Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Renewal Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 4]. In those days:

2 ¹⁴Peter, having taken his stand with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, “Men, Jews, and all those who inhabit Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and hearken to my words. ¹⁵“For these are not drunk, as ye suppose, for it is the third hour of the day. ¹⁶“But this is that which hath been spoken by the Prophet Joel, ¹⁷“‘And it shall be in the last days,’ saith God, ‘I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams [cf. Joel 2:28]; ¹⁸“‘and even upon My bondmen and upon My bondwomen in those days I will pour out of My Spirit [cf. Joel 2:29],’ and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹“‘And I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke [cf. Joel 2:30]. ²⁰“‘The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come [Joel 2:31]. ²¹“‘And it shall be that everyone, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved [Joel 2:32].’”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 113]. At that time:

24 ¹²Peter arose and ran to the sepulcher; and having stooped to look, he saw the linen cloths lying alone, and departed to his home, wondering at that which had come to pass.

¹³And behold, two of them were going on the same day to a village, being sixty stadia from Jerusalem, which is named Emmaus. ¹⁴And they were conversing with one another about all these things which had taken place. ¹⁵And it came to pass, while they conversed and discussed, Jesus Himself drew near and was going together with them. ¹⁶But their eyes were held, so as not to recognize Him. ¹⁷And He said to them, “What words are these which ye exchange with one another, as ye walk and are sad in countenance?” ¹⁸And the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Art Thou sojourning alone as a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which came to pass in it in these days?” ¹⁹And He said to them, “What kind of things?” And they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazaræan, Who was a man, a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰“how both the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to a judgment of death, and crucified Him. ²¹“But we were hoping that He was the One Who was about to redeem Israel; but, beside all these things, this passeth as the third day today since these things took place. ²²“Yea, and certain women from among us astonished us, who were early at the sepulcher. ²³“And not having found His body, they came, declaring also to have seen a vision of angels who say, ‘He is living.’ ²⁴“And certain of those with us went away to the sepulcher, and found it thus, even as also the women said; but Him they did not see.” ²⁵And He said to them, “O ye without understanding and slow in heart to believe in all things which the prophets spoke! ²⁶“It was needful for the Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into His glory, was it not?” ²⁷And beginning from Moses and from all of the prophets, He went on interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. ²⁸And they drew near to the village where they were going; and He was making as if to be going further. ²⁹And they constrained Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day hath waned.” And He went in to stay with them. ³⁰And it came to pass, as He reclined at table with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and was giving it to them. ³¹And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He disappeared from them. ³²And they said to one another, “Our heart was burning in us as He was speaking to us in the way and as He was opening to us the Scriptures, was it not?” ³³And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those with them, ³⁴saying, “The Lord was raised indeed, and appeared to Simon.” ³⁵And they began relating those things that occurred in the way, and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Hilarion the New, Abbot of Pelekete.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene

     Archimandrite Raphael, Abbot of the Theotokos Monastery, and Hierodeacon Nicholas, settled on Lesvos (Mytilene) after the Fall of the City. In 1463, Muslims attacked on Great Friday. Archimandrite Raphael was pulled and tugged by his hair and beard along the rock-strewn ground. He was struck with clubs, spears, lances, and swords, while his hands were tied behind his back. He was stabbed all over and cast down paralyzed. His tongue was severed, and he was then suspended upside down from a large walnut tree, repeatedly beaten and whipped for 24 hours. He was cut down from the tree and stripped of his clothing from the waist up. After being positioned on his knees, five savage Muslims took up a saw and began cutting away his lower jaw. Nearly unconscious, he had his head placed on a square icon, where they struck him thrice on his mouth, extracting his lower jaw, thus separating his head from his body on Bright Tuesday, then the 9th of April.
     Deacon Nicholas, bound to a smaller walnut tree, witnessed these terrifying scenes. He, too, was stabbed, but he did not die immediately. It was only after his terror-stricken tender heart had borne the startling sight of his wounds and the punishments of the others, that he suffered cardiac arrest.
     Twelve-year-old Irene was seized and had boiling water poured into her mouth. One of her delicate hands was severed, the limb being tossed before the parents. The stump of her arm was bleeding profusely, as they chopped away one of her little feet. The lass was then pushed down into an earthen jar, where she was burned alive after being doused with flammable liquids and torching her bodice. As she stood trapped in the flaming cask, she lifted up her eyes heavenward and called upon Christ, commending her soul into the hands of the Lord.
     In 1959 and in the early 1960’s miraculous visions of the martyrs were granted to the islanders. The recovery of their relics has been the occasion of countless miracles and pilgrimages.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

April 10th – Civil Calendar
March 28th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Evstratius of the Kiev Caves.

