Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 90]. Brethren:

5 ¹⁷If, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more they who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸So then, as through one offense it was to condemnation in regard to all men, so also by one act of righteousness it was to justification of life in regard to all men. ¹⁹For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were rendered sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many shall be rendered righteous. ²⁰Now the law came in beside, so that the offense abounded. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, ²¹that as sin reigned in death, so also might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6 ¹What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound? ²May it not be! We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it?

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 31]. At that time:

9 ¹⁴The disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but Thy disciples fast not?” ¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “The sons of the bridechamber are not able to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, are they? But days will come, whenever the bridegroom shall have been taken away from them, and then shall they fast. ¹⁶“Now no one putteth a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it taketh away from the garment, and a worse tear taketh place. ¹⁷“Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine is poured out, and the wineskins will be destroyed. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Karpos of the Seventy.

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

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 8th – Civil Calendar
May 26th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Carpus.

One of the Seventy, he was a follower and companion of the Apostle Paul, who installed him as Bishop of Varna in Thrace. But he also preached the Gospel in Crete, where he was host to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. St. Dionysius testifies that he was a man with an exceptionally pure mind, of great humility and guilelessness. He further relates how the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to Carpus in a vision with His angels, and how he never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision. He endured many assaults for the name of Christ, and finally suffered at the hands of the faithless Jews and was murdered. His soul entered into the kingdom of God, to delight forever in the vision of the Lord in glory.

2. The Holy Apostle Alphaeus.

He was the father of two of the Twelve Apostles: Iakovos the son of Alphaeus, and Matthew the Evangelist. He entered peacefully into rest.

3. Our Holy Father John of Psychaita.

He left the world at an early age and retired to the Lavra of Psychaita in Constantinople, where he labored in asceticism for many years for the love of Christ. He was exiled in the eighth century for his veneration of the holy icons.

4. The Holy New-Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica.

This martyr of Christ’s was born in Thessalonica during the Turkish oppression. He was tricked by the Turks as a young man into accepting Islam, and at first his conscience did not trouble him for such an act, and he went on pilgrimage with some other Moslem pilgrims and became a dervish. But, living as a dervish in Thessalonica, he began to repent bitterly, and in his repentance the thought came to him that there was no way in which he could cleanse himself from the terrible sin except with his own blood. So, having repented and resolved on martyrdom, he appeared before the Turks dressed as a Christian. They threw him into prison and put him to various tortures. But Alexander would only cry out: ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die!’ Finally the Turks sentenced him to death, which filled the repentant Alexander with joy, realizing that the sentence was a sign of God’s forgiveness of his sins and acceptance of his sacrifice. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794, and was glorified in the Church both in heaven and on earth.

FOR CONSIDERATION

We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord Who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, one a pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St. Carpus related this event to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).

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.