Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 66]. Beloved:

1 ²⁰Know this first, that every prophecy of Scripture cometh not out of private explanation, ²¹for prophecy was not brought about at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke while borne along by the Holy Spirit.

2 ¹But false prophets arose among the people, as also there shall be false teachers among you, who shall introduce privily heresies of destruction, even denying the Master Who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ²And many shall follow their licentious acts, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed. ³And in covetousness, they shall make merchandise of you with feigned words, for whom the judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbereth not. ⁴For if God spared not angels who sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and delivered them to judgment with cords of darkness which have been kept for them; ⁵and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, one of eight, a herald of righteousness, after He brought a flood upon a world of ungodly ones; ⁶and having burned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He condemned them with destruction, having made them an example to those intending to live impiously; ⁷and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the licentious behavior of the lawless ⁸(for the righteous man, dwelling among them, tortured his righteous soul day after day by seeing and hearing their lawless works)— ⁹then the Lord knoweth how to deliver the pious out of temptation, and to keep the unjust who are under punishment until a day of judgment.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 59]. The Lord said to His disciples:

13 ⁹“Be taking heed to yourselves: For they shall deliver you up to councils; and ye shall be beaten in their synagogues; and ye shall be made to stand before governors and kings on account of Me, for a testimony to them. ¹⁰“And it is needful for the Gospel first to be proclaimed to all the nations. ¹¹“But whenever they lead you away and deliver you up, cease taking thought before what ye should say, neither be meditating. But whatsoever shall be given to you in that hour, be speaking this; for ye are not the ones who speak, but the Holy Spirit. ¹²“Now brother shall deliver up brother to death, and a father, a child; and children shall rise up against parents, and shall put them to death. ¹³“And ye shall be hated by all for My name’s sake. But the one who endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord, and the holy Martyr Agatha of Palermo in Sicily, and our father among the saints, Theodosios, Archbishop of Chernigov, the Wonder-worker.

Epistle

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 335]. Brethren:

13 ¹⁷Be obedient to those who lead you, and keep on submitting, for they are watchful for your souls, as those about to render an account, that they may do this with joy, and not groaning; for this would be unprofitable for you. ¹⁸Keep on praying for us; for we trust that we have a good conscience, in all things wishing to conduct ourselves well. ¹⁹But I beseech you more abundantly to do this, that I might be restored more quickly to you.

²⁰Now the God of peace Who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of the sheep, the great One, in the blood of an everlasting covenant, ²¹may He render you perfect in every good work, in order to do His will, doing in you that which is well-pleasing before His face, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 24]. At that time:

6 ¹⁷Jesus stood upon a level place. And there was a crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of the people from all of Judæa and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases— ¹⁸even those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were cured. ¹⁹And all the crowd was seeking to touch Him, for power was coming forth from Him and healing all. ²⁰And He lifted up His eyes to His disciples, and began to say:
   “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
   ²¹“Blessed are ye who hunger now, for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh.
   ²²“Blessed are ye whenever men hate you, and whenever they separate you, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.
   ²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 18th – Civil Calendar
February 5th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Agatha.

This glorious virgin and martyr for Christ was born in the Sicilian town of Palermo of noble and prosperous parents. When Emperor Decius launched a persecution of Christians, St. Agatha was arrested and brought to judgement before Quintian, the judge. He saw Agatha’s beauty and desired her for his wife. When he suggested this to her, she replied that she was the bride of Christ and could not be faithless to her Betrothed. The judge condemned her to cruel torture: Agatha was flogged, mocked, bound to a tree and beaten till the blood flowed. After that, the judge again urged her to deny Christ and so escape further torture, to which Christ’s bride replied: ‘These tortures are of great help to me. As wheat cannot come to the granary until it is cleansed of its chaff, so my soul cannot enter Paradise unless my body has first been broken by torture.’ Then the torturer ordered that her breasts be cut off, and that she then be thrown into prison. The holy Apostle Peter appeared to her in the prison and restored her to physical wholeness and health. She was once again taken out for torture and again cast back into prison, where she gave her soul to God in the town of Catania in the year 251. After her death, her torturer, Quintian, set out to appropriate her lands; but on the way, the horses became maddened under him and his soldiers. They were savaged on the face, thrown onto the ground and trampled to death. Thus God’s punishment came swiftly upon him for his ferocious crime against St. Agatha.

2. The Holy Martyr Theodula.

She suffered for Christ in the time of Diocletian, the impious Roman emperor. During her tortures, Theodula brought one of her torturers, Helladius, to his senses and to the Christian Faith. When Helladius openly confessed his faith in Christ, he was beheaded. Theodula showed great courage at her trial, for which the judge considered her witless. To this, she retorted: ‘It is you who are witless, for you forget the one true God and bow down to lifeless stones.’ The judge put her to cruel torture, which Theodula endured with heroism, making her torturers marvel and bringing them to Christ. Among these were two eminent citizens, Makarius and Evagrius. With these two and many others, Theodula was thrown into a red-hot furnace, where they all finished this life with honor and were made worthy of the kingdom of Christ.

3. St. Polyefktos, Patriarch of Constantinople.

For his great mind, his zeal for the Faith and his power of oratory, he was called a second Chrysostom. The Russian Princess Olga came to Constantinople in the time of Patriarch Polyefktos and Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and was baptized there in 957. The patriarch baptized her, and the emperor stood godfather. St. Polyefktos prophesied: ‘Blessed art thou among Russian women, for thou hast desired the light and cast away darkness; the sons of Russia will bless thee to the last generation.’ From being a simple monk, Polyefktos was raised to the patriarchate in 946, and remained on the patriarchal throne until his death in 970.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The great Abba Ischyrion was asked by his monks: ‘What have we accomplished?’ ‘We have fulfilled the commandments of God,’ replied Ischyrion. ‘And what will those who come after us accomplish?’ ‘They will accomplish what we have accomplished, but only half as much as we.’ ‘And those after them?’ ‘Those in the last days will have no monastic training, but such assaults and temptations will come upon them that they will, through these trials, be revealed in the kingdom of God as greater than us and than our fathers.’

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.