Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 156].

14 ²⁰Brethren, cease becoming children in your minds, but be ye infants in malice; and keep on becoming mature in your minds. ²¹In the law it hath been written: “By other tongues and by other lips will I speak to this people; and not even thus will they hear Me [cf. Is. 28:11, 12],” saith the Lord. ²²Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to the unbelievers; and prophecy is not for the unbelievers, but to those who believe. ²³If therefore the whole church should come together in the same place, and all be speaking with tongues, and those who are unlearned or unbelievers should come in, will they not say that ye are mad? ²⁴But if all be prophesying, and some unbeliever or one unlearned should come in, he is reproved by all, he is examined by all. ²⁵And thus are the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so falling upon his face, he will make obeisance to God, reporting that God is verily among you.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 88]. The Lord said this parable:

18 ²“There was a certain judge in a certain city, who feared not God nor regarded man. ³“Now there was a widow in that city; and she kept on coming to him, saying, ‘Avenge me of mine adversary.’ ⁴“And he would not for a time; but afterwards he said within himself, ‘Even if I fear not God nor regard man, ⁵“‘at any rate, because this widow giveth me trouble, I will avenge her, that in the end she may not wear me out by her coming.’” ⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the judge of injustice saith. ⁷“And God, shall He in no wise bring about the avenging of His elect who cry aloud to Him day and night, and yet He is long-suffering over them? ⁸“I tell you that He will bring about the avenging of them quickly.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Theophany of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Titus [§ 302]. Child Titus:

2 ¹¹The grace of God which bringeth salvation appeared to all men, ¹²instructing us that, after we deny impiety and worldly lusts, we should live in the present age soberly and righteously and piously, ¹³waiting for the happy hope and appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴Who gave Himself for us, in order that He might ransom us for Himself from all lawlessness and might purify to Himself a people for a private possession, zealous of good works....

3 ⁴But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared— ⁵not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy—He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷that having been justified by the grace of this One, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 2]. In those days:

1 ⁹Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And straightway, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens being parted, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him; ¹¹and there came to be a voice out of the heavens, “Thou art My Son, the Beloved, in Thee I am well pleased.”

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 6]. At that time:

3 ¹³Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. ¹⁴But John was trying to hinder Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?” ¹⁵But Jesus answered and said to him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is becoming for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitteth Him. ¹⁶And Jesus, having been baptized, went up straightway from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him. ¹⁷And behold, there came to be a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 19th – Civil Calendar
January 6th – Church Calendar

1. The Theophany.

When the Lord Jesus had lived for thirty years from His birth in the flesh, He began His teaching and saving work. He marked this very beginning of the beginning by His Baptism in the Jordan. St. Kyril of Jerusalem says: ‘The beginning of the world—water; the beginning of the Gospel—the Jordan.’ At the Baptism of the Lord in the water, that mystery was revealed to the world that was predicted in the Old Testament—the mystery of the Holy Trinity of God. The Father revealed Himself to the sense of hearing, the Spirit to the sense of sight and the Son, further beyond these, to the sense of touch. The Father gave His testimony of the Son, the Son was baptized in the waters and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, hovered over the waters. And when John the Baptist bore witness of Christ and said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world’ (Jn. 1:29), and when he immersed the Lord in the Jordan and baptized Him, there were thus revealed both the mission of Christ in the world and the path of our salvation. That is to say: Christ takes upon Himself the sin of the whole human race. He dies under it (the immersion) and rises again (the coming up out of the water), and we must die to the old, sinful man and rise again, cleansed, renewed and reborn. Here is the Savior and here is the way of salvation. The Feast of the Theophany is also called the Feast of Lights. The word “Theophany” means “the revelation of God”.

FOR CONSIDERATION

In some periods the fables of heretics vexed the Church of God, but now she is vexed by the fables of unbelievers. By endurance in the Faith, by diligent prayer, by witness and even by martyrdom—only by these things will this new vexation be brought to naught. And the Church of God, the vessel of the truth of God, will triumph in the end, for the enemy will lose his weapons (Ps. 9:6). He who falls into heresy wanders through a dry desert, forsaking the one, true God. Separated from God, he seeks water in the arid wastes and moves into an uninhabited and thirsty land. The same can be said today of many who, studying hypotheses and theories, are guided by figments of their own imagination and not by the truth of God.

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.