Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sixth Sunday of Pascha, or the Sunday of the Blind Man

Mode Plagal One — Eighth Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 38]. In those days:

16 ¹⁶It came to pass, as we went to prayer, that a certain young girl, possessing a spirit of Python, met us, who was producing much business for her masters by divining. ¹⁷She followed after Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are slaves of God, the Most High, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸And she kept doing this for many days. But Paul was worn out, and turned around to the spirit, and said, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out from her.” And he came out the same hour. ¹⁹And after her masters saw that the hope of their business was gone, they laid hold of Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. ²⁰And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, ²¹“and declare customs, which are not allowed for us to receive, nor to do, being Romans.” ²²And the crowd rose together against them; and the magistrates tore off their garments, and kept on commanding to beat them with rods. ²³And after they laid on them many stripes, they cast them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely, ²⁴who, having received such an order, cast them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks. ²⁵And at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God; and the prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶And suddenly there occurred a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and the bonds of all were loosed. ²⁷The jailer, having been awakened out of sleep and seeing the doors of the prison opened, drew a sword, and was about to kill himself, believing the prisoners to have escaped. ²⁸But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “By no means begin to do any evil to thyself; for we are all here.” ²⁹And after he asked for lights, he leaped in and became tremulous, falling down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰And having brought them forth outside, he said, “Sirs, what is necessary for me to do in order that I might be saved?” ³¹And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.” ³²And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, and to all those in his house. ³³And having taken them in that hour of the night, he washed their wounds. And he was baptized, he and all his, immediately. ³⁴And having brought them into his house, he set a table before them, and rejoiced, having believed in God, with all his house.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 34]. At that time:

9 ¹As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. ²And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this one or his parents, that he should be born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this one sinned nor his parents, but in order that the works of God should be made manifest in him. ⁴“It is needful for Me to be working the works of the One Who sent Me while it is day; night cometh when no one is able to be working. ⁵“Whenever I may be in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶Having said these things, He spat on the ground, and made clay out of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind one with the clay, ⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is interpreted, Sent forth). He went therefore and washed, and came seeing.

⁸Then the neighbors and those who saw him that was formerly blind were saying, “This is the one who sat and begged, is it not?” ⁹Some were saying, “This is he”; but others, “He is like him.” But that one kept on saying, “I am he.” ¹⁰Then they began to say to him, “How were thine eyes opened?” ¹¹That one answered and said, “A Man Who is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ And I went and washed, and received sight.” ¹²Then they said to him, “Where is that Man?” He said, “I know not.”

¹³They brought him who was once blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴And it was a sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. ¹⁵Then again the Pharisees also began asking him how he received sight. And he said to them, “He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This Man is not from God, because He keepeth not the sabbath.” Others were saying, “How is a man, a sinner, able to do such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷They say to the blind one again, “What sayest thou concerning Him, in that He opened thine eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” ¹⁸Then the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he was blind and received sight, until which time they called the parents of him who received sight. ¹⁹And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, whom ye say that he was born blind? How then doth he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; ²¹“but how he now seeth, we know not, or who opened his eyes, we know not; he is of age; ask him. He shall speak for himself.” ²²The parents said these things because they were fearing the Jews; for already the Jews had agreed among themselves that if anyone should confess Him to be the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. ²³For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” ²⁴Then a second time they called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this Man is a sinner.” ²⁵Then that one answered and said, “If He is a sinner, I know not; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶But they said to him again, “What did He do to thee? How did He open thine eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, “I told you already, and ye did not hear; why again do ye wish to hear it? Ye do not also wish to become His disciples, do ye?” ²⁸Then they reviled him, and said, “Thou art a disciple of that One; but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹“We know that God hath spoken to Moses; but this One, we do not know from what place He is.” ³⁰The man answered and said to them, “Why in this is a marvellous thing, that ye do not know from what place He is, and yet He opened mine eyes. ³¹“Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if anyone be serving God and doing His will, He heareth this one. ³²“From of old it was not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one who hath been born blind. ³³“If this One were not from God, He could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered and said to him, “In sins thou wast born, all of thee, and dost thou teach us?” And they cast him out. ³⁵Jesus heard that they cast him out; and having found him, He said to him, “Believest thou in the Son of God?” ³⁶That one answered and said, “And Who is He, Sir, that I might believe in Him?” ³⁷And Jesus said to him, “Thou hast both seen Him and the One Who talketh with thee is that One.” ³⁸And he said, “I believe, O Lord.” And he made obeisance to Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Iakovos, son of Zebedee.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 29].

