Daily Devotional

Friday, February 8, 2030 (NS), January 26, 2030 (OS)

Fast Day. No Meat, Fish, Dairy, Eggs, Alcohol or Olive Oil Allowed.

Friday of the Thirty-Seventh Week

The commemoration of our righteous Father Xenophon and his wife, Mary, and their two sons, Arcadios and John, of Constantinople.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirty-Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 245]. Brethren:

3 ⁸I suffered the loss of all things, and deem them to be dung, that I might win Christ, ⁹and might be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰to come to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the partaking of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. ¹²Not that I already received, or already have been perfected; but I pursue, if I might also apprehend that for which I also was apprehended by the Christ, Jesus. ¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forth to those things which are before, ¹⁴I pursue toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be of this mind; and if ye are otherwise minded in anything, God shall reveal even this to you. ¹⁶Only to what we attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

¹⁷Brethren, keep on becoming imitators together of me and look to those who so walk, as ye have us for an example. ¹⁸For many walk about, of whom I was telling you often, and now tell even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ: ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and who glory in their shame—they who mind earthly things!

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 32].

7 ³¹The Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? ³²“They are like little children sitting in a marketplace and calling to one another, and saying, ‘We played on the flute to you, and ye danced not; we sang a dirge to you, and ye wept not.’ ³³“For John the Baptist hath come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, ‘He hath a demon.’ ³⁴“The Son of Man hath come eating and drinking, and ye say, ‘Behold, a man, a glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ ³⁵“And yet wisdom is justified by all of her children!”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our righteous Father Xenophon and his wife, Mary, and their two sons, Arcadios and John, of Constantinople.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 8th – Civil Calendar
January 26th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Xenophon and our Mother Maria, and their sons John and Arkadios.

They were rich and respected citizens of Constantinople. Xenophon and Maria lived godly lives, and made every effort to give their sons a Christian upbringing. When the boys were grown, their parents sent them to Beirut to study, but a storm capsized their ship. By God’s providence, both John and Arkadios were somehow saved and thrown onto the shore by the waves; in two separate places, however, so that each thought the other had perished. Out of grief for each other, they became monks in two different monasteries. After two years of mourning, their parents traveled to Jerusalem to venerate the holy places. There, helped by the insight of a holy man, the brothers were first united with each other and then with their parents. Out of gratitude to God, Xenophon and Maria gave away all their goods to the poor and both embraced the monastic state. This touching story of these four holy souls demonstrates clearly how the Lord guides most wonderfully the destinies of those who believe in Him; how He looses on them trials and sorrows, that they may later, yet more greatly strengthened in their faith, experience the greater joy. They lived and died in the fifth century.

2. Our Holy Father Simeon the Ancient.

A friend and companion of St. Palladios, he lived in asceticism in a cave from his early youth right up to his death. He founded two monasteries and entered into rest in the Lord in the year 390. He was named ‘the Ancient’ by St. Simeon the Stylite, who lived somewhat later.

3. St. David, King of Georgia (1089-1130).

He restored and strengthened Georgia as a country. He was a great zealot for the Christian Faith. He built many new churches throughout Georgia, and restored ancient ones. He is regarded as the regenerator of Orthodoxy in Georgia.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The greatest blessing any country can have is that of good and holy men living within it. Compared with this blessing, all other blessings are as nothing. Devout Christian kings regarded holy people in their lands as the greatest blessing from God. The holy Emperor Constantine the Great said: ‘We bless the Lord Jesus Christ that there exists in my day three glorious saints: the blessed Abba Anthony, Abba Elenius and Abba Efchius.’ Before the Battle of Kulikovo, a battle significant for Russia, the devout Prince Dimitri of the Don went off with his chief advisors and commanders to the forest of Radonezh to seek St. Sergius and beg his prayers. And although the prince prepared his armies for the war of liberation from the Tartars, he placed greater confidence in the prayers of one holy man than in a vast army and many weapons.

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.