Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 269].

4 ¹Brethren, we beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and to please God, in order that ye may abound more and more; ²for ye know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³For this is the will of God, your sanctification: for you to be abstaining from fornication, ⁴for each of you to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor— ⁵not in the passion of lust, even as also the nations which know not God— ⁶in order not to overstep and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger concerning all these things, even as we also told you before and bore witness. ⁷For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. ⁸The one therefore who refuseth, refuseth not man, but God, Who also gave His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning brotherly love, ye have no need for me to write to you, for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another; ¹⁰for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, to abound more and more, ¹¹and endeavor earnestly to be quiet, and to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we commanded you, ¹²in order that ye may walk in a manner becoming toward those outside, and that ye may have need of nothing.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 61]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

11 ⁴²“Woe to you, the Pharisees! For ye tithe the mint and the rue and every herb, and pass by the judgment and the love of God. These ye ought to have done, and not to keep on leaving aside those others. ⁴³“Woe to you, the Pharisees! For ye love the first seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are as the graves which are unseen, and the men who are walking over them do not know it.” ⁴⁵And answering, one of the doctors of the law saith to Him, “Teacher, when Thou sayest these things, Thou insultest us also.” ⁴⁶And He said, “Woe to you also, the doctors of the law! For ye burden men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Akindynos and those with him.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 331]. Brethren:

12 ¹We also, having so great a cloud of witnesses which is set around us, and having laid aside every weight and sin that is easily circumvented, let us by means of patience be running the course which is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the originator and accomplisher of our faith, Who, in exchange for the joy set before Him, endured a cross, having despised the shame, and hath sat down on the right of the throne of God. ³For consider the One Who hath endured contradiction by sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your souls.

⁴Ye did not yet resist as far as blood, struggling against sin. ⁵And ye have utterly forgotten the exhortation which He discourseth with you as to sons, “My son, cease making small account of the chastisement of the Lord, nor be faint when reproved by Him [Prov. 3:11]. ⁶“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth [cf. Prov. 3:12].” ⁷If ye endure chastisement, God is dealing with you as with sons; for who is a son whom the father chastiseth not? ⁸But if ye are without chastisement, of which all have become partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons. ⁹Furthermore, we indeed used to have fathers of our flesh as instructors, and we were giving them respect. We shall much more be subject to the Father of the spirits and live, shall we not? ¹⁰For they indeed for a few days were chastening us according to that which seemed fit to them; but He for our profit, for us to partake of His holiness.

for Sl. usage, see [Eph. 6:10-17].

Gospel

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.”

for Sl. usage, see [Mt. 10:16-22].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 15th – Civil Calendar
November 2nd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Acyndinus, Pegasius, Anempodistus, Aphthonius, Elpidephorus and others with them.

They were Persian Christians, and suffered in the time of King Sapor, in 355. The first three were servants at the court of this king, but secretly served Christ their Lord. When they were arrested and brought to trial before the king, he asked them whence they came. To this they replied: ‘Our paternity and life is the most holy Trinity, coessential and undivided, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God.’ The king gave them over to harsh torture, and they endured it all courageously, singing psalms and with prayer on their lips. At the time of their torture and imprisonment, angels of God appeared to them several times, and once the Lord Christ Himself, as a Man ‘with a face radiant as the sun’. When one of the torturers, Aphthonius, saw with wonder that boiling lead did no harm to the martyrs, he believed in Christ and cried out: ‘Great is the Christian God!’ He was then immediately beheaded, and many others saw and believed. Then the king commanded that Acyndinus, Pegasius and Anempodistus be sewn into goat-skins and thrown into the sea. Then St. Aphthonius appeared from the other world with three shining angels, and they bore the martyrs to dry land and set them free. Elpidephorus was a courtier. When he revealed that he was a Christian, and denounced the king for his slaughter of innocent Christians, the king condemned him to death, and Elpidephorus was beheaded along with about seven thousand other Christians. Then the three first-named martyrs were finally thrown into a burning furnace, along with twenty-eight soldiers and the king’s mother, who had also come to faith in Christ. And so, in the flames, they gave their righteous souls into the hands of the Lord.

2. Our Holy Father Markianos (Marcian) of Kyros.

He was from the town of Kyros (Cyrus) in Syria, and was distinguished by noble birth and physical beauty. He left all for Christ, and withdrew to the desert of Halkis as a solitary. He was a contemporary of Patriarch Flavian of Antioch and the Emperors Constantius and Valens. A divine light, by which he read the holy Scriptures, shone in his cell at night, and he never had need of any other light, being a great wonder-worker both during his lifetime and after his death. At the time of his death, he commanded his disciple Evsevios to conceal his body and bury it in secret, to avoid veneration. He entered into rest in the Lord in the year 387.

3. The Hieromartyr Victorinus, Bishop of Patav.

Many assert that he was a Slovene. Blessed Jerome cites him as a man learned and devout. He knew Greek better than Latin, and wrote commentaries on several books of the Old and New Testaments. He suffered for the Christian Faith in about 303.

FOR CONSIDERATION

How shall he attain to love for his enemies who sets aside love for his parents? Love for one’s parents is the chief and fundamental school of love. Without this schooling, one cannot go further. The Serbian King Dragutin stood in arms against his father in order to seize his throne. But it so happened that he broke his leg, and this awakened his conscience, which tormented him till his death, giving him no peace. Dragutin relinquished his throne, and gave over his power to his younger brother Milutin. He embarked on great works of mercy, built churches and performed other good deeds. He also lived an intensive, secret ascetic life. He girded his naked body with a belt of reeds, dressed in coarse sackcloth and prayed to God at night in a secretly-prepared grave. The repentant king did all this only to gain God’s forgiveness for his lack of love towards his parents, and God forgave him.

Many holy martyrs, whom their executioners had come to seek out, welcomed them with joy and entertained them in their homes until the time came for them to be put to death. To entertain the man who is to shed one’s blood is indeed a great expression of love for one’s enemies. When King Sapor put Acyndinus, Pegasius and the others to harsh torture, he suddenly went out of his mind and became dumb, being unable to speak, and clawed at his face in his great fury. Seeing his tormentor in such despair, St. Acyndinus wept, and prayed to God for the king, saying: ‘In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, speak!’ and the king was loosed from his dumbness and began to speak. Here is an example of true love for one’s enemies.

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.