12 ¹At that time, Herod the king put forth his hands to maltreat some of those from the Church. ²And he killed Iakovos the brother of John with a sword. ³And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he in addition went on to seize Peter also—and they were the days of unleavened bread— ⁴whom after he laid hold of, he also put in prison, and delivered him up to four sets of four soldiers to guard him, purposing after the passover to bring him forth to the people. ⁵Peter, therefore, on the one hand, was being guarded in the prison, but on the other hand, earnest prayer was being made by the Church to God on his behalf. ⁶And when Herod was about to bring him forth, on that very night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and guards also were before the door keeping the prison. ⁷And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the chamber; and he struck the side of Peter, and woke him up, saying, “Rise up quickly.” And the chains from his hands fell off of him. ⁸And the angel said to him, “Gird thyself about, and bind on thy sandals.” And so he did. And he saith to him, “Cast about thee thine outer garment, and follow thou me.” ⁹And he went out and kept on following him, and did not know that it was real that which was happening by means of the angel, but he kept on thinking he saw a vision. ¹⁰And after they passed a first guard and a second, they came up to the gate, the iron one, which leadeth into the city, which was opened to them of itself; and having gone out, they advanced one street, and straightway the angel departed from him. ¹¹And after Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know of a truth, that the Lord sent forth His angel, and took me out of the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 40]. At that time:

9 ¹After Jesus called together to Himself His twelve disciples, He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to cure diseases. ²And He sent them forth to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were sick. ³And He said to them, “Cease taking anything for the way, neither staves, nor leathern pouch, nor bread, nor money, nor having two tunics apiece. ⁴“And into whatsoever house ye enter, be lodging there, and from that place be going forth. ⁵“And as many as will not receive you, when ye go forth from the city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” ⁶And as they went forth, they were passing through village by village, preaching the Gospel, and curing everywhere.

for Sl. usage, see [Lk. 5:1-11].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 13th – Civil Calendar
April 30th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Iakovos (James).

He was the son of Zebedee and brother of John, and was one of the Twelve Holy Apostles. At the call of the Lord Jesus, he left his fishing nets and his father, and together with John, immediately followed Christ. He was one of the three apostles to whom the Lord revealed the greatest mysteries: before whom He was transfigured on Tabor and before whom He was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before His Passion. After receiving the Holy Spirit, he preached the Gospel in various places, going as far as Spain. On his return from Spain, a violent quarrel broke out between the Jews and himself on the holy Scriptures, and being unable to withstand him, they hired a magician, Hermogenes. But Hermogenes and Philip, his pupil, were overcome by the power and truth that Iakovos preached, and were baptized. Then the Jews denounced him to Herod, and persuaded one Josias to slander the apostle. This Josias, seeing Iakovos’ manly bearing and hearing his clear preaching of the truth, repented and came to faith in Christ. When Iakovos was condemned to death, this Josias was also condemned. Mounting the scaffold, Josias begged Iakovos’ forgiveness for the sin of slander, and Iakovos embraced him, kissing him and saying: ‘Peace be to thee, and forgiveness.’ And they both laid their heads under the sword and were beheaded for the sake of the Lord Whom they had loved and served. St. Iakovos suffered in Jerusalem in the year 45. His body was taken to Spain, where to this day miracles of healing are performed at his tomb.

2. St. Donatus.

Bishop of Evria in Albania, he was endowed by God with great gifts of wonder-working, and performed many miracles for the sake of the people. He turned brackish water into sweet, brought rain in a drought, healed the king’s daughter of insanity and raised a dead man. This dead man had paid off a debt to some creditor, but the unscrupulous creditor wanted the debt paid a second time, so he used the death of his debtor to come to the widow and demand that the debt be paid immediately. The widow wept and complained to the bishop. St. Donatus told the creditor to wait until the man had been buried, then they would talk about the debt. But the creditor angrily demanded his own. Then Donatus went up to the corpse, took hold of it and cried: ‘Get up, brother, and see what’s up with this creditor of yours!’ The corpse got up, and with a terrible gaze, looked at its creditor, telling him when and where it had paid the debt. It also demanded a written receipt from him. The terrified creditor gave the receipt into its hands. The corpse tore it up, then lay down again and died. St. Donatus entered peacefully into rest in great old age, and went to the Lord in 387. His relics are still preserved for the help of the faithful in Evria in Albania.

3. The Holy Martyr Argyre.

This new-martyr was born in Prousa (Bursa) of devout parents. As soon as she was married to a Christian man, a Turk from the neighborhood looked on her and invited her to live with him. The Christ-loving Argyre rejected the Turk’s foul suggestion, and he was enraged and accused her to the judge of having intended to become a Moslem and afterwards retracted. From trial to trial, from prison to prison, St. Argyre spent fifteen whole years suffering for Christ, for she loved Him more than anything in the world. She finally died in prison in Constantinople in 1725.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A devout elder was lying on his deathbed. His friends were gathered round him, weeping for him. The elder sighed three times. The monks asked him why he had sighed. The elder replied: ‘I sighed the first time because you are afraid of death; the second time because you are not ready for death; and the third time because I am going from toil to rest.’ You see how a righteous man enters into rest? He does not fear death; he is ready for death, and he sees that, through death, he passes from a life of toil to eternal rest. When human nature is conceived in its natural state in Paradise, then death is unnatural, as sin is unnatural. Death comes from sin. Repentant and cleansed from sin, a man does not regard death as annihilation but as the gate of immortal life. And if the righteous prayed for their earthly life to be prolonged, this was not from love of this life, nor from fear of death, but only that they might be given more time for repentance and cleansing from sin, so that they might be purer and more sinless to go before God. And if they sometimes showed fear in the face of death, this was not fear of death but of God’s judgement. What sort of fear must unrepentant sinners have in the face of death?

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.