Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Twelfth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ mid 125].

For Gk. usage, see 1 Cor. 1:26-2:5; for Sl. usage, see 1 Cor. 1:26-29.

1 ²⁶Brethren, ye see your calling, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born. ²⁷But God chose for Himself the foolish things of the world, that He may put to shame the wise; and God chose for Himself the weak things of the world, that He may put to shame the mighty things. ²⁸And God chose for Himself the low-born of the world and the despised, and the things that are nothing, that He might make of no effect the things that are, ²⁹so that no flesh should boast before Him. ³⁰But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹in order that, even as it hath been written: “He that boasteth, in the Lord let him boast [cf. Jer. 9:23, 24].”

2 ¹And I, brethren, having come to you, came not according to excellency of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. ²For I decided not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, even this One Who was crucified. ³And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. ⁴And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 82]. At that time:

20 ²⁹As Jesus went forth from Jericho, a great crowd followed Him. ³⁰And behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside, after they heard “Jesus is passing by,” cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David.” ³¹And the crowd rebuked them that they should be silent; but they kept on crying out the more, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David.” ³²And Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do ye wish that I should do to you?” ³³They say to Him, “Lord, that our eyes might be opened.” ³⁴And Jesus was moved with compassion and touched their eyes; and straightway their eyes recovered sight, and they followed Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Forefeast of the holy Transfiguration of our Lord, and the holy Martyr Efsignios of Antioch.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 58].

For Gk. usage, see 1 Pe. 1:1-25, 2:1-10; for Sl. usage, see 1 Pe. 1:1, 2, 10-12, 2:6-10.

1 ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are sojourners of the diaspora of Pontos, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and of Bithynia, ²elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, which hath been kept in the heavens for you, ⁵who are being guarded by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In which ye rejoice now for a little while, if it is needful, though ye have been grieved in diverse temptations, ⁷in order that the testing of your faith, much more precious than perishing gold, though it is being tested by fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory in the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸Whom not having seen, ye love; in Whom though now ye see Him not, but ye believe and are gladdened with a joy unspeakable and glorified, ⁹receiving for yourselves the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched out, who prophesied concerning the grace toward you, ¹¹searching in regard to what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ Who was in them was declaring when He testified beforehand of the sufferings in regard to Christ and the glories after these. ¹²To whom it was revealed that not to themselves, but to you, were they ministering the same things which now were announced to you by those who preached the Gospel to you in the Holy Spirit Who was sent forth from heaven—things into which angels desire to look into.

¹³Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and perfectly hope on the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ, ¹⁴as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves to the former desires in your ignorance, ¹⁵but according as the One Who called you is holy, do ye also become holy in all manner of behavior, ¹⁶because it hath been written: “Become holy; for I am holy [cf. Lev. 11:44, 19:2, 20:7].” ¹⁷And if ye call upon as Father the One Who without respect of persons judgeth according to the work of each, conduct yourselves during the time of your sojourning in fear, ¹⁸knowing that ye were not ransomed with corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your empty manner of life which was handed down from your fathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, ²⁰Who indeed was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake, ²¹who through Him believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²²Since ye have purified your souls in obedience to the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another intensely out of a pure heart, ²³which is begotten anew, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Logos of God Who liveth and abideth forever, ²⁴because “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth and its flower falleth out [cf. Is. 40:6-8; Ps. 102(103):13(15)]; ²⁵“but the word of the Lord abideth forever [cf. Is. 40:8].” And this is the word which was preached in the Gospel to you.

2 ¹Having then laid aside from yourselves all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, ²as newborn babes, desire the pure rational milk, that by it ye might grow in regard to salvation, ³if indeed “ye tasted that the Lord is good [cf. Ps. 33(34):8].” ⁴To Whom coming, a living Stone—having indeed been rejected by men, but chosen by God—precious, ⁵ye also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Sion a cornerstone, chosen, precious; and the one who believeth on Him in no wise shall be put to shame [cf. Is. 28:16].” ⁷To you, therefore, who believe, is the honor, but to those who disobey—the “stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner [Ps. 117(118):22],” ⁸and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense [cf. Is. 8:14]”—they stumble at the word, being disobedient, in regard to that which they also were appointed. ⁹But ye are “a chosen race [Is. 43:20], a royal priesthood, a holy nation [Ex. 19:6, 23:22], a people for a possession [cf. Deut. 7:6, 14:2],” that ye might “tell forth the virtues [cf. Is. 43:21]” of the One Who called you out of darkness into His wondrous light, ¹⁰who once were “not a people,” but now are “a people of God,” who “had not been pitied,” but now “have been pitied [cf. Hos. 1:6, 8, 9, 2:23].”

