Daily Devotional

Thursday, June 13, 2030 (NS), May 31, 2030 (OS)

No Fasting.

Thursday of the Seventh Week

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Hermeas at Comana.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 48]. In those days:

25 ¹³Agrippa the king and Bernice came down to Cæsarea, greeting Festus. ¹⁴And when they spent more days there, Festus himself set forth to the king the matter relating to Paul, saying, “There is a certain man, a prisoner, who hath been left behind by Felix, ¹⁵“concerning whom, when I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges, requesting a judgment against him. ¹⁶“To whom I answered, ‘It is not a custom with Romans to be giving up any man to destruction before the one who is accused may have the accusers face to face, and may receive an opportunity of speaking in his own defense concerning the charge.’ ¹⁷“Therefore when they came together here, I made no delay. And on the next day I sat on the tribunal and commanded the man to be brought forth, ¹⁸“concerning whom after the accusers stood up, they did not bring even one charge of which I suspected. ¹⁹“But they were having certain subjects of dispute with him concerning their own religion, and about a certain Jesus Who had died, