Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Sixteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 217]. Brethren:

1 ⁷We have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace, ⁸which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed for Himself in Himself, ¹⁰in regard to a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to recapitulate all things in the Christ, both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, ¹¹in Him, in Whom we also were allotted inheritors, having been foreordained according to the purpose of the One energizing all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹²for us to be the praise of His glory, who have hoped before in the Christ; ¹³in Whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation—in Whom having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴Who is an earnest of our inheritance until redemption of the preserved possession to the praise of His glory.

¹⁵On this account I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus and the love which is toward all the saints, ¹⁶cease not giving thanks on behalf of you, making mention of you at the time of my prayers, ¹⁷in order that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the full knowledge of Him.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 32]. At that time:

8 ¹The crowd being very great and having nothing that they might eat, Jesus called to Himself His disciples, and saith to them, ²“I am moved with compassion toward the crowd, because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing that they might eat. ³“And if I should dismiss them fasting to their home, they shall be faint in the way; for some of them have come from afar.” ⁴And His disciples answered Him, “From what place shall anyone here be able to fill these with bread in a wilderness?” ⁵And He asked them, “How many loaves have ye?” And they said, “Seven.” ⁶And He commanded the crowd to recline on the ground. And having taken the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and kept on giving them to His disciples, in order that they might set them before them; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷And they had a few small fish; and He blessed them, and said to set them also before them. ⁸And they ate and were filled; and they took up over and above seven provision baskets of fragments. ⁹And they who ate were about four thousand; and He dismissed them. ¹⁰And straightway He embarked into the ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanoutha.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The beginning of the Indiction, which is the Church New Year. The commemoration of our venerable Father Symeon, Archimandrite and Stylite.

Epistle

For the Indiction:

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 282]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹I exhort therefore, first of all, that entreaties, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, ²for kings and all those who are in authority, that we may pass a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and gravity. ³For this is good and acceptable before God our Savior, ⁴Who willeth all men to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, ⁶Who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times, ⁷for which I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not—a teacher of nations in faith and truth.

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians [§ 258]. Brethren:

3 ¹²Put on for yourselves, as elect of God, holy and beloved, compassion from your inward parts, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, ¹³bearing with one another, and graciously forgiving one another, if anyone hath a complaint against someone; even as the Christ graciously forgave you, thus also do ye. ¹⁴And over all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵And let the peace of God be presiding in your hearts, to which also ye were called in one body; and keep on becoming thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual odes, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

Gospel

For the Indiction:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 13]. At that time:

4 ¹⁶ Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to what was customary to Him, He went into the synagogue on the day of the sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷And there was handed over to Him the roll of Esaias the prophet. And having unfolded the roll, He found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, on account of which He anointed Me; He hath sent Me to preach the good tidings to the poor, to heal those who have been broken in heart, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind [Is. 61:1], to send forth in deliverance those who have been broken in pieces [cf. Is. 58:6], ¹⁹“to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [cf. Is. 61:2].” ²⁰And after He folded up the roll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were looking intently on Him. ²¹And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture hath been fulfilled in your ears.” ²²And all were bearing witness to Him, and were wondering at the words of grace which were proceeding out of His mouth, and were saying, “This is the Son of Joseph, is it not?”

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 36]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

10 ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰“The thief cometh not, except that he might steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. ¹²“But the hireling, who indeed is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth the sheep. ¹³“Now the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not about the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are Mine, and am known of those that are Mine. ¹⁵“Even as the Father knoweth Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also it is needful for Me to bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”

for Sl. usage, see [Mt. 11:27-30].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

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

1. The Beginning of the Church’s Year.

The First Ecumenical Council decreed that the Church’s year should begin on September 1st. The month of September was, for the Jews, the beginning of the civil year (see Exodus 12:2), the month of the gathering of fruits and the bringing to God of sacrifices of thanksgiving. It was at the time of this feast that the Lord Jesus went into the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the Book of the Prophet Isaias (Isaiah) and read the words: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; because He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance’ (Is. 61:1-2; cf. Luke 4:16-21). This month of September is also noted in the history of Christianity because it was during September that Constantine the Great was victorious over Maxentius, the enemy of the Christian Faith, a victory followed by the granting of freedom of confession of the Christian Faith throughout the whole Roman Empire. For a long time, the civil year in the Christian world was reckoned in the same way as the Church’s year, from September 1st, but it was later changed to January 1st, first in western Europe and then also in Russia in the time of Peter I.

2. Our Holy Father Simeon the Stylite.

Born in Syria of peasant parents, he fled from them at the age of eighteen and became a monk. He gave himself to the strictest asceticism, sometimes fasting for forty days. After that, he followed a particular ascesis, until then unknown: standing day and night on a pillar in unceasing prayer. His pillar was at first three meters high, then one of six meters was built for him, then eleven, eighteen and finally twenty. His mother, Martha, came to see him twice, but he would not receive her, saying to her from his pillar: ‘Don’t disturb me now, mother dear, if we are to be worthy to meet in the next world.’ St. Simeon endured innumerable assaults from demons, overcoming them all by prayer. He worked great miracles, healing the sick by his prayers and his words. People from all sides gathered around his pillar: rich and poor, kings and slaves. He helped them all, restoring bodily health to some, giving comfort and instruction to others and denouncing some for their heretical faith. The Empress Evdokia-Athenaïs was thus turned from the Eftychian heresy back to Orthodoxy. Simeon lived in asceticism during the reigns of the Emperors Theodosios the Younger, Marcian and Leo the Great. This first Christian stylite and great wonder-worker, St. Simeon, lived for seventy years, and entered into rest in the Lord on September 1st, 459. His relics were taken to Antioch, to the church dedicated to his name.

3. Rt. Jesus (Joshua) the Son of Navee.

Jesus was the leader of the Jewish people after the death of Moses. Only he and Caleb, of the several hundred thousand Jews that left Egypt, entered the Promised Land. Read of his faithfulness to God, his works and his wonders in the Book of Joshua. He lived for a hundred and ten years, and died in about 1440 B.C.

FOR CONSIDERATION

We must, while we are in this world, make use of all that is at hand for the formation of our souls, for, when death plucks us out of it, we shall take nothing to the other world except our souls as they have been formed in this. St. Simeon the Stylite, while still a young man of eighteen, fell flat on his face on the ground one day and breathed a prayer to God that He would show him the way of salvation. Lying there thus long in prayer, he had this vision: he was digging a trench as a foundation for something, and stopped digging to have a rest. At that, he heard a voice: ‘Dig deeper!’ He began to exert himself to dig deeper, but the voice came again: ‘Dig deeper!’ and he began again with a yet more intensive effort. The voice then said: ‘Stop; that’s enough. Now you must build, but you will not get anywhere without effort.’ Those who make little effort and build the life of their soul on sensual shallows build their building on sand, and such a building cannot stand in this transitory world—and even less in the world that endures.

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.