Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 22]. In those days:

9 ¹⁹Saul was certain days with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and straightway he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, that this One is the Son of God. ²¹And all those who heard were amazed, and were saying, “This is the one, is it not, who ravaged those who called upon this name in Jerusalem, and had come here for this, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” ²²But Saul was empowered the more, and was confounding the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, teaching that this is the Christ. ²³And when many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel together to kill him; ²⁴but their plot was made known to Saul. And they were watching the gates closely, both day and night, that they might kill him. ²⁵But the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket. ²⁶And after Saul came up to Jerusalem, he was attempting to join himself to the disciples; but they were all fearing him, not believing that he was a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he set out in detail to them how he saw the Lord in the way, and that He spoke to him, and how he spoke boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. ²⁸And he was with them in Jerusalem, going in and going out, ²⁹and speaking boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. And he was both talking and disputing with the Hellenists, but they attempted to put their hands to kill him. ³⁰But after the brethren came to know this, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

³¹Then indeed were the churches throughout all of Judæa and Galilee and Samaria having peace, being built up and proceeding in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit they were being multiplied.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 52]. The Lord said to His disciples:

15 ¹⁷“These things I command you, that ye be loving one another.

¹⁸“If the world hate you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hath hated you. ¹⁹“If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world—but I chose you for Myself out of the world—therefore the world hateth you. ²⁰“Keep on remembering the word which I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they know not the One Who sent Me. ²²“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no pretext for their sin. ²³“The one who hateth Me hateth My Father also. ²⁴“If I did not do the works among them which no other one hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵“But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled which hath been written in their law: ‘They hated Me without a cause [cf. Ps. 34(35):22, 68(69):5(4)].’ ²⁶“But whenever the Paraclete should come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth Who proceedeth from the Father, that One shall bear witness concerning Me. ²⁷“And ye also are bearing witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.

16 ¹“These things I have spoken to you, in order that ye should not be made to stumble. ²“They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea moreover, there cometh an hour that everyone who killeth you should think that he offereth God a service.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Great-martyr Irene of Magedon.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 18th – Civil Calendar
May 5th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy and Great Martyr Irene.

She lived in the Balkans in apostolic times, in the town of Magedon where her father Licinius was governor of a small region. She was born a pagan of pagan parents. Penelope—for that was her pagan name—learned the Christian Faith from her teacher, Appelianus. St. Timothy, the disciple of the Apostle Paul, baptized her and her lady-in-waiting, and brought her a letter from the Apostle Paul to read. She infuriated her father by her embracing Christianity, and he intended to have her trampled to death by horses. The horses turned on him, however, slaying him. She prayed to God on behalf of her father, who had just tried to kill her, and the Lord resurrected him. He subsequently embraced Christianity. Irene was tortured in different ways by four kings, other than her father, but God saved her through His angels. King Sedekias had her cast headlong into a deep pit full of snakes and reptiles. The saint persevered there for fourteen days, and emerged unscathed. Then the same king attempted to saw off her feet, but the sword broke against her body as against stone. This same king once again bound her to the wheel of a water-mill, then let the water in to drown her, but the water would not flow, but stood still, and the maiden remained whole and alive. After Sedekias was ousted from his domain, Sapor, his son, marched against those who deposed his father. St. Irene met Sapor and his army in the city of Magedon. By her prayers, his entire army was stricken blind. Again, she prayed and their eyesight was restored by divine grace. Nonetheless, the ungrateful ones shod her with nails, loaded a sack of sand onto her, put a bridle on her and commanded that she be led like an animal far outside the city. ‘Truly I am as a beast before Thee, O Lord!’ said the holy martyr as she ran bridled behind her torturers. But an angel of God caused an earthquake, and the earth opened and swallowed up ten thousand infidels—but brought thirty thousand to the Faith. Despite this, the king persisted in his paganism, for which he was smote by an angel of the Lord. Surviving all these tortures, by which an enormous number of pagans were brought to Christianity, Irene went to the city of Kallinikos, where she preached the Christian Faith. The local king, Numerian, tried to kill her, throwing her into three burning metal oxen one after the other. But the maiden was preserved and remained alive, and many saw and believed. The eparch, Vavdonos, sought to kill her by putting her onto a burning grid, but this did not harm St. Irene, and brought him to the true Faith. She then went to the city of Constantina, where Shapur II the Great, King of the Persians, had her head cut off. But she was resurrected by an angel of God. The king, seeing this, together with many of the people, believed in Christ and was baptized. And thus St. Irene, by her sufferings and miracles, brought over 100,000 pagans to faith in Christ. At last she laid herself in a grave and commanded Appelianus, her former teacher, to close it. After four days, when the grave was opened, her body was not in it. Thus God glorified forever the maiden and martyr Irene, who had sacrificed all and endured all, that God should be the more greatly glorified among men.

2. Ss. Martin and Heraclius.

Slavs, they were persecuted by heretical Arians in Illyria. Sent into exile, these knights of Orthodoxy finished their earthly course in the 4th century and went to the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Prayer with words is of no use if the heart does not participate. God only hears prayer from the heart. Abba Zoilos of the Thebaid, returning once from Mount Sinai, met a monk who complained that in the monastery, they were greatly suffering from drought. Zoilos asked: ‘Why don’t you pray to God, and implore Him?’ The monk replied: ‘We have prayed and implored, but there is no rain!’ To this Zoilos answered: ‘It is obvious that you are not praying from the heart. Do you want to be convinced that this is so?’ And, thus speaking, the elder raised his hands to heaven and began to pray, and abundant rain fell onto the earth. Seeing this, the marveling monk fell to the ground before the elder and did him reverence, but the elder, fearing the praise of men, quickly fled from him. ‘Ask, and it shall be given you,’ said the Lord Himself. But vain are mouthfuls of prayers if the heart is empty. God does not stand and listen to the lips, but to the heart. Let the heart be filled with prayer and the lips be silent. God will hear and receive the prayer, for He only hearkens to heartfelt prayer.

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.