Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Ninth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 155].

14 ⁶Brethren, if I should come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophecy, or in teaching? ⁷Likewise, when lifeless things give a sound, whether flute or harp, if a distinction is never given in the sounds, how shall it be known what is being piped or being harped? ⁸For also if a trumpet should give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for war? ⁹Thus also, unless by the tongue ye should give an easily understood speech, how shall it be known what is being spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. ¹⁰There are, if it should happen, so many kinds of speech in the world, and none of them is without its distinctive sound. ¹¹Therefore, if I do not know the force of the speech, I shall be a barbarian to the one who speaketh, and the one who speaketh shall be a barbarian to me. ¹²Even so ye, since ye are zealots of spiritual gifts, keep on seeking that ye may abound to the building up of the Church. ¹³Wherefore let the one who speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I should pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. ¹⁵What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the understanding. I will chant with the spirit, and I will chant also with the understanding. ¹⁶Else if thou bless with the spirit, how shall the one who filleth the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at thy giving of thanks, since what thou sayest he knoweth not? ¹⁷For thou indeed givest thanks well, but the other is not being edified. ¹⁸I thank my God I speak with tongues more than all of you; ¹⁹but in the church I wish to speak five words with my understanding, in order that I might instruct others also, than myriads of words in a tongue.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 81]. At that time:

20 ¹⁷When Jesus went up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples apart in the way and said to them, ¹⁸“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, ¹⁹“and shall deliver Him up to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He shall raise Himself.” ²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Him with her sons, making obeisance and asking something from Him. ²¹And He said to her, “What dost thou wish?” She saith to Him, “Command that these two sons of mine might sit, one on Thy right and one on Thy left, in Thy kingdom.” ²²But Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask for yourselves. Are ye able to drink the cup which I am about to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They say to Him, “We are able.” ²³And He saith to them, “Ye shall indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized; but to sit on My right and on My left is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to those for whom it hath been prepared by My Father.” ²⁴And after the ten heard it, they were indignant on account of the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “Ye know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶“But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever doth wish to become great among you shall be your servant; ²⁷“and whosoever doth wish to be first among you shall be your slave— ²⁸“even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Synaxis of the holy Archangel Gabriel, and our venerable Father Stephen of the Monastery of St. Savvas.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 305]. Brethren:

2 ²If the word spoken by angels was confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, ³how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which received a beginning to be spoken of by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard, ⁴God also bearing them witness with both signs and wonders, and various works of power, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to His will?

⁵For not to angels did He subject the coming inhabited world about which we speak; ⁶but one bore witness somewhere, saying, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him [Ps. 8:4]? ⁷“Thou didst make Him for a short time less than the angels; Thou didst crown Him with glory and honor [Ps. 8:5], ⁸“Thou didst subject all things under His feet [Ps. 8:6].” For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing not subject to Him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. ⁹But we see Jesus, Who for a short time was made less than the angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for everyone. ¹⁰For it was becoming to Him, because of Whom are all things and by means of Whom are all things, bringing many sons to glory, to have perfected the originator of their salvation through sufferings.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 51]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ¹⁶“The one who heareth you heareth Me, and the one who rejecteth you rejecteth Me, and the one who rejecteth Me rejecteth the One Who sent Me forth.”

¹⁷And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are being made subject to us in Thy name.” ¹⁸And He said to them, “I was beholding Satan as lightning having fallen out of the heaven. ¹⁹“Behold, I give you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy; and nothing in anywise shall injure you. ²⁰“However cease rejoicing in this, that the spirits are being made subject to you; but be rejoicing that your names were written in the heavens.” ²¹In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, “I give thanks to Thee, O Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, and didst reveal them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing before Thee.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 26h – Civil Calendar
July 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Archangel Gabriel.

