Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 21]. In those days:

8 ⁴⁰Philip was found in Azotos. And passing through, he preached the Gospel to all the cities till he came to Cæsarea.

9 ¹But Saul, still breathing in threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, ²and asked from him letters for himself to Damascus, to the synagogues, so that if he should find any being of the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³But as he was proceeding, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus, and suddenly there flashed a light around him from the heaven. ⁴And he fell on the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” ⁵And he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest; ⁶“but rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what is needful for thee to do.” ⁷But the men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing, indeed, the voice, but seeing no one. ⁸And Saul was raised up from the ground; and when his eyes were opened he saw no one; but they led him by the hand, and brought him to Damascus. ⁹And he was three days not seeing, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰And there was a certain disciple in Damascus, by name Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Behold, I am here, Lord.” ¹¹And the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a Tarsian, by name Saul; for behold, he prayeth. ¹²“And he saw in a vision a man, by name Ananias, who came in and laid his hand on him, so that he might recover his sight.” ¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many concerning this man, how many bad things he did to Thy saints in Jerusalem. ¹⁴“And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all those who call upon Thy name.” ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go thy way, for this one is a vessel of election to Me, to bear My name before the nations, and kings, and the sons of Israel. ¹⁶“For I will show him how much it is necessary for him to suffer for My name’s sake.” ¹⁷And Ananias went away and entered into the house. And having laid his hands upon him he said, “Saul, brother, the Lord, Jesus, Who appeared to thee in the way in which thou wast coming, hath sent me forth, in order that thou mightest recover sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸And straightway, as if scales fell from his eyes, he both recovered sight forthwith and rose up and was baptized. ¹⁹And having received food, he was strengthened.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 23]. The Lord said to the Jews who had believed in Him:

6 ⁴⁸“I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and died. ⁵⁰“This One is the bread, the One coming down out of the heavens, in order that anyone might eat of it and not die. ⁵¹“I am the bread, the living one, the One having come down out of the heavens; if anyone should eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And indeed the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” ⁵²Then the Jews began quarreling with one another, saying, “How is this One able to give us His flesh to eat?” ⁵³Then Jesus said to them, “Verily, verily, I say to you, unless ye should eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye are not having life in yourselves. ⁵⁴“The one who partaketh of My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up in the last day.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostles Aristarchos, Pudens, and Trophimos of the Seventy (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 15th of April), and our holy father among the saints, Martin, Pope of Rome (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 13th of April), and his fellow bishops, and the holy Martyrs Anthony, John, and Efstathios, slain for the Faith in Vilmius, Lithuania.

Epistle

For the Martyrs:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].

6 ¹⁰Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; ¹²because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. ¹³For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; ¹⁶on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Gospel

For the Martyrs:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 36]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ¹⁶“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Become therefore wise as the serpents and guileless as the doves. ¹⁷“But continue being on guard against men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸“And also ye shall be brought before governors and kings on account of Me, for a testimony to them and to the nations. ¹⁹“But whenever they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what ye should speak; for it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak. ²⁰“For ye are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father Who is speaking in you. ²¹“Now a brother shall deliver up a brother to death, and a father a child; and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death. ²²“And ye shall be hated by all for My name’s sake; but the one who endureth to the end, this one shall be saved.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 27th – Civil Calendar
April 14th – Church Calendar

1. St. Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome.

Martin became Pope on July 5th, 649, at the time of a furious quarrel between the Orthodox and the Monothelite heretics. Constans the Second, Herakleios’ grandson, was on the throne at the time, and Paul was Patriarch of Constantinople. To restore peace in the Church, the emperor himself wrote a dogmatic decree, the Typos, which leaned heavily towards heresy. Pope Martin summoned a council of 105 bishops, at which the emperor’s statement was condemned. At the same time, the pope wrote a letter to Patriarch Paul, begging him to uphold the purity of the Orthodox Faith and to counsel the emperor to reject the theories of the heretics. This letter infuriated both the patriarch and the emperor. The emperor sent one of his generals, Olympius, to take the pope to Constantinople in bonds. The general did not dare to bind the pope with his own hands, but instructed one of his soldiers to kill him with the sword in church. But, when the soldier entered the church with his sword concealed, he was instantly blinded. So, by the providence of God, Martin escaped death. At that time, the Saracens fell upon Sicily, and Olympius went off there, where he died. Then, by the intrigues of the heretic Patriarch Paul, the emperor sent a second general, Theodore, to bind and take the pope on the charge that he, the pope, was in collusion with the Saracens and that he did not reverence the most holy Mother of God. When the general arrived in Rome and read the accusation against the pope, he replied that it was libel; that he had no contact of any sort with the Saracens, the opponents of Christianity, ‘and whoever does not confess the most holy Mother of God and do her reverence, let him be damned in this age and in that which is to come’. But this did not affect the general’s decision. The pope was bound and taken to Constantinople, where he lay long in prison in great sickness, tortured by both anxiety and hunger, until he was finally sentenced to exile in Cherson, where he lived for two years before his death. He gave his soul into the hands of the Lord, for Whom he had suffered so greatly, in 655. The evil patriarch, Paul, died two years before him, and when the emperor visited him on his deathbed, he smote his head against the wall, confessing with tears that he had greatly sinned against Pope Martin and asking the emperor to set Martin free.

2. The Holy Martyrs Anthony, John and Eustace.

These three were all at first pagans and fire-worshippers. They were slaves at the court of the Lithuanian Prince Olgard in Vilna. Their former names were Krugletz, Kumetz and Neghilo. All three were baptized by a priest called Nestor. The three of them were hanged, one behind the other, from the same oak tree in 1347. Christians cut down this oak and built a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in which they laid the precious relics of these martyrs, making the Holy Table from the stump of the tree. Their relics are preserved in Vilna.

3. The Holy Martyr Ardalion the Actor.

The holy martyr Ardalion lived at the time of Maximian, 298 A.D. By profession he was an actor or a mimic, imitating the sorrows and woes of others. On one occasion he decided to imitate the resistance that Christians display when being martyred by the tyrants. So his friends staged an act where Ardalion was suspended from a height and supposedly mutilated because he would not sacrifice to the idols. The audience was so moved by his performance that they interrupted and gave him a standing ovation. Then Ardalion exclaimed in a great voice, telling the audience to stop their applause, and announced that he was a Christian in reality. The governor of that territory advised him to change his mind, but our martyr would not listen to him, and stayed firm in the Faith. He was cast into a bonfire which was lit on that spot, and thus he met his end and received the laurel of martyrdom.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘A monk must love God as a son and fear Him as a slave,’ says Evagrius. In fact, this is so of every Christian, even if he is not a monk. It is a great art to unite love for God to fear of Him. Many other of the holy fathers also, when they speak of the love of God, speak at the same time of fear of Him—and vice versa. St. John Chrysostom, in his homily ‘On Perfect Love,’ speaks at the same time of punishment and the torments of hell. Why? Because the greatest love towards God of which man is capable can be turned into pride if it is not accompanied by a sense of fear—and great fear without love leads to despair.

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.