Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 225]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Eph. 4:14-17; for Sl. usage, see Eph. 4:14-19.

4 ¹⁴We may no longer be infants, tossed to and fro by waves, and carried about with every wind of teaching, by the sleight of men, in craftiness toward the systematizing of error; ¹⁵but speaking the truth in love, we might grow up into Him in all things Who is the head—the Christ, ¹⁶from Whom all the body, being joined and knit together by what every juncture supplieth, according to the energy of every single part in measure, maketh for itself the increase of the body, to the building up of itself in love.

¹⁷This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord: ye are no longer to walk even as also the rest of the nations walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸who have been darkened in thought and alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; ¹⁹who, having become insensible, gave themselves up to licentiousness, for the working of all uncleanness with greediness.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 13]. At that time:

4 ¹⁶Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to what was customary to Him, He went into the synagogue on the day of the sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷And there was handed over to Him the roll of Esaias the prophet. And having unfolded the roll, He found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, on account of which He anointed Me; He hath sent Me to preach the good tidings to the poor, to heal those who have been broken in heart, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind [Is. 61:1], to send forth in deliverance those who have been broken in pieces [cf. Is. 58:6], ¹⁹“to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [cf. Is. 61:2].” ²⁰And after He folded up the roll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were looking intently on Him. ²¹And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture hath been fulfilled in your ears.” ²²And all were bearing witness to Him, and were wondering at the words of grace which were proceeding out of His mouth, and were saying, “This is the Son of Joseph, is it not?”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and the Virgin-martyr Tatiane the deaconess of Old Rome, and our father among the saints, Savva, first Archbishop and Teacher of the Serbs.

Epistle

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 36]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

10 ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰“The thief cometh not, except that he might steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. ¹²“But the hireling, who indeed is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth the sheep. ¹³“Now the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not about the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are Mine, and am known of those that are Mine. ¹⁵“Even as the Father knoweth Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also it is needful for Me to bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 25th – Civil Calendar
January 12th – Church Calendar

1. St. Sava, Archbishop of Serbia.

The son of Stefan Nemanja, the great Serbian national leader, he was born in 1169. As a young man he yearned for the spiritual life. This led him to flee to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk and with rare zeal followed all the ascetic practices. Nemanja followed his son’s example and himself went to the Holy Mountain, where he lived and ended his days as the monk Simeon. Sava obtained the independence of the Serbian Church from the emperor and the patriarch and became its first archbishop. He, together with his father, built the monastery of Hilandar and many other monasteries, churches and schools throughout the land of Serbia. He traveled to the Holy Land on two occasions, on pilgrimage to the holy places. He made peace among his brothers, who were in conflict over their rights, and also between the Serbs and their neighbors. In creating the Serbian Church, he created the Serbian state and Serbian culture along with it. He brought peace to all the Balkan peoples, working for the good of all, for which he was venerated and loved by all on the Balkan peninsula. He gave a Christian soul to the people of Serbia, which survived the fall of the Serbian state. He died in Trnovo in the reign of King Asen, being taken ill after the divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Theophany in 1236. King Vladislav took his body to Mileševa, whence Sinan Pasha, the impious Moslem, removed it, burning it at Vračar in Belgrade on April 27th, 1595.

2. The Holy Martyr Tatiana of Rome.

She was a Christian of an eminent family and a deaconess in the Church. After the death of the Emperor Heliogabalus, the Emperor Alexander came to the throne in Rome. His mother, Julia Mammaea, was a Christian, but the emperor himself was unsure and hesitant about his faith; an uncertainty that was clearly expressed by his keeping statues of both Christ and Apollo, of both Abraham and Orpheus, in his palace. His chief advisors took it into their own hands to persecute the Christians without his orders.

When the virgin Tatiana was led to martyrdom, she prayed for her executioners. And lo, their eyes were opened and they saw four angels around the martyr. Seeing this, eight of them were converted to Christ, for which they were tortured and killed. St. Tatiana’s martyrdom was long-drawn-out: she was flogged, parts of her flesh were cut off, she was sawn with an iron saw, and then, all disfigured and bleeding, was flung that evening into prison to be brought out on the following day for further torture. But God sent His angel to the prison to give her courage and heal her wounds. Tatiana, therefore, appeared before her torturers each morning in perfect health. She was thrown to a lion, but the lion became tame before her and did her no harm. Her hair was shorn—from an idea that occurred to their godless minds that some sorcery, some magical strength, might be hidden in it. Finally she was led out, together with her father, and the two were beheaded. In such manner this heroic maiden finished her earthly life in about the year 225, and was crowned with an immortal crown of glory. She had the weak body of a woman, but a manly and valiant spirit.

3. The Holy Martyr Peter Apselamus.

A native of Eleftheropolis in Palestine, he suffered as a youth for the Christian Faith in the year 311 under the Emperor Maximian. After terrible tortures, he was condemned to death. Hearing the sentence pronounced, he cried out with great joy: ‘My one desire is to die for my God!’ He was crucified, like his Lord, and gave up his spirit on the cross.

4. The Icon of the Mother of God, “Milk-Giver”.

This is the name given to the icon of the Mother of God that St. Sava of Serbia brought from the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified near Jerusalem and placed in his hermitage at Karyes on the Holy Mountain. In that way a prophecy, made 800 years previously by St. Sava the Sanctified, was fulfilled—that one day a Serbian priest called Sava would come and would be given the icon and his staff. When Sava of Serbia visited the community of St. Sava the Sanctified, the monks called to mind the prophecy of their founder and gave the icon and the staff to Sava. The icon was placed at the right-hand side of the Beautiful Gates in the hermitage, and the staff in a cell which received the name ‘Pateritsa’*, also situated at Karyes.

* Pateritsa—The name used for a bishop’s staff, the father’s rod. —Tr.

5. Our Holy Mother Theodora

A famous nun and instructress of nuns from Alexandria, this holy woman said: ‘As cold and snow are necessary to a tree for it to bear fruit, so are trials and temptations to our life.’ She entered peacefully into rest at the beginning of the fifth century.

FOR CONSIDERATION

There is no greater honor or calling on earth than to be a Christian. When the judge-torturer Severus asked the young Peter Apselamus: ‘Of what family are you?’ Peter replied: ‘I am a Christian.’ The judge questioned him further: ‘Of what rank are you?’ To this he replied: ‘There is no higher or finer rank than that of a Christian.’ Saint John of Kronstadt writes: ‘The whole world is as thistledown in comparison with the soul of a Christian man.’ A Christian is an earthen vessel into which are poured godly strength and light. If that vessel be placed on a king’s golden throne or tucked away in some lightless beggar’s hovel, its worth is thereby neither magnified nor diminished. Does not gold have the same worth, whether wrapped in a silk scarf or a cabbage leaf?

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.