordinance of God; and they who have withstood shall receive judgment to themselves. ³For the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to bad ones. And dost thou wish not to be afraid of the authority? Be doing that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same. ⁴For he is a minister of God to thee for the good. But if thou be doing evil, be afraid; for not in vain doth he bear the sword, for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to the one who practiseth that which is bad. ⁵Wherefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of the wrath, but also because of the conscience. ⁶For on this account ye also pay tributes; for they are public workers of God, persevering for this same thing. ⁷Render then to all their dues: to whom the tribute is due, the tribute; to whom the customs duty, the toll; to whom the fear, the fear; to whom the honor, the honor. ⁸Cease owing even one person even one thing, except to be loving one another. For the one who loveth the other hath fulfilled the law; ⁹to wit, “Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet [Ex. 20:13-17]”; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this phrase, namely, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself [Lev. 19:18].” ¹⁰Love worketh no ill to a neighbor; therefore love is the filling up of the law.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 47]. The Lord said:

12 ³⁰“The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who gathereth not with Me scattereth. ³¹“On this account I say to you every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. ³²“And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming one. ³³“Either make the tree good and the fruit of it good, or make the tree rotten and the fruit of it rotten; for the tree is known from the fruit. ³⁴“O offspring of vipers, how are ye, being evil, able to speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ³⁵“The good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. ³⁶“But I say to you, that every idle word, whatsoever men shall speak, they shall render an account concerning it in the day of judgment. ³⁷“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Seven Youths ("the Seven Sleepers") of Ephesus: Maximilianos, Exakoustodianos, Iamvlichos, Martinianos, Dionysios, John, and Constantine.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 17th – Civil Calendar
August 4th – Church Calendar

1. The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus.

There was a great persecution of Christians under the Emperor Decius. The emperor himself went to Ephesus, and there prepared a riotous festival in honor of dead idols and also a vicious slaughter of Christians. Seven youths, all of them soldiers, held themselves apart from the foul offering of sacrifice, and wholeheartedly begged the one God to save the Christian people. They were the sons of the most eminent nobles in Ephesus, and their names were: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian, and Antoninus. When they were accused before the emperor, they hid on a hill called Ochlon outside Ephesus, concealing themselves in a cave. When the emperor discovered this, he commanded that the cave be walled-in. God then, in His far-seeing providence, let a miraculous and long-lasting sleep fall on the young men. The imperial courtiers Theodore and Rufinus, secret Christians, caused a copper catafalque with leaden plaques to be made, on which were written the names of these young men and their death by martyrdom under the Emperor Decius. One hundred ninety-four years then passed. In the time of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger (408-450), there arose a great dispute about the resurrection of the dead, for there were some who doubted the resurrection. Emperor Theodosios was greatly grieved at this dispute among the faithful, and prayed God that He would in some way reveal the truth to the people. At that time of altercation in the Church, some shepherds of a certain Adolios, who owned Ochlon, began building pens for their sheep and took stone after stone from this cave. Then the youths awoke from their sleep, young and in full health as they had fallen asleep. This marvel was noised abroad on all sides, and Theodosios himself came with a great retinue and spoke apart with the young men. After a week, they prayed to God to take them from the clamor of the world, and again entered into sleep, the sleep of death, to await the general resurrection. The emperor wanted to place their bodies in golden coffins, but they appeared to him in a dream and told him to leave them in the earth, as they had been.

2. The New-Hieromartyr Kosmas, Equal to the Apostles.

Born in Aitolia, in the village of Megadendron (Great Tree), he went off to the Holy Mountain as a young man and there, in the monastery of Philotheou, was tonsured as a monk. But, urged by a constant desire to preach the Gospel to the people, he went to Constantinople, where he asked the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim II for this. He visited all the Danube area, preaching the Gospel, working especially in Albania, where he suffered at the hands of a certain Kurt Pasha, who was stirred up by the Jews against Kosmas. Kosmas was strangled by the Turks and then cast into a river, in 1779. His wonder-working relics are preserved in the village of Kalikontasi, in the church of the holy Mother of God, not far from the town of Berati. He suffered for his Lord at the age of sixty-five.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Keep on asking, and it shall be given you,’ says the Lord (Matt. 7:7). As parents give to their children all that they ask for that is good for them, so our God, in His love for mankind, gives to men all that they ask of Him that is of aid to their salvation. St. Kosmas, as a monk of the Holy Mountain, begged two things of God: to preach the Gospel to the people and to suffer a martyr for the Faith. For a monk of the Holy Mountain, linked by obedience to his monastery, these two desires might have seemed unlikely of fulfillment. But God is almighty. God perfectly fulfilled both of Kosmas’ desires. His joy when he received the patriarch’s blessing to leave the Holy Mountain and go among the people to preach the Gospel was indescribable, and he had another similar moment of joy when the servants of the Turkish pasha announced that, according to the pasha’s orders, he must die. Full of joy, the saint fell to his knees, thanking God for having fulfilled this wish also, and he gave his body to death and his soul to the living God.

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.