Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 13]. In those days:

5 ¹A certain man, by name Ananias, with Sapphire his wife, sold a property, ²and appropriated for themselves part of the price, his wife also being privy to it. And he brought a certain part, and laid it at the feet of the apostles. ³But Peter said, “Ananias, why did Satan fill thy heart for thee to deceive the Holy Spirit, and to appropriate part of the price of the land? ⁴“While it remained, it did remain thine own, did it not? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own authority? Why didst thou put this thing in thy heart? Thou didst not lie to men, but to God.” ⁵And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and expired. And great fear came to be upon all who heard these things. ⁶And the younger men rose up and wrapped him round, and carried him out, and buried him. ⁷And there came to pass an interval of about three hours, and his wife, who knew not what had happened, entered. ⁸And Peter began to speak to her, “Tell me whether ye yourselves sold the land for so much?” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” ⁹And Peter said to her, “Why was it agreed together by you to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out.” ¹⁰And immediately she fell down at his feet and expired. And the young men entered and found her dead. And they carried her out and buried her by her husband. ¹¹And great fear came to be upon the whole church and upon all those who heard these things.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 17]. The Lord said to the Jews having come to Him:

5 ³⁰“I am not able to do anything of Myself. Even as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me, the Father. ³¹“If I bear witness concerning Myself, My witness is not true. ³²“It is Another Who beareth witness concerning Me, and I know that the testimony which He beareth witness to concerning Me is true. ³³“Ye have sent away to John, and he hath borne witness to the truth. ³⁴“But I receive not testimony from man. But I say these things that ye might be saved. ³⁵“That one was the lamp that burneth and shineth, and ye became willing to rejoice for an hour in his light. ³⁶“But I have the testimony greater than that of John; for the works which the Father gave to Me in order that I should finish them, the very works which I do, bear witness concerning Me that the Father hath sent Me forth. ³⁷“And the Father Who sent Me, Himself hath borne witness concerning Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor have seen His form. ³⁸“And ye have not His word abiding in you, for He Whom that One sent forth, this One ye believe not. ³⁹“Keep on searching the Scriptures, for in them ye think to have eternal life; and these are they which testify concerning Me. ⁴⁰“And yet ye are not willing to come to Me in order that ye may have life. ⁴¹“I receive not glory from man. ⁴²“But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³“I have come in the name of My Father, and ye receive Me not; if another should come in his own name, that one ye will receive. ⁴⁴“How are ye able to believe, who receive glory from one another, and seek not the glory which is from the only God? ⁴⁵“Cease thinking that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuseth you—Moses, in whom ye have hoped. ⁴⁶“For if ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for concerning Me that one wrote. ⁴⁷“But if ye believe not the writings of that one, how shall ye believe My words?”

6 ¹After these things Jesus went away across the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ²And a great crowd was following Him, because they had been seeing the signs which He brought about upon those who were sick.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Symeon, the kinsman of Jesus.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 56]. At that time:

13 ⁵⁴After Jesus came into His own country, He was teaching the crowds in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, “From what place hath this One this wisdom and the works of power? ⁵⁵“This is the carpenter’s Son, is it not? His Mother is called Mariam, is she not, and His brothers, Iakovos, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶“And His sisters are all with us, are they not? From what place then hath this One all these things?” ⁵⁷And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house.” ⁵⁸And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 10th – Civil Calendar
April 27th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Simeon.

One of the Seventy, he was the son of Cleopas, and Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, the betrothed of the most holy Mother of God. Seeing the miracles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Simeon was converted and included among the Seventy apostles. With great zeal and courage, he preached the Gospel everywhere in Judea. When the wicked Jews killed Iakovos, the Lord’s brother and first bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, throwing him down from the top of the Temple and then stoning him to death, this Simeon, Joseph’s nephew, was installed as bishop in Jerusalem. He, as the second bishop of the holy city, governed the Church of God with wisdom and strength to a great age. He was more than a hundred years old when he suffered, and his sufferings came about as follows: in the time of the Emperor Trajan there was a double persecution begun in Palestine, against the descendants of David and against the Christians. The wicked people condemned Simeon on both counts. St. Simeon endured harsh torture and was finally crucified, as had been the Lord Whom he had faithfully served on earth.

2. Our Holy Father Stefan, Bishop of Vladimir.

A disciple of St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Stefan was at one time abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and labored greatly in the regulation and organization of the monastic life and in the beautifying of the churches. But the enemy inflamed an evil monk against him, and he was not only removed from the abbacy but driven from the monastery. But God, Who does not leave the righteous long under the humiliation of the unrighteous, so guided the life of blessed Stefan that he was chosen as Bishop of Vladimir. As God’s hierarch, Stefan guided the Church to old age and departed this life in the Lord peacefully in 1094.

3. The Burning of the Relics of St. Sava, Archbishop of Serbia.

The body of St. Sava was buried at Mileševa. In the time of the Turkish occupation, the Serbian people gathered together round the relics of their saint, to seek support and healing. Fearing that a rebellion against the Turks might be stirred up in that place, Sinan Pasha of Belgrade commanded that St. Sava’s relics be brought to Belgrade and burned there at Vračar. This was done on April 27th, 1594. But, with the burning of the saint’s relics, the wicked pasha did not burn the saint, who remains alive before the throne of God in heaven and in the hearts of his people on earth.

4. Our Holy Father John the Confessor.

He was the abbot of the community ‘of the Pure’ (the Katharoi). This community was founded near Nicaea during the reign of Justin, in the 6th century. For his veneration of icons during a ban on such veneration, John suffered much at the hands of the Emperors Leo and Theophilus, and died under their persecution in about 832.

FOR CONSIDERATION

True faith will be persecuted in this world. The Savior Himself said this to His apostles clearly and publicly (Jn 16:32). And St. Apollinarius of Hierapolis, writing against the Montanist heretics, asserts: ‘Let them tell us, before God, who of all their prophets, beginning with Montanus and his wives, has been persecuted by the Jews and killed by the ungodly. No one. Who among them has been arrested for the name of Christ, and crucified? Again, no one. Have any of their women been flogged or stoned in the Jewish synagogues? No.’ This Orthodox saint means to say that it is true faith that will be persecuted in this world. Heresies are usually closer to the worldly and demonic spirit, and therefore the world and the demons do not persecute their own. To be constantly under persecution—with short breathing-spaces—is a distinguishing mark of the Faith and of the Orthodox Church. This persecution has existed throughout the whole of history, whether externally or internally; externally from unbelievers and internally from heretics.

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.