Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Renewal Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 7]. In those days:

3 ¹Peter and John were going up together into the temple during the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ²And a certain man, lame from his mother’s womb, was being carried, whom they used to lay daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those going into the temple; ³who, seeing Peter and John being about to go into the temple, began asking alms. ⁴And Peter, looking intently upon him with John, said, “Look on us.” ⁵And he began to give heed to them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, this I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaræan, rise up and be walking.” ⁷And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankle bones were strengthened. ⁸And leaping up, he stood and went on walking and entered with them into the temple—walking and leaping and praising God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 7]. At that time:

2 ¹²Jesus went down to Capernaum, He, and His Mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. ¹³And the passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴And He found in the temple those who sell oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting. ¹⁵And after He made a scourge out of cords, He cast out all from the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the small pieces of money, and turned upside down the tables of the money changers. ¹⁶And He said to those who sold doves, “Take away these things from this place. Cease making the house of My Father a house of merchandise.” ¹⁷And His disciples were reminded that it is written: “The zeal for Thy house shall eat me up [cf. Ps. 68(69):12(9)].” ¹⁸Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign showest Thou to us, seeing that Thou doest these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” ²⁰Then the Jews said, “In forty and six years was this temple built, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?” ²¹But He was speaking about the temple of His body. ²²When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples were reminded that He was saying this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus said.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Theodore Trichinas ("the Hair-shirt Wearer"), hermit near Constantinople, and our venerable Father Anastasios of Sinai (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 21^st of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 3rd – Civil Calendar
April 20th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodore Trichinas.

He was a citizen of Constantinople, and the son of wealthy parents. He left parents, home and riches while still a young man and settled in a remote monastery in Thrace, where he undertook the most rigorous ascetic life. He slept on a stone so that he might have less sleep; he was always bareheaded and dressed in a hair-shirt, from which he was called ‘Trichinas’ or ‘hairy’. Because of his great and self-inflicted sufferings for the sake of his soul’s salvation, God granted him the gift of working miracles, both in his lifetime and after his death, and he died peacefully in about 400. Healing myrrh flowed from his relics.

2. Our Holy Father Anastasios of Mount Sinai.

He was abbot of Mount Sinai. He was for a long time a monk under the famous abbot, St. John of the Ladder, whom he succeeded on the latter’s death. He was also a great ascetic, and an eloquent narrator of the lives of the saints and the author of other instructive works. He fought an intensive battle against the heresy of the Akephalites, which was condemned by the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon. He died in great old age in 685, and went to the Lord Whom he had served so faithfully.

3. Blessed Anastasios the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch.

He was chosen as Patriarch of Antioch in the reign of the Emperor Justinian while still a monk on Mount Sinai. His virtues, purity of life, great spiritual learning and staunch faith won him the patriarchal throne. But Justinian, according to one historical source, for a short time fell into the heresy of Aphthartodocetism. Eftychios, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Blessed Anastasios reacted sharply against this. The emperor exiled Eftychios and wanted to exile Anastasios also, but could find nothing in his life capable of criticism. When Justinian was dying, he repented and returned Eftychios to the patriarchal throne, but Justin, his successor, succeeded in exiling Anastasios on the basis of certain slanders. Anastasios spent twenty-three years in exile and was then returned to the throne of Antioch during the reign of the Emperor Maurice. He governed the Church of God for six further years and finished his earthly course in 599.

4. Blessed Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch.

An Armenian by birth, he was abbot first of the Pharanite monastery and then on Mount Sinai, and when Blessed Anastasios was driven from the patriarchal throne, he was, against his will, installed as Patriarch of Antioch. John Moschus writes about him in his ‘Meadow,’ praising him highly. Gregory was particularly distinguished by an outstanding compassion, most especially towards sinners. He entered into rest in the Lord in 593

5. The Holy Apostle Zaccheus.

He was at first a publican and a sinner, but when the Lord saw him in the tree in Jericho (Lk. 19), He immediately brought Zaccheus to repentance. Zaccheus later followed the Apostle Peter, who made him Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, where he served the Gospel in faithfulness and died peacefully.

6. Our Holy Father Athanasius of Meteora.

Born in 1310, he lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain. He founded a famous monastery in the Meteora in Thessaly. He had great gifts of discernment and wonder-working.

Author’s note: Philaret also mentions Gabriel the Child-martyr in his ‘Lives of the Saints’. He was born in the village of Zvjerka, near the town of Zabludov and was only six years old when, in 1648, on the day when his parents were not at home, he was lured to a lonely place by a Jew named Schutko and crucified there. His body was found incorrupt thirty years later.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Anastasios of Mount Sinai teaches: ‘God gives to each Christian an angel to care for him through his whole life, unless he drives him away by his evil doings. But, as smoke drives away bees and an evil stench doves, so the guardian of our life, our angel, is driven away from us by our sins: drunkenness, debauchery, anger and the rest. An angel guides every faithful man in every good work, while the demons exert all their strength to disturb the faithful and deprive them of the heavenly kingdom.’ That angels are close to men and take care of them is testified to in the whole of holy Scripture and especially in the New Testament. Besides this, there are in the Orthodox Church innumerable testimonies of holy men and women who witnessed to that which Anastasios emphasises: that a gracious and powerful messenger of God, a soldier of the King of heaven, an angel of light, accompanies each one of us through this life. Who, other than the insane, would drive away such a good friend from himself? Indeed, only the insane and other ignoramuses drive away their greatest friends, their guardian angels.

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.