Daily Devotional

Thursday, May 10, 2029 (NS), April 27, 2029 (OS)

No Fasting.

Thursday of the Fifth Week

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Symeon, the kinsman of Jesus.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 35]. In those days:

For Gk. usage, Acts 14:20-15:5; for Sl. usage, Acts 14:20-27.

14 ²⁰Paul went away with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹And having preached the Gospel to that city and having made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, ²²adding strength to the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that “through many temptations it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God.” ²³And after they ordained presbyters for them in every church, and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in Whom they had believed. ²⁴And after they passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. ²⁵And having spoken the word in Perga, they came down to Attaleia. ²⁶And from that place they sailed off to Antioch, from which place they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. ²⁷And after they came and gathered together the Church, they reported how much God did with them, and that He opened to the nations a door of faith. ²⁸And they were spending there not a little time with the disciples.

15 ¹And certain men, having come down from Judæa, were teaching the brethren, “Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye are not able to be saved.” ²Then after there arose no little disputation for Paul and Barnabas with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas and certain others from among them to go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and presbyters, about this question. ³They indeed therefore were sent forth under escort by the Church and were passing through Phœnicia and Samaria, telling in detail the conversion of the nations; and they were causing great joy to all the brethren. ⁴And having come into Jerusalem, they were received by the Church and the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how much God did with them.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 35]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

9 ³⁹“For judgment I came into this world, in order that they who see not may see; and they who see might become blind.” ⁴⁰And those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, “We are not also blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If ye were blind, ye should not have sin; but now ye say, ‘We see’; therefore your sin remaineth.

10 ¹“Verily, verily, I say to you, the one who entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but goeth up from another place, that one is a thief and a robber. ²“But the one who entereth by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. ³“To this one the doorkeeper openeth, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. ⁴“And whenever he should put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵“But a stranger in no wise will they follow, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.” ⁶This parable Jesus spoke to them; but they understood not what it was which He spoke to them. ⁷Then said Jesus to them again, “Verily, verily, I say to you that I am the door of the sheep. ⁸“All, as many as came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep heard them not. 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.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Symeon, the kinsman of Jesus.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 56]. At that time:

13 ⁵⁴After Jesus came into His own country, He was teaching the crowds in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, “From what place hath this One this wisdom and the works of power? ⁵⁵“This is the carpenter’s Son, is it not? His Mother is called Mariam, is she not, and His brothers, Iakovos, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶“And His sisters are all with us, are they not? From what place then hath this One all these things?” ⁵⁷And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁸And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 10th – Civil Calendar
April 27th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Simeon.

One of the Seventy, he was the son of Cleopas, and Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, the betrothed of the most holy Mother of God. Seeing the miracles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Simeon was converted and included among the Seventy apostles. With great zeal and courage, he preached the Gospel everywhere in Judea. When the wicked Jews killed Iakovos, the Lord’s brother and first bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, throwing him down from the top of the Temple and then stoning him to death, this Simeon, Joseph’s nephew, was installed as bishop in Jerusalem. He, as the second bishop of the holy city, governed the Church of God with wisdom and strength to a great age. He was more than a hundred years old when he suffered, and his sufferings came about as follows: in the time of the Emperor Trajan there was a double persecution begun in Palestine, against the descendants of David and against the Christians. The wicked people condemned Simeon on both counts. St. Simeon endured harsh torture and was finally crucified, as had been the Lord Whom he had faithfully served on earth.

2. Our Holy Father Stefan, Bishop of Vladimir.

A disciple of St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Stefan was at one time abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and labored greatly in the regulation and organization of the monastic life and in the beautifying of the churches. But the enemy inflamed an evil monk against him, and he was not only removed from the abbacy but driven from the monastery. But God, Who does not leave the righteous long under the humiliation of the unrighteous, so guided the life of blessed Stefan that he was chosen as Bishop of Vladimir. As God’s hierarch, Stefan guided the Church to old age and departed this life in the Lord peacefully in 1094.

3. The Burning of the Relics of St. Sava, Archbishop of Serbia.

The body of St. Sava was buried at Mileševa. In the time of the Turkish occupation, the Serbian people gathered together round the relics of their saint, to seek support and healing. Fearing that a rebellion against the Turks might be stirred up in that place, Sinan Pasha of Belgrade commanded that St. Sava’s relics be brought to Belgrade and burned there at Vračar. This was done on April 27th, 1594. But, with the burning of the saint’s relics, the wicked pasha did not burn the saint, who remains alive before the throne of God in heaven and in the hearts of his people on earth.

4. Our Holy Father John the Confessor.

He was the abbot of the community ‘of the Pure’ (the Katharoi). This community was founded near Nicaea during the reign of Justin, in the 6th century. For his veneration of icons during a ban on such veneration, John suffered much at the hands of the Emperors Leo and Theophilus, and died under their persecution in about 832.

FOR CONSIDERATION

True faith will be persecuted in this world. The Savior Himself said this to His apostles clearly and publicly (Jn 16:32). And St. Apollinarius of Hierapolis, writing against the Montanist heretics, asserts: ‘Let them tell us, before God, who of all their prophets, beginning with Montanus and his wives, has been persecuted by the Jews and killed by the ungodly. No one. Who among them has been arrested for the name of Christ, and crucified? Again, no one. Have any of their women been flogged or stoned in the Jewish synagogues? No.’ This Orthodox saint means to say that it is true faith that will be persecuted in this world. Heresies are usually closer to the worldly and demonic spirit, and therefore the world and the demons do not persecute their own. To be constantly under persecution—with short breathing-spaces—is a distinguishing mark of the Faith and of the Orthodox Church. This persecution has existed throughout the whole of history, whether externally or internally; externally from unbelievers and internally from heretics.

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.