Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Holy and Great Wednesday

Epistle

There is no Epistle Reading this day because of Holy Week.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ mid 41]. At that time:

12 ¹⁷The crowd that was with Jesus when He called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead bore witness. ¹⁸On this account the crowd also went to meet Him, because it heard that He had done this sign. ¹⁹The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “Observe ye that ye profit nothing? Behold, the world hath gone away after Him.”

²⁰And there were certain Greeks from among those going up that they might do reverence at the feast. ²¹Then these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. ²³But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour hath come that the Son of Man should be glorified. ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, unless the grain of the wheat that falleth into the earth should die, it abideth alone; but if it should die, it beareth much fruit. ²⁵“The one who loveth his life shall lose it; and the one who hateth his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. ²⁶“If anyone serve Me, let him keep on following Me; and where I am, there My servant shall be also. And if anyone serve Me, the Father shall honor him. ²⁷“Now My soul hath been troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’; but on this account I came to this hour. ²⁸“Father, glorify Thy name.” Then a voice came out of the heaven: “I both glorified it and will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd then that stood by and heard it was saying that thunder had occurred; others were saying, “An angel hath spoken to Him.” ³⁰Jesus answered and said, “This voice hath not occurred for My sake, but for your sakes. ³¹“Now is a judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. ³²“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself.” ³³But He was saying this, signifying by what manner of death He was about to die. ³⁴The crowd answered Him, “We heard out of the law that the Christ abideth forever; and how sayest Thou, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” ³⁵Then Jesus said to them, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Be walking while ye have the light, that darkness might not overtake you; and indeed the one who walketh in the darkness knoweth not where he goeth. ³⁶“While ye have the light, keep on believing in the light, that ye might become sons of light.” Jesus spoke these things, and departed, and was hidden from them.

³⁷But though He had done so many signs before them, yet they kept on not believing in Him, ³⁸that the word of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, “Lord, who believed our report? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed [Is. 53:1]?” ³⁹On this account they were not able to believe, because Esaias said again, ⁴⁰“He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and should be converted; and I shall heal them [cf. Is. 6:9, 10].” ⁴¹These things said Esaias when he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him. ⁴²Yet, nevertheless, from among the rulers also many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, lest they should be expelled from the synagogue; ⁴³for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. ⁴⁴But Jesus cried and said, “The one who believeth in Me, believeth not in Me, but in the One Who sent Me; ⁴⁵“and the one who seeth Me, seeth the One Who sent Me. ⁴⁶“I have come a light into the world, that everyone who believeth in Me should not abide in the darkness. ⁴⁷“And if anyone hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world. ⁴⁸“The one who rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath that which judgeth him—the word which I spoke, that shall judge him in the last day. ⁴⁹“For I spoke not of Myself, but the Father Who sent Me, He Himself gave a commandment to Me, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰“And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. Therefore, what things I speak, as the Father hath said to Me, so I speak.”

In the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 108]. At that time:

26 ⁶When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly perfumed ointment, and she poured it upon His head as He reclined at table. ⁸But His disciples, having seen it, became indignant, saying, “For what is this loss? ⁹“For it was possible for this perfumed ointment to have been sold for much and to have been given to the poor.” ¹⁰But Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do ye cause trouble to the woman? For she wrought a good work toward Me. ¹¹“For ye have the poor among yourselves always, but Me ye have not always. ¹²“For in putting this perfumed ointment upon My body, she did it for My burial. ¹³“Verily I say to you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be proclaimed in all the world, also what she did shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” ¹⁴Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariote, went to the chief priests, ¹⁵and said, “What are ye willing to give to me, and I will deliver Him up to you?” And they fixed by agreement with him for thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from that time he sought an opportunity that he might deliver Him up.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy father among the saints, Antipas, Bishop of Pergamon and disciple of St. John the Theologian.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 24th – Civil Calendar
April 11th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum in Asia.

He is mentioned in the Book of Revelation as ‘Antipas My faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth’ (Rev. 2:13)—the city of Pergamum (Pergamos). The inhabitants of this town dwelt in the darkness of idolatry and in the depths of impurity: they were slaves to their passions, slanderers, bullies, incestuous; in brief, slaves of Satan. There among them lived Antipas, ‘as a light in the midst of darkness, as a rose among thorns, as gold in mud’. He who would seize and kill a Christian was regarded as good and just. The whole of their idolatrous faith consisted in soothsaying, the interpretation of dreams, the service of demons and the extreme excesses of debauchery. In terror of Antipas as of fire, the demons appeared to the pagan priests in their dreams and told them how greatly they were in fear of him, and how this fear was driving them from the city. The priests stirred up the multitude, and they began to torment him and to press him to deny Christ and worship idols. Antipas said to them: ‘When your so-called gods and lords of the universe are afraid of me, a mortal man, and have to flee the city, why do you not learn from this that all your faith is in vain?’ And the saint spoke further with them of the Christian Faith as the only true and saving Faith. But they became incensed like wild beasts and dragged the aged Antipas before the temple of Artemis, where there stood an ox cast in bronze. They heated the ox and threw the servant of God inside. St. Antipas, inside the red-hot ox, glorified God with thanksgiving, like Jonah in the sea monster and the Three Children in the burning fiery furnace. Antipas prayed for his flock and for the whole world until his soul parted from his exhausted body and went to join the angels in the kingdom of Christ. He died under torture and was crowned with unfading glory in the year 92.

2. The Holy Martyrs Processus and Martinian.

They were warders in the Roman prison where the Apostles Peter and Paul were held captive. Hearing the words and seeing the miracles of these apostles, they were baptized and released the apostles from prison. The apostles left Rome, but the Lord appeared to Peter on the Appian Way. ‘Lord, whither goest Thou?’ asked Peter of Him, and the Lord replied: ‘I’m going to Rome, to be crucified afresh.’ The apostles returned to Rome, where they were arrested and killed. The two courageous martyrs, Processus and Martinian, were beheaded along with St. Paul.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘There is no rest on earth for those who seek salvation,’ says St. Ephraim the Syrian. The struggle is incessant, whether external or internal. The enemy acts at times visibly through people and things, at times invisibly through the mind. At times he shows himself clearly as the enemy, acting with cruelty; at others as a flattering friend, leading astray by a trick. That which takes place in war between two opposing armies is that which happens to a man who commits himself to the struggle with the delusion of this world. Indeed, ‘there is no rest on earth for those who seek salvation’. But when salvation comes, rest comes with it.

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.