Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 17]. In those days:

6 ⁸Stephen, full of faith and of power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹But there rose up some of those from the synagogue which is called that of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. ¹⁰And they were not able to stand against the wisdom and the spirit by which he was speaking. ¹¹Then they suborned men, who said, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹²And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes. And having set upon him, they seized him, and brought him to the sanhedrin. ¹³And they set up false witnesses, saying, “This man ceaseth not speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; ¹⁴“for we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazaræan shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵And having looked intently upon him, all those sitting in the sanhedrin saw his face as though it were a face of an angel.

7 ¹Then the high priest said, “Are then these things so?” ²And he began saying, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, ³“and said to him, ‘Get thee out from thy land and from thy kindred, and come here into a land which I shall show thee [cf. Gen. 12:1].’ ⁴“Then after he went out from the land of the Chaldæans, he dwelt in Haran. And from that place, after his father died, He removed him into this land in which ye now dwell. ⁵“And He did not give him an inheritance in it, not even the breadth of a footstep. And yet He promised to give it to him for a possession, and his seed after him, though he had no child.... ⁴⁷“But Solomon built Him a house. ⁴⁸“But the Most High dwelleth not in temples made by hand, even as the prophet saith, ⁴⁹“‘The heaven is a throne to Me, and the earth a footstool of My feet; what manner of house will ye build Me,’ saith the Lord, ‘or what is the place of My rest [cf. Is. 66:1]? ⁵⁰“‘My hand did make all these things, did it not [cf. Is. 66:2]?’ ⁵¹“O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and in the ears, ye always fall in a direction contrary to the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, also do ye. ⁵²“Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they slew those who announced beforehand about the coming of the righteous One, of Whom now ye have become betrayers and murderers, ⁵³“ye who received the law by the disposition of angels, and guarded it not.” ⁵⁴And when they heard these things their hearts were sawn asunder, and they were gnashing their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into the heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right of God; ⁵⁶and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens having been opened and the Son of Man standing on the right of God.” ⁵⁷And they cried out with a loud voice, and they held their ears together, and rushed upon him with one accord. ⁵⁸And they cast him outside of the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses themselves laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man who was called Saul. ⁵⁹And they kept on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰And having knelt down, he cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not make this sin stand against them.” And having said this, he fell asleep.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 13]. At that time:

4 ⁴⁶There was a certain king’s officer whose son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷After this one heard that Jesus had come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went off to Him, and was entreating Him that He would come down and heal His son, for he was about to die. ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Unless ye see signs and wonders, in no wise will ye believe.” ⁴⁹The king’s officer saith to Him, “Sir, come down before my little child die.” ⁵⁰Jesus saith to him, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.” And the man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and started on his way. ⁵¹But already, as he was going down, his slaves met him and brought tidings, saying, “Thy child liveth.” ⁵²Then he learned from them the hour in which he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Thy son liveth.” And he himself believed, and his whole house. ⁵⁴Again, this second sign Jesus did, having come out of Judæa into Galilee.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Iakovos, son of Zebedee.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 29].

12 ¹At that time, Herod the king put forth his hands to maltreat some of those from the Church. ²And he killed Iakovos the brother of John with a sword. ³And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he in addition went on to seize Peter also—and they were the days of unleavened bread— ⁴whom after he laid hold of, he also put in prison, and delivered him up to four sets of four soldiers to guard him, purposing after the passover to bring him forth to the people. ⁵Peter, therefore, on the one hand, was being guarded in the prison, but on the other hand, earnest prayer was being made by the Church to God on his behalf. ⁶And when Herod was about to bring him forth, on that very night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and guards also were before the door keeping the prison. ⁷And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the chamber; and he struck the side of Peter, and woke him up, saying, “Rise up quickly.” And the chains from his hands fell off of him. ⁸And the angel said to him, “Gird thyself about, and bind on thy sandals.” And so he did. And he saith to him, “Cast about thee thine outer garment, and follow thou me.” ⁹And he went out and kept on following him, and did not know that it was real that which was happening by means of the angel, but he kept on thinking he saw a vision. ¹⁰And after they passed a first guard and a second, they came up to the gate, the iron one, which leadeth into the city, which was opened to them of itself; and having gone out, they advanced one street, and straightway the angel departed from him. ¹¹And after Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know of a truth, that the Lord sent forth His angel, and took me out of the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 40]. At that time:

9 ¹After Jesus called together to Himself His twelve disciples, He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to cure diseases. ²And He sent them forth to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were sick. ³And He said to them, “Cease taking anything for the way, neither staves, nor leathern pouch, nor bread, nor money, nor having two tunics apiece. ⁴“And into whatsoever house ye enter, be lodging there, and from that place be going forth. ⁵“And as many as will not receive you, when ye go forth from the city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” ⁶And as they went forth, they were passing through village by village, preaching the Gospel, and curing everywhere.

for Sl. usage, see [Lk. 5:1-11].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 13th – Civil Calendar
April 30th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Iakovos (James).