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 18th – Civil Calendar
August 5th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Efsignios (Eusignius).

He was a soldier under the Emperor Maximian, the Emperor Constantine the Great, and Constantine’s sons, and was present at the martyrdom of the holy martyr Vasiliskos (see May 22nd). He saw many angels, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as He received the soul of this holy martyr from the angel’s hands. He was a general under Constantine, and saw the Cross that appeared to the emperor. Spending a full sixty years in military service, he withdrew from it in the time of Constantine’s sons and went to Antioch, his hometown. There he lived a godly life of fasting, prayer and good works. In the time of Julian the Apostate, two men at variance in the street called him to judge between them. He adjudged right to the righteous, at which the one at fault became enraged, went to the emperor and denounced Efsignios as a Christian. The emperor summoned him to trial, at which he fiercely denounced the emperor for his apostasy from the Faith and rebuked him by citing the shining example of the great Constantine. The proud Julian ordered that he be beheaded. Efsignios suffered in great old age, in the year 362, and went to the kingdom of heaven.

2. The Hieromartyr Fabian, Pope of Rome.

A Roman by birth, Fabian was first a village priest, but then, when a white dove was seen to descend on him during a papal election, he was chosen. He was meek and kindly. He gathered the bodies of the holy martyrs for burial with great diligence, and built churches over their graves. He also built chapels and shrines in the caves where the martyrs had hidden during fierce persecutions. He baptized the Emperor Philip and his son and heir, also called Philip, and with the help of the senator, Pontius, who was also baptized, destroyed many idols and temples. But, when the wicked Decius became emperor, a terrible persecution of Christians arose in which Fabian suffered, being beheaded in the year 250. This Fabian established the custom of the blessing of oil on Holy Thursday.

3. The Holy Martyr Pontius the Senator.

Pontius was the son of the senator Marcus and his wife Julia, who was barren for twenty-two years before giving him birth. Baptized by Pope Pontianus, along with his friend Valerius (who wrote his life), he succeeded in bringing his father, Marcus, the Emperor Philip and his son, and many other eminent Romans to the Christian Faith. He gave great protection and help to the Church as a senator, and was a close friend of Pope Fabian. When Decius’ persecution began, Pontius fled from Rome and hid in the Alps, but in the time of Valerian, he was taken and put to harsh torture, during which many miracles of God were revealed and many turned to Christ. There happened to be many Jews there, who cried to the judge: ‘Kill him; kill this magician at once!’ At this, Pontius raised his hands to heaven and said: ‘I give thanks to Thee, O my God, that the Jews also cry against me, as their fathers once cried against Christ: “Crucify Him; crucify Him!”’ He was beheaded in 257 and was buried by his friend Valerius.

4. St. Nonna.

The mother of St. Gregory the Theologian, she was a Christian and a mighty wonder-worker through prayer. By her prayers, she brought her husband back from the folly of idolatry to the Christian Faith, and he later became bishop of the city of Nazianzus. By her prayers, St. Nonna also saved her son, Gregory the Theologian, from a storm. She entered peacefully into rest as a deaconess in 374.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Valerian thus begins the Life of his friend Pontius: ‘Who can believe, except by the gift of God? Who can embark on spiritual endeavor except with God’s help? Who can receive the wreath (of martyrdom) except it be given by Christ?’ God desires, and can perform, all that is needful for the salvation of men, but only if men ask Him. By her prayers, St. Nonna brought her husband Gregory and her son Gregory the Theologian to the Christian Faith. By his prayers, Basil brought his teacher Evoulios to Christ. By prayer, King Hezekiah prolonged his life for fifteen years. By prayer, St. Simeon the Stylite turned back the Persians and Scythians, that they should not strike a blow against the land of Greece with the armies they held in readiness. For the rest, all the stars in heaven could more easily be counted than all the wonders in the world performed by prayer.

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.