Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 108]. Brethren:

12 ¹I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, your rational worship. ²And cease being fashioned according to this age, but be transfigured by the renewing of your mind, in order for you to put to the test what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.

³For I say, through the grace which is given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to be high-minded beyond what is needful to be minded, but to be minded so as to be sober-minded, as God allotted a measure of faith to each.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 39]. The Lord said:

10 ³⁷“The one who loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸“And whosoever taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹“The one who findeth his life shall lose it; and the one who loseth his life on account of Me shall find it. ⁴⁰“The one who receiveth you receiveth Me, and the one who receiveth Me receiveth the One Who sent Me forth. ⁴¹“The one who receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and the one who receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴²“And whosoever shall give to one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, verily I say to you, in no wise shall he lose his reward.”

11 ¹And it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, He passed over from that place to teach and preach in their cities.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Wonder-workers and Unmercenaries Kosmas and Damian who were martyred at Rome.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 153]. Brethren:

12 ²⁷Ye are the body of Christ, and members severally.

²⁸And God set for Himself some in the Church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then works of power, then free gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. ²⁹All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All do not have works of power, do they? ³⁰All do not have free gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? ³¹All do not interpret, do they? But keep on desiring earnestly the better gifts of grace. And yet I show you a more surpassing way.

13 ¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophecy, and know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains from one place to another, but I have not love, I am nothing. ³And if I dole out all of my goods, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but I have not love, I am being profited nothing. ⁴Love is long-suffering, is kind; love is not jealous; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; ⁵doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil; ⁶rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; ⁷covereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸Love never falleth away.

Gospel

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

10 ¹After Jesus called to Himself His twelve disciples, He gave to them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every weakness.... ⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, “Do not begin to go into the way of the nations, and do not begin to enter into a city of the Samaritans. ⁶“But go rather to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel. ⁷“And as ye go, be preaching, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens hath drawn near.’ ⁸“Be healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons; freely ye received, freely give.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 14th – Civil Calendar
July 1st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Cosmas and Damian.

Unmercenary doctors and wonder-workers, these two saints were brothers. Born in Rome, baptized as children and given a Christian education, they were endowed by God with the gift of healing, generally by the laying-on of their hands, of both men and animals. They sought no reward for their work, only urging the sick to faith in Christ the Lord. Inheriting great wealth, they compassionately divided it among the poor and needy. The Emperor Galerius was on the throne in Rome at that time. Persecutors of the Christian Faith brought these two holy brothers, bound in chains, before him. After prolonged interrogation, the emperor charged them to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. Cosmas and Damian not only refused to obey the Emperor; they urged him to forsake dead idols and come to the knowledge of the one, true God. ‘Our God is not created, but is the Creator of all, and your gods come of the imaginings of men and the hands of artists. If there were no artists to make your gods, you would have nothing to worship.’ After a miracle was performed on the emperor himself—healing him of a grave infirmity—the emperor declared his faith in Christ and let the holy brothers go in peace. They continued to glorify Christ our God and to heal the sick, and were themselves glorified on all sides by the people. A doctor, a former teacher of theirs, envying their fame, lured them into the hills on the pretext of collecting herbs and stoned them to death. They suffered with honor for the Christian Faith in 284. Their memory endures in the Church on earth, and their souls went to the kingdom of the Lord, to live eternally in glory and joy.

2. Our Holy Father Peter the Patrician.

This saint was a nobleman of Constantinople and a military commander in the time of the Emperor Nikephoros I (802-811). In a war against Bulgaria, the emperor was killed and Peter, together with fifty other Greek generals and princes, was captured and cast into prison. He was miraculously delivered from prison by St. John the Theologian. He then forsook all worldly glory, left his wife and son and withdrew to Mount Olympus, where, as a monk and a disciple of St. Ioannikios the Great, he lived in monasticism for thirty-four years. After the deaths of his wife and son, he settled in Constantinople, where he spent eight further years in fasting and prayer and entered into rest in the Lord in 865, at the age of seventy-seven.

3. The Holy Martyr Potitus.

A thirteen-year-old youth from Sardinia, he endured many trials for the sake of Christ, both from his father and from the official persecutors of Christianity. Potitus was beheaded in the time of the Emperor Antoninus (138-161), after healing and baptising the emperor’s daughter, Agnes.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Christians affirm the link between this world and the next in their prayers and alms for the dead. The Church in this world and the next is one Church, one body, one being; as the root of a tree beneath the earth is one organism with its trunk and branches above the earth. From this it is clear how we, being part of the Church on earth, can receive help from the saints in the Church in heaven, and that departed sinners can, in the other world, receive help from us on earth. St. Athanasius says, ‘As with wine inside a barrel, which, when the vineyard flowers, senses it and flowers together with it, so it is with the souls of sinners. They receive some release from the bloodless Sacrifice, offered for them in charity,’ wrought for the sake of their peace. St. Ephraim the Syrian uses the same example of wine and vineyard, then concludes: ‘And thus, when there exists such mutual sensitivity even among plants, do not the departed feel yet more keenly the prayers and sacrifices made for them?’

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.