He was very wealthy, but moved by the love of Christ, he gave away all his goods for His sake, entered the Monastery of the Caves and became a monk. When the Polovtsians conquered Kiev in 1097, they looted the monastery, slew many Christians and monks and gave Evstratius and other of the faithful as slaves to a certain Jew in the town of Khorsun. This Jew mocked the Christian Faith and tried to compel the Christians to convert to the Jewish faith. Seeing that they had no other alternative, they all decided to starve to death rather than deny the true Faith. Evstratius encouraged the Christians in this decision. They all perished from hunger, some after three days, some after four and some after seven days. Evstratius, accustomed to fasting, remained the only one alive, and survived fourteen days without food. Infuriated that he had lost the money he had paid for the slaves, the Jew took his revenge by having Evstratius nailed to a cross. But Evstratius gave thanks to God from the cross and predicted an imminent and vicious death for the Jew. Possessed by a furious anger, the Jew stabbed him with a spear. And thus the holy man of God gave his soul to his Savior. They cast his body into the sea, but it rose to the surface and many were the great miracles performed over it. Soon after this, the Byzantine emperor commanded that the Jews in Khorsun be punished for their wickedness towards the Christians, and the torturer of the Christians was hanged on a tree and received the wages of Judas.

2. Our Holy Father Hilarion the New, the Confessor.

He was abbot of the monastery of Pelekete near the Hellespont, and was irradiated like the sun with the spirit of God. He healed sicknesses among the people and drove out evil spirits. In the reign of Leo the Isaurian, the Iconoclast persecution began and this man of God suffered during it. He was exiled with his forty monks to a place near Ephesus, died there in prison in 754 and entered into the kingdom of Christ.

3. Our Holy Father Hesychios of Jerusalem.

A priest and a profound theologian, he was a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian and a contemporary of St. Efthymios the Great. He entered peacefully into rest in about 451.

4. The Holy Martyr Boyan.

A prince of Bulgaria, he was the son of Krutogan and grandson of Grubosh. He confessed the Christian Faith while his brother, Milomir, remained a heathen. He was slain for the true Faith at the command of his brother in 827.

5. The Miraculous Experience of Taxiotis, a Soldier of Carthage.

He spent his entire life in grievous sins, but finally repented, left his military service and adopted a way of life pleasing to God. Once when he had gone with his wife to their property close to the city, he fell into adultery with the wife of his workman, and immediately after this a snake bit him and he died. He lay dead for six hours, and after that he arose, and on the fourth day, broke his silence and related how he had seen the torments of hell for sinning and how he was about to be punished for his adultery. He had fallen into the dark dwelling of the demons, but was then led out by an angel who vouched for him, and had returned to the body to repent of his last sin. He lived in penitence for forty days, going from church to church and striking his head against the doors and thresholds. Weeping incessantly, he spoke of the terrible torments in which sinners lived in that world, and implored people not to sin and to repent of sins already committed. On the fortieth day he went with joy to the kingdom of the merciful God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Speaking of a handsome young man of twenty, George by name, who, having beauty and youth and living in the midst of the vanity of this world, knew the way of salvation and devoted himself to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom, St. Simeon the New Theologian concludes with these words: ‘Do you understand how youth does not hinder, nor age help, a man’s understanding and his fear of God?’ How did youth hinder John the Apostle in coming to faith in Christ the Lord, and how did age help the Jewish elders when they were blind in their minds, and in their blindness, condemned the Son of God to death? In no way. Their youth in no way hinders the young people of our own day from giving their faith and love to Christ, Who created them from love. And their age in no way helps the elders of our day if their hearts are closed to Christ by evil. A young or an old body is nothing other than the new or old clothing of the soul. The one or the other garment is able to cover a healthy or a sick soul. But our goal is a soul that is healthy and clean.

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.