Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Special Commemorations

The Sunday After the Theophany

According to the Typikon of the Great Church, if this service coincides with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, these readings are read on January 7th.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ mid 224]. Brethren:

4 ⁷To each of us was given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. ⁸Wherefore, He saith, “Having ascended on high, He led captivity captive” and “gave gifts to men [cf. Ps. 67(68):19(18)].” ⁹Now that He ascended, what is it except that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰The One Who descended is the same also Who ascended above all of the heavens, in order that He might fill all things. ¹¹And He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, ¹²for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of ministering, to the building up of the body of the Christ, ¹³until we all might come to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 8]. At that time:

4 ¹²After Jesus heard that John was delivered up, He withdrew into Galilee. ¹³And having left Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is beside the sea, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthaleim, ¹⁴in order that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, ¹⁵“O land of Zabulon, and land of Nephthaleim, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations [cf. Is. 9:1], ¹⁶“the people who sit in darkness saw a great light; and to those who sit in the region and shadow of death, light rose up to them [cf. Is. 9:2].” ¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim and to say, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of the heavens hath drawn near.”

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Sunday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Mode One — First Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ mid 182]. Brethren:

6 ¹⁶Ye are a temple of the living God, even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk about in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to Me a people [Cf. Lev. 26:11, 12; Jer. 38(31):33, 39(32):38; Ez. 37:27; Zach. 8:8].” ¹⁷Wherefore, “‘Come out from the midst of them, and be separated,’ saith the Lord, ‘and cease touching the unclean thing [Is. 52:11],’ and I will receive you, ¹⁸“‘and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be to Me for sons [cf. 2 Kgs. (2 Sam.) 7:14; 1 Chr. 17:13] and daughters [cf. Is. 43:6],’ saith the Lord Almighty.”

7 ¹Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing to perfection holiness in the fear of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 62]. At that time:

15 ²¹Jesus withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And behold, a Cananæan woman came out from those borders, and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is badly possessed by a demon.” ²³But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and were beseeching Him, saying, “Dismiss her, for she crieth aloud after us.” ²⁴And He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel.” ²⁵But she came and kept on making obeisance to Him, saying, “O Lord, help me.” ²⁶And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the little dogs.” ²⁷But she said, “Yes, Lord, indeed even the little dogs eat from the little crumbs which fall from the table of their masters.” ²⁸Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is thy faith! Let it be to thee as thou wilt.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and the Synaxis of the honorable and glorious prophet, forerunner, and Baptist John.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 42]. In those days:

19 ¹It came to pass, while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper parts, came to Ephesus. And having found certain disciples, ²he said to them, “Did ye, having believed, receive the Holy Spirit?” And they said to him, “Nay, we did not even hear whether there is a Holy Spirit.” ³And he said to them, “Into what then were ye baptized?” And they said, “Into the baptism of John.” ⁴And Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the One coming after him, that is, in the Christ, Jesus.” ⁵And after they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And after Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they were speaking with tongues and prophesying. ⁷And all the men were about twelve. ⁸And he entered into the synagogue and kept on speaking boldly for three months, discoursing and trying to persuade them concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 3]. At that time:

1 ²⁹John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, “Behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world. ³⁰“This is He concerning Whom I said, ‘After me cometh a Man Who hath come to be before me, for He was before me.’ ³¹“And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore I came baptizing in the water.” ³²And John bore witness, saying, “I have beheld the Spirit descending out of heaven as a dove, and He abode upon Him. ³³“And I knew Him not, but the One Who sent me to baptize in water, that One said to me, ‘Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, this is the One Who baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴“And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 20th – Civil Calendar
January 7th – Church Calendar

1. St. John the Baptist.

John’s greatest role during his life was enacted on the day of the Theophany, and because of this the Church has, from the earliest times, dedicated the day following that feast to his memory. This day is also connected with an event involving the hand of the Forerunner. The Evangelist Luke desired to take John’s body from Sebaste, where the great prophet had been beheaded by Herod, to Antioch, his own birthplace. He succeeded, though, in acquiring and taking only one hand, which was kept in Antioch till the tenth century. It was then moved to Constantinople, whence it disappeared during the Turkish occupation.

St. John is commemorated several times during the year, but his greatest feast is on this day, January 7th. Among the Gospel-figures surrounding the Savior, the person of John the Baptist holds a very special place, by the manner of his birth in this world and of his earthly life, by his role of baptizer of men to repentance and his Baptism of the Messiah, and lastly, by the tragic manner of his departure from this world. He was of such moral purity that he indeed deserved the name ‘angel’*, as he was named in the Scriptures, rather than being thought of as just a mortal man. St. John differs from all the other prophets in that he had the joy of showing forth to the world the One Whom he had foretold.

About the hand of St. John: it is related that each year, on his feast day, the archbishop would bring it out before the people. Sometimes the hand appeared open, and sometimes clenched. In the first case it indicated that it would be a fertile year, and in the second that it would be a year of famine.

* The word ‘messenger’ is, in Greek, ‘angelos’. See Malachi 3:1; Matt. 11:10. —Tr.

2. The Holy New-Martyr Athanasius.

This martyr of Christ was a poor and simple man, but was rich in faith and in wisdom through the Spirit of God. On one occasion he was inadvertently involved in a quarrel with a Turk. The Turk was educated and adroit with words, but Athanasius strove with all his might to present and uphold the truth of the Christian Faith and its superiority over Islam. They then parted. On the following day, Athanasius was summoned to trial, and found the Turk standing there as his accuser. When the judge called on Athanasius to repudiate his faith and embrace Islam, as he had given the impression of declaring to his companion of the previous day, Athanasius cried out: ‘I would die a thousand deaths before I would deny the Faith of Christ!’ He was therefore condemned to death and beheaded in the year 1700. His body was buried in the Church of St. Paraskeve in Smyrna, the city of his execution.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘The whole man is not outwardly visible,’ says St Basil the Great. As one house is like another, so it is with the external appearance of a man. But a house receives honor from him who inhabits it, as likewise does a man from the spirit within him. It is easily apparent to bodily sight that the house is not the householder, but only the place where the householder lives; but it is only clear to spiritual sight that the body is not the man but only the dwelling his soul inhabits.

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.