Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sunday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Grave Mode — Second Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 221]. Brethren:

2 ¹⁴Christ is our peace, the One Who made the both one, and broke down the middle wall of the hedge, ¹⁵having abolished by ordinances the enmity—the law of the commandments—in His flesh, in order that He might create in Himself the two into one new man, making peace, ¹⁶and might thoroughly reconcile them both in one body to God through the Cross, having slain the enmity by it. ¹⁷And He came and preached the good tidings, peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then ye are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God, ²⁰who were built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone, ²¹in Whom every building, being joined together, increaseth to a holy temple in the Lord, ²²in Whom ye also are being built up together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 39]. At that time:

8 ⁴¹A certain man came to Jesus, whose name was Jairos, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell at the feet of Jesus and besought Him to come into his house, ⁴²for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. But as He was going, the crowds were pressing closely upon Him. ⁴³And a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who expended her whole living on physicians and could not be cured by anyone, ⁴⁴came behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment. And immediately the flow of her blood stanched. ⁴⁵And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” But when all denied it, Peter said, and those with him, “Master, the crowds compass Thee and press Thee tightly, and sayest Thou, ‘Who is the one who touched Me?’” ⁴⁶And Jesus said, “Someone touched Me; for I know that power went forth from Me.” ⁴⁷And after the woman saw that she did not escape notice, she came trembling; and having fallen down before Him, she declared to Him before all the people for what cause she touched Him, and how she was healed immediately. ⁴⁸And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good courage; thy faith hath made thee well. Go thou in peace.” ⁴⁹While He is yet speaking, someone cometh from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Thy daughter hath died; do not be troubling the Teacher.” ⁵⁰But after Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Cease being afraid; only keep on believing, and she shall be made well.” ⁵¹And after He entered into the house, He did not allow anyone to go in, except Peter and Iakovos and John, and the father and the mother of the girl. ⁵²And all were weeping and beating their breasts. But He said, “Cease weeping; she did not die, but sleepeth.” ⁵³And they kept on laughing scornfully at Him, knowing that she did die. ⁵⁴But He put them all outside and took hold of her hand and called, saying, “Girl, arise.” ⁵⁵And her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And He commanded that something be given to her to eat. ⁵⁶And her parents were amazed. And He gave orders to them to tell no one what took place.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy and venerable Martyr Anastasia the Roman, and our venerable Father Abramios the Recluse, and his niece St. Mary of Mesopotamia.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 11th – Civil Calendar
October 29th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Mother, the Martyr Anastasia the Roman.

She was born in Rome of well-born parents and left an orphan at the age of three. As an orphan, she was taken into a women’s monastery near Rome, where the abbess was one Sophia, a nun of a high level of perfection. After seventeen years, Anastasia was known in the whole neighborhood, to the Christians as a great ascetic and to the pagans as a rare beauty. The pagan administrator of the city, Probus, heard of her and sent soldiers to bring her to him. The good Abbess Sophia counseled Anastasia for two hours on how to keep the Faith, how to resist flattering delusion and how to endure torture. Anastasia said to her: ‘My heart is ready to suffer for Christ; my soul is ready to die for my beloved Jesus.’ Brought before the governor, Anastasia openly proclaimed her faith in Christ the Lord, and when the governor tried to dissuade her from the Faith, first with promises and then with threats, the holy maiden said to him: ‘I am ready to die for my Lord, not once but—oh, if it were only possible!—a thousand times.’ When they stripped her naked, to humiliate her, she cried to the judge: ‘Whip me and cut at me and beat me; my naked body will be hidden by wounds, and my shame will be covered by my blood!’ She was whipped and beaten and cut about. She twice felt a great thirst and asked for water, and a Christian, Cyril, gave her a drink, for which he was blessed by the martyr and beheaded by the pagans. Then her breasts and tongue were cut off, and an angel of God appeared to her and upheld her. She was finally beheaded with the sword outside the city. Blessed Sophia found her body and buried it, and Anastasia was crowned with the wreath of martyrdom under the Emperor Decius (249-251).

2. Our Holy Father Abramios (Abraham) the Recluse and his niece Maria.

Under pressure from his parents, Abramios married, but on the very day of his wedding, he left his bride, his parents, his home and all that he had and went off into solitude to live in strict asceticism. He lived thus for fifty years, only leaving his cell twice in the whole of that time. Once it was at the command of the local bishop, to convert a pagan village to the Christian Faith, and the other was to save his dissolute niece Maria. He entered peacefully into rest in 360, at the age of seventy.

3. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Timothy of Esphigmenou.

From the village of Paraora, in the province of Kessana in Thrace, he was married and had two daughters. His wife was seized by the Turks and converted to Islam, and in order to save her from the harem, he also pretended to become a Turk. Saving his wife, he gave her to a women’s monastery and went off to the Holy Mountain, first to the Lavra and then to Esphigmenou. He desired martyrdom for Christ, like Agathangelos of Esphigmenou, and was beheaded in Jedrene on October 29th, 1820. His body was thrown into a river, but his clothing was taken back to Esphigmenou by the elder Germanos, his spiritual father.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved’ (Matt. 10:22), said the Lord. Faith is the one light that can truly illumine endurance, as endurance for its own sake becomes an unbearable darkness. Faith is a star shining in this darkness; faith softens the sharpness of suffering and bears on its wings all the weight of endurance. St. Abramios offers us a beautiful example of perseverance in endurance. The devil simulated to him various sorts of temptation and terror, plunging him into a tedium that almost got him to the point of leaving the place in which he had settled and moving elsewhere, but Abramios did not want to move and become like an evil demon; he remained in his own place and overcame the devil. The bishop of that area sent Abramios to a pagan village to try to bring it to the Christian Faith. After long resistance, Abramios set off, saying: ‘Let God’s will be done; I’m going under obedience.’ He first built a church in the village and then pulled down the idols before the eyes of the villagers. They thrashed him, and beat him black and blue, leaving him almost dead, and then drove him out of their village, but he prayed to God for them with tears, that God would open the eyes of their hearts to know the truth of Christ. Thus the pagans beat and mocked him without remission for three years, but he prayed constantly to God for them and was not angered against them, ‘enduring in his faith like a firm rock’. Only after three whole years did his toil and tears, his beseeching and faith have their reward, for suddenly the villagers were awakened and went in a group to Abramios. Bowing down before him, they begged him to instruct them in the Christian Faith.

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.