This great archangel of God is commemorated on March 26th. On this day his appearances and marvels through the whole history of the salvation of mankind are commemorated. It is reckoned that this observance was first instituted on the Holy Mountain in 982, during the patriarchate of Nicholas Chrysoverges (979-91), and was occasioned by the Archangel’s appearing in a cell near Karyes, where, with his finger, he wrote the hymn to the Mother of God: ‘Axion Estin’ (It Is Verily Worthy). As a result of this occurrence, the cell was named, and is called to this day, ‘Axion Estin’. Linked with this, other appearances of the Archangel Gabriel are commemorated, such as his appearing to Moses when he revealed to this great man, chosen by God, how the world was created and all the rest that Moses later wrote down in the Book of Genesis; his appearing to Daniel and the imparting of the mystery of the kingdoms to come and the coming of the Savior; his appearing to St. Anna and the promise of a daughter, the most blessed and pure Virgin Mary; his appearing to the holy Virgin while she was living in the Temple in Jerusalem; his appearing to Zacharias the high priest and the news of the birth of John the Forerunner, and the punishing of the same with dumbness because he did not believe the angel’s words; his appearing once again to the holy Virgin in Nazareth, and the annunciation of the conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ; his appearing to righteous Joseph, to the shepherds near Bethlehem, to the Lord Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane when he strengthened the Lord, as Man, before His Passion: his appearing to the myrrh-bearing women, and his other appearances.

2. St. Julian, Bishop of Cenomanis (Le Mans).

Some think that he is none other than that Simon the Leper whom the Lord healed. The Apostle Peter made him bishop and sent him to pagan Gaul, where St. Julian endured great privation, but succeeded in bringing many of the people to the Christian Faith. When the prince, Defenson, was baptized, many of his subjects embraced the true Faith. By the grace of God, Julian worked many miracles: healing the sick, driving out demons and raising the dead. He departed this life peacefully, and at the time of his death, appeared to Prince Defenson in full daylight, while the latter was at lunch.

3. The Holy Martyr Golinduc.

A Persian, she married a Persian noble and lived three years in wedlock. She then had a vision of an angel, who revealed the other world to her: the torment of sinners and unbelievers and the joy of the righteous. She left her husband and received Baptism, being given the name Maria. As a result of her husband’s persecution, she was condemned to lifelong imprisonment and spent eighteen years in prison, being steadfast in the Faith. She was then thrown into a pit, but was saved by God; then before a venomous snake, but the snake did not harm her. When some wicked youths were sent to her to defile her, God made her invisible to their eyes. Amazed at her sufferings, many Persians were converted to the Christian Faith. She visited Jerusalem, where she denounced the Severian heresy which taught that Christ’s divinity suffered, and therefore recited the Trisagion in this form: ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, Who was crucified for us, have mercy on us.’ Preaching the true Faith up to the end of her life, she died peacefully near the town of Nisibis in 587.

4. Our Holy Father Stephen of St. Sava’s.

Nephew to St. John Damascene, he lived in asceticism in the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified, and is therefore known as ‘of St. Sava’s’. He was a great imitator of the life of St. Sava and a resplendent star among the monks of Palestine. He entered into rest in the Lord in 794, at the age of sixty-nine.

5. Our Holy Mother Sarah the Egyptian.

She embraced asceticism as a young girl, and thus spent sixty years on the bank of the Nile not far from Alexandria. By her example, she drew many women to the monastic life. She entered into rest in the Lord in 370.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A man adorns simple clothing, but magnificent clothing adorns a man. Simple clothing attracts attention to the man, but magnificent clothing attracts attention only to itself. A passion for magnificent clothing simply dries up and consumes a man’s soul. This is the reason why the Church has always stood against magnificence in dress and urged simplicity. Among the innumerable horde of Christian saints, there is not one commemorated who was helped to sanctity by the magnificence of his apparel. Many great and wise kings, Christian and pagan alike, have loved simplicity of dress. Thus, it is said of the Emperor Augustus Octavius, during whose reign the Lord Jesus was born, that he wore one single garment, woven by his wife, his sister or his daughter. Of the Emperor Charles V it is said that he wore such simple clothing that ordinary citizens, his subjects, were better-dressed. The famous Greek general, Philopomenes, was once invited to lunch by some man, into whose house he had never previously been. Philopomenes arrived rather early. His host had not yet arrived, and his hostess, not knowing him personally and seeing this man in such simple garb, thought that he must be one of Philopomenes’ servants whom he had sent ahead to warn the household of his coming with his host. She therefore set him to chop wood. Philopomenes obeyed willingly, and began to chop the wood. When his host arrived and saw his honored guest thus employed, he was horrified, and asked him: ‘Who ventured to give such a task to Philopomenes?’ The general replied quietly: ‘My clothes.’

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.