Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Second Period

Sunday of the Tenth Week

Mode One — Tenth Eothinon

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

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 72]. At that time:

17 ¹⁴There came to Jesus a certain man, kneeling down to Him and saying, ¹⁵“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth badly; for often he falleth into the fire, and often into the water. ¹⁶“And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they were not able to cure him.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and wayward generation, until when shall I be with you? Until when shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out from him; and the boy was cured from that hour. ¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why were we not able to cast it out?” ²⁰And Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For verily I say to you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. ²¹“But this kind goeth not out except by prayer and fasting.”

²²And while they dwelt in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men; ²³“and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy and Righteous Evdokimos, and the Forefeast of the Procession of the precious Cross.

Epistle

For the Righteous one:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 97]. Brethren:

8 ¹⁴As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵For ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye received a Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: ¹⁷And if children, also heirs—on the one hand heirs of God, on the other hand joint-heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we might also be glorified together. ¹⁸For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy in comparison to the future glory to be revealed in us. ¹⁹For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaiteth the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰For creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but on account of Him Who subjected it in hope, ²¹that the creation itself also shall be freed from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

for Sl. usage, see [Gal. 5:22-6:2].

Gospel

For the Righteous one:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 36]. The Lord said:

8 ¹⁶“No one, having lit a lamp, covereth it with a vessel or putteth it underneath a bed, but placeth it upon a lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light. ¹⁷“For nothing is secret which shall not become manifest, nor hidden that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸“Be taking heed then how ye hear: for whosoever hath, it shall be given to him; and whosoever hath not, even what he seemeth to have shall be taken away from him.”

¹⁹And His Mother and brethren came to Him, and were not able to meet with Him on account of the crowd. ²⁰And it was reported to Him by some who said, “Thy Mother and Thy brethren are standing outside, wishing to see Thee.” ²¹And He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

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

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 13th – Civil Calendar
July 31st – Church Calendar

1. St. Evdokimos (Eudocimus).

He was born in Cappadocia of devout parents, Basil and Evdokia. In the time of the Emperor Theophilus (829-842), Evdokimos was a young army officer. Even as a soldier, he endeavored with his whole heart to live according to the precepts of the Gospel. He kept his purity unstained and avoided converse with any woman except his mother. He was liberal to the poor, assiduous in the reading of holy books and yet more assiduous in prayer to God. He fled vain chatter and idle talk. ‘Among all the chaos and vanity of the world, he was like a lily among thistles, and like gold in the furnace.’ For his rare virtues, the emperor made him military governor of Cappadocia. In this high state, Evdokimos strove to be righteous before God and man. By God’s providence, he died early, at the age of thirty-three, and his relics were found to have healing power. An insane man touched his tomb and was healed, and a paralytic child stood upright and was made whole. After eighteen months, his mother opened his coffin, and found his body as though still alive, with no mark of corruption—and a wonderful fragrance arose from the saint’s body. His relics were later translated to Constantinople and buried in the new church of the holy Mother of God, built by Evdokimos’ parents.

2. The Holy Martyr Julitta.

From Caesarea in Cappadocia, she was involved in a quarrel with her neighbor over some land. The neighbor went to the judge and denounced her as a Christian, which put her at that time outside the protection of the law. St. Julitta was more willing to give up her land than her faith. But the wicked pagans were not willing even then to leave her in peace, but tortured her and finally burned her, in the year 303. Thus this handmaid of Christ sacrificed both her lands and her body for the sake of the eternal salvation of her soul.

3. St. Joseph of Arimathea.

Noble Joseph, a rich man, a member of the Jewish sanhedrin and a secret follower of Christ (Matt. 27:57; Jn 19:38), took Christ’s body down from the Cross together with Nicodemus, and laid it in his own new tomb. For this, he was fettered by the Jews and cast into prison. The risen Lord appeared to him and brought him to belief in His Resurrection. The Jews then released him from prison and drove him from his fatherland. He travelled around the world, preaching the Gospel of Christ, and took this Good News to England, where he entered into rest in the Lord.

4. St. John (Ioan) the Exarch.

A well-known Bulgarian priest and theologian in the time of the Emperor Simeon (893-927), he translated St. Basil’s ‘On the Six Days of Creation’ and St. John of Damascus’ ‘Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith’ into Slavonic. He entered peacefully into rest in the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Ascetics in the desert labor to break their own wills and live according to the will of God. Some may think, mistakenly, that a hermit lives completely alone. No hermit thinks that. He lives in the company of God and of His angels, and of the departed saints. Where a man’s mind is, there is his life. A hermit’s mind is set on the greatest, most pure and most numerous company in which a man can be. Once, Abba Mark reproached St. Arsenius the hermit thus: ‘For what cause do you flee our society and discourse?’ Arsenius replied: ‘God knows that I love you, but it is not possible to be with God and with men. In heaven, thousand upon thousand have but one will, but the wills of men are many and varied. That is why I cannot leave God and be with men.’

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.