Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Twenty-Sixth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 285]. Child Timothy:

4 ⁴Every 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.

⁶If thou art laying down these things to the brethren, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which thou hast followed closely. ⁷But be rejecting profane and old women’s fables, and be exercising thyself toward piety. ⁸For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but piety is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is coming....

¹⁶Be taking heed to thyself and to the teaching. Keep on continuing in them, for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and those who hear thee.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§§ 82, mid 83]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

16 ¹⁵“Ye are they who justify yourselves before the face of men, but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination before the face of God. ¹⁶“The law and the prophets were until John; from that time the kingdom of God is being preached as good tidings, and everyone is forcing himself into it. ¹⁷“But it is easier for the heaven and the earth to pass away than one tittle of the law to fall. ¹⁸“Everyone who divorceth his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery; and everyone who marrieth her who hath been divorced from a husband committeth adultery.”...

17 ¹Then He said to His disciples, “It is impossible that the stumbling blocks should not come, but woe to him through whom they come! ²“It is more profitable for him if a millstone turned by an ass is put about his neck, and he is cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³“Be taking heed to yourselves. Now if thy brother should sin against thee, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him. ⁴“And if seven times in the day he should sin against thee, and seven times in the day he should return to thee, saying, ‘I repent,’ thou shalt forgive him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Platon of Ankyra and Romanos the deacon of Cæsarea.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 292]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹Be thou empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; ²and the things which thou heardest from me in the midst of many witnesses, commit thou these things to faithful men who shall be competent also to teach others. ³Thou therefore suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. ⁴No one serving as a soldier is entangled with the affairs of life, in order that he might please the one who enlisted him. ⁵And if anyone also contend as an athlete in the games, he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully. ⁶The farmer who laboreth must be first to partake of the fruits. ⁷Be considering what I say; O may the Lord give thee understanding in all things! ⁸Be remembering Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, Who hath been raised from the dead, according to my Gospel, ⁹in which I suffer hardship even to bonds as a malefactor, but the word of God hath not been bound. ¹⁰On this account I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might also attain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 1st – Civil Calendar
November 18th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Plato (Platon).

From the town of Ankyra in Galatia, he was born and brought up a Christian. Even in his youth, he showed great perfection in every virtue. Plato did not conceal his faith in Christ the Lord, but preached it openly, denouncing idolaters for their bowing down to dead creatures in place of the living Creator. For this, he was brought before the governor, Agrippinos, for trial, and was harshly tortured by him. When the governor began to urge him to escape death and save his life by worshipping idols, Plato replied: ‘There are two deaths: the temporal and the eternal; and there are two lives: the one transitory and the other without end.’ Then Agrippinos put him to harsher torture. Among other tortures, he commanded that red-hot cannon balls be placed on his naked body, and that his flesh be cut into strips. ‘Torture me more harshly,’ cried the martyr to the torturers, ‘that your inhumanity and my endurance may be the more clearly seen.’ When the torturer spoke to the martyr about the philosopher Plato, saying that he was a pagan philosopher, he replied: ‘I am not like Plato, nor he like me, except in our names. I learn and teach the wisdom that is of Christ, while he teaches the wisdom that is folly before God.’ After that, Plato was thrown into prison, where he spent eighteen days without bread or water. When the warders marveled that Plato could live without food for so long, he said to them: ‘You are satiated by food, but I by holy prayer; you rejoice in wine, but I in Christ the true Vine.’ He was finally beheaded with the sword in about 266, and received a wreath of eternal glory.

2. The Holy Martyrs Romanos and Barulas.

Holy Romanos was a deacon of the Church in Caesarea, and at one time preached the Gospel in Antioch. When there was an idolatrous feast, and the governor of Antioch, Asclepiades, was going into a pagan temple to offer sacrifice, Romanos stood in front of him and said: ‘You sin, O governor, when you go to the idols. They are not gods, for Christ is the only true God.’ The furious governor put Romanos to torture, and he was flogged and flayed without mercy. At that moment, he saw a child called Barulas, and said to Asclepiades: ‘This little child has more understanding than you, old man, for he knows the true God, and you do not.’ The governor began to question Barulas about his faith, and he confessed his faith in Christ the Lord as the one, true God, and his unbelief in the false idols. Then Asclepiades commanded that little Barulas be beheaded with the sword, and Romanos be strangled in the prison, which came to pass in the year 303. Thus both these martyrs inherited the kingdom of Christ.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matt. 5:39), commanded the Lord. This is the briefest and dearest teaching on humility. Wicked demons fear no one so greatly as the man filled with the Lord’s commandments. There was a rich nobleman in Alexandria who had a young daughter into whom an evil spirit entered, and the girl went out of her mind. Someone told the despairing father that no one would be able to heal his daughter but monks, solitaries, who lived in the desert and came to Alexandria from time to time to sell the baskets that they had woven: but that none of them would go into the house of a rich nobleman in case he was asked why he was there. It would be best for him to buy their baskets and invite them to his house to be paid; then, when they went to the house, he could ask them to pray to God for all its occupants, and especially that God would help and heal the mad girl. The father did this: he went to the bazaar on the agreed day, and found one of St. Makarios’ disciples selling baskets. He quickly bought the baskets and asked the monk to go to his house for payment. When the monk entered the house, the mad girl suddenly leapt in front of him and struck him a blow on the cheek. The monk silently presented the other cheek. At this, the evil spirit cried out with a great shout and left the girl, and she became calm and rational. When the monk returned to the desert, he told the elders what had happened, and they all glorified God, Who gives such great power to those who fulfill His commandments.

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.