He was the son of Zebedee and brother of John, and was one of the Twelve Holy Apostles. At the call of the Lord Jesus, he left his fishing nets and his father, and together with John, immediately followed Christ. He was one of the three apostles to whom the Lord revealed the greatest mysteries: before whom He was transfigured on Tabor and before whom He was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before His Passion. After receiving the Holy Spirit, he preached the Gospel in various places, going as far as Spain. On his return from Spain, a violent quarrel broke out between the Jews and himself on the holy Scriptures, and being unable to withstand him, they hired a magician, Hermogenes. But Hermogenes and Philip, his pupil, were overcome by the power and truth that Iakovos preached, and were baptized. Then the Jews denounced him to Herod, and persuaded one Josias to slander the apostle. This Josias, seeing Iakovos’ manly bearing and hearing his clear preaching of the truth, repented and came to faith in Christ. When Iakovos was condemned to death, this Josias was also condemned. Mounting the scaffold, Josias begged Iakovos’ forgiveness for the sin of slander, and Iakovos embraced him, kissing him and saying: ‘Peace be to thee, and forgiveness.’ And they both laid their heads under the sword and were beheaded for the sake of the Lord Whom they had loved and served. St. Iakovos suffered in Jerusalem in the year 45. His body was taken to Spain, where to this day miracles of healing are performed at his tomb.

2. St. Donatus.

Bishop of Evria in Albania, he was endowed by God with great gifts of wonder-working, and performed many miracles for the sake of the people. He turned brackish water into sweet, brought rain in a drought, healed the king’s daughter of insanity and raised a dead man. This dead man had paid off a debt to some creditor, but the unscrupulous creditor wanted the debt paid a second time, so he used the death of his debtor to come to the widow and demand that the debt be paid immediately. The widow wept and complained to the bishop. St. Donatus told the creditor to wait until the man had been buried, then they would talk about the debt. But the creditor angrily demanded his own. Then Donatus went up to the corpse, took hold of it and cried: ‘Get up, brother, and see what’s up with this creditor of yours!’ The corpse got up, and with a terrible gaze, looked at its creditor, telling him when and where it had paid the debt. It also demanded a written receipt from him. The terrified creditor gave the receipt into its hands. The corpse tore it up, then lay down again and died. St. Donatus entered peacefully into rest in great old age, and went to the Lord in 387. His relics are still preserved for the help of the faithful in Evria in Albania.

3. The Holy Martyr Argyre.

This new-martyr was born in Prousa (Bursa) of devout parents. As soon as she was married to a Christian man, a Turk from the neighborhood looked on her and invited her to live with him. The Christ-loving Argyre rejected the Turk’s foul suggestion, and he was enraged and accused her to the judge of having intended to become a Moslem and afterwards retracted. From trial to trial, from prison to prison, St. Argyre spent fifteen whole years suffering for Christ, for she loved Him more than anything in the world. She finally died in prison in Constantinople in 1725.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A devout elder was lying on his deathbed. His friends were gathered round him, weeping for him. The elder sighed three times. The monks asked him why he had sighed. The elder replied: ‘I sighed the first time because you are afraid of death; the second time because you are not ready for death; and the third time because I am going from toil to rest.’ You see how a righteous man enters into rest? He does not fear death; he is ready for death, and he sees that, through death, he passes from a life of toil to eternal rest. When human nature is conceived in its natural state in Paradise, then death is unnatural, as sin is unnatural. Death comes from sin. Repentant and cleansed from sin, a man does not regard death as annihilation but as the gate of immortal life. And if the righteous prayed for their earthly life to be prolonged, this was not from love of this life, nor from fear of death, but only that they might be given more time for repentance and cleansing from sin, so that they might be purer and more sinless to go before God. And if they sometimes showed fear in the face of death, this was not fear of death but of God’s judgement. What sort of fear must unrepentant sinners have in the face of death?

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.