Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Palm Sunday

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 247]. Brethren:

4 ⁴Be rejoicing in the Lord always; again I will say, be rejoicing. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to all men. The Lord is near: ⁶Cease being anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and by entreaty, with giving of thanks, let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are worthy of respect, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are pleasing, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, be considering these things. ⁹And what ye learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things be practising; and the God of peace shall be with you.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 83]. At that time:

21 ¹When Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, toward the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent forth two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village, the one opposite you; and straightway ye shall find an ass which hath been tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. ³“And if anyone should say anything to you, ye shall say, ‘The Lord hath need of them’; and straightway he will send them.” ⁴Now all this came to pass in order that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, saying, ⁵“Say to the daughter of Sion [Is. 62:11], ‘Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek, and mounted on an ass, and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden [cf. Zach. 9:9].’” ⁶And the disciples went and did even as Jesus commanded them, ⁷and brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments upon them, and He sat down upon them. ⁸And the greater part of the crowd spread their garments in the way; and others were cutting branches from the trees and were strewing them in the way. ⁹And the crowds, those going before and those following, were crying out, saying, “Hosanna, to the Son of David; blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord [cf. Ps. 117(118):25(26)]; hosanna in the highest.” ¹⁰And after He entered into Jerusalem, all the city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds were saying, “This is Jesus the Prophet, the One from Nazareth of Galilee.”...

¹⁵But after the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders which He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna, to the Son of David,” they were indignant, ¹⁶and said to Him, “Hearest Thou what these say?” And Jesus saith to them, “Yes; did ye never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise for Thyself [Ps. 8:2]’?” ¹⁷And He left them behind and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 41].

12 ¹Six days before the passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had died, whom He raised from the dead. ²So they made a supper for Him there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with Him. ³Then Mary, having taken a pound of very precious perfumed ointment of pure spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the perfumed ointment. ⁴Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariote, Simon’s son, who was about to deliver Him up, saith, ⁵“Why was this perfumed ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” ⁶But he said this, not that he was caring for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box, and was taking away what was put in it. ⁷Then Jesus said, “Let her alone, for the day of My laying out for burial hath she kept it. ⁸“For ye have the poor among yourselves always, but Me ye have not always.” ⁹A great crowd of the Jews therefore knew that He was there, and they came not because of Jesus only, but also in order that they might see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. ¹⁰But the chief priests took counsel that they might put to death Lazarus also, ¹¹because by reason of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

¹²On the morrow a great crowd which came to the feast, after they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, ¹³took the palm branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and were crying, “Hosanna, blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel [cf. Ps. 117(118):25(26)].” ¹⁴And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat upon it, even as it is written: ¹⁵“Cease fearing, O daughter of Sion, behold, thy King cometh, sitting on a colt of an ass [cf. Zach. 9:9].” ¹⁶But the disciples knew not these things at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written in reference to Him, and that these things they did to Him. ¹⁷Then the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead bore witness. ¹⁸On this account the crowd also went to meet Him, because it heard that He had done this sign.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Chrysanthos, and his wife, the Martyr Dareia of Athens, and those with them at Rome.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 1st – Civil Calendar
March 19th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, and others with them.

Chrysanthus was the only son of a great noble, Polemon, who moved from Alexandria to Rome. As the son of rich parents, Chrysanthus studied all the secular disciplines, having the most learned men as his teachers. But worldly wisdom confused him, and he was left ignorant of the truth. And he grieved over this. But God, Who provides for each and all, assuaged the grief of the young Chrysanthus by putting copies of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles into his hands. The truth was revealed to him in the reading of these. But he wanted a teacher, and found one in the person of Carpophorus, a priest, who instructed and baptized him. But this did not please his father, who did all in his power to turn him back from the Christian Faith. Then, in no way succeeding, the wicked father tried to corrupt him by shutting him up alone with shameless girls, but Chrysanthus gained the victory over himself in that, and preserved his virginity. Then his father compelled him to marry the pagan Daria, but Chrysanthus persuaded Daria to receive the Christian Faith and to live with him as his sister although appearing to be married. When his father died, Chrysanthus began openly to confess Christ and to live as a Christian, both he and his whole house. In the time of the Emperor Numerian, both he and Daria were terribly tortured for their faith. The torturer Claudius himself, though, seeing the endurance of these martyrs and the wonders that were revealed at their martyrdom, embraced the Christian Faith with all his house. For this, Claudius was drowned, both his sons were beheaded and his wife died on the gallows with prayer on her lips. Daria showed such endurance under martyrdom that the pagans cried out: ‘Daria is a goddess!’ Finally it was decreed that Chrysanthus and Daria be buried in a deep pit and covered with stones. A church was later built on the site. Near this pit was a cave, in which some Christians at one time met together for prayer and communion in memory of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. Discovering this, the pagans rolled a stone across the entrance to the cave, and thus by death drove those Christians from this world into that better world where Christ the Lord reigns in eternity. These glorious martyrs, Chrysanthus and Daria and the others with them, among whom are Diodorus the priest and Marianus the deacon, suffered for Christ in Rome in 283 and 284.

2. The Holy Martyr Pancharius.

Born in Villach in Austria, he was a high-ranking official at the courts of Diocletian and Maximian. He first denied Christ, but at the persuasion of his mother and sister, returned to the Christian Faith, for which he was martyred in 302.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘This mercy (God’s) that raises us up when we have sinned is greater than that which gave us being when we had no existence. Glory, O Lord, to Thine immeasurable mercy!’ So speaks St. Isaac the Syrian. He means here that God showed us greater mercy in saving us through Christ from the corruption of sin and death than when He created us out of nothing. And indeed it is so. Earthly parents show greater mercy to a dissolute and fallen son when they receive him again, forgive him everything, clean him and tidy him up, heal his hurts and make him their heir once more, than when they gave him birth. When the young Pancharius, surrounded by imperial honors, denied Christ, his mother wrote him a letter full of pain and grief: ‘You must not fear men,’ she wrote, ‘but you must fear the judgement of God. You should have confessed your faith in Christ before kings and princes, and not denied Him. Remember His words: “Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33)’. The son took his mother’s advice and was ashamed of himself, confessed his faith in Christ before the emperor and died a martyr’s death for Christ, to live eternally with Him. Thus his blessed mother brought about a new birth for her son, a spiritual birth more important than the first, physical birth.

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.