Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 120]. Brethren:

16 ¹I commend to you Phœbe our sister, who is a deaconess of the Church in Cenchrea, ²that you should receive her in the Lord, in a manner worthy of saints, and stand by her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you; for also she became a protectress of many, and of myself.

³Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, ⁴who for my life laid down their own necks, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the nations. ⁵And greet the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epænetos, who is the firstfruits of Achaia for Christ. ⁶Greet Mary, who labored much for us. ⁷Greet Andronikos and Junia, my kinfolk and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, and who have been in Christ before me. ⁸Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord. ⁹Greet Urbanos, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. ¹⁰Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those of the household of Aristoboulos. ¹¹Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. ¹²Greet Tryphæna and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. ¹³Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. ¹⁴Greet Asynkritos, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren with them. ¹⁵Greet Philologos and Julia, Nereos and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints with them. ¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of the Christ greet you.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 50]. The Lord said this parable:

13 ³“Behold, the one who soweth went out to sow. ⁴“And as he was sowing, some seeds indeed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵“And other seed fell upon the rocky places, where it had not much earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. ⁶“But after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it was dried up. ⁷“And other seed fell upon the thorns; and the thorns shot up, and choked them. ⁸“But other seed fell upon the good ground, and it kept on yielding fruit: some indeed a hundredfold, but some sixty, and some thirty. ⁹“The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Tychon the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Amathus in Cyprus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 29th – Civil Calendar
June 16th – Church Calendar

1. St. Tikhon, Bishop of Amathus.

A wonder-worker, Tikhon was chosen unanimously as bishop on the death of blessed Mnemonius, and consecrated by the renowned Epiphanios for the diocese of Amathus. The purity of his life and his zealous adherence to Orthodoxy recommended him for this rank. There were still pagans in Cyprus at that time, and Tikhon undertook with apostolic zeal to turn the unbelievers into believers, and he had great success in this. After lengthy toil in the Lord’s vineyard, he entered into the eternity of the blessed in about 425. He is named a wonder-worker because of the many miracles that he performed during his lifetime. His father was a baker, and whenever his father left him alone in the shop, he would distribute the bread to the poor without payment. His father reproached him once for doing this, so he prayed to God and their storehouse became so full of grain that they could open the door only with difficulty. Another time he planted a dry slip from a vine and the vine grew green and bore fruit in its season.

2. The Holy Martyrs Tigrios and Eftropios.

They were both priests with St. John Chrysostom. When evil men drove St. John from Constantinople, the cathedral was set on fire, the flames from it rising high and falling upon the houses of those who were persecuting this light of the Church. The people saw the finger of God at work in this event, but St. John’s enemies blamed his followers for the fire. Many of them suffered because of this, including the priest Tigrios and the reader Eftropios. The civil governor, an unbaptized Greek called Optatios, started a particularly venomous hunt for the followers of St. John. Tigrios had been the slave of a rich man in his youth and had been castrated. Set free from slavery, he had devoted himself entirely to the service of the Church and shone in that service like a ray of light. Optatios gave this ‘meek, humble, merciful and hospitable’ man over to vicious torture and then sent him into exile, to Mesopotamia, where he died while still in captivity. Eftropios, chaste and pure from his earliest youth, without vice or guile, was flogged with bull-whips and staves and finally hanged. When Christians took his body for burial, a melodious angelic chanting was heard in the sky above them.

FOR CONSIDERATION

In enumerating the miracles of the Christian Faith, we must not forget those innumerable and great miracles, the changes of heart and character in people truly converted to the Faith. How many senseless evildoers has the Faith tamed! How many bloodthirsty robbers has it turned into innocent lambs! How many debauched men into men of chaste life! How many persecutors has it made into defenders! How many self-seeking and avaricious men has it made compassionate! How many cowards has it turned onto the path of self-sacrifice! Metropolitan Philaret wrote thus about the Russian Prince Vladimir: ‘A lover of all the passions, he could not have loved them more, yet the pagan Vladimir found Christianity and became a model of pure and chaste married life. He put away from himself all the women and the concubines, and lived with Anna, a faithful and devout woman. A malicious, vengeful and bloodthirsty fratricide while a pagan, he became, as a Christian, the most compassionate friend of the deprived and unfortunate. They had free access to him, and he distributed both food and money to them with a generous hand. And he even went further than that: he said that the sick were in no state to come to the palace, so he ordered that meat and fish, bread, yeast and honey be taken round the streets. The words of the Gospel: “Blessed are the merciful”, penetrated into the very depths of his heart and became a principle of life for him.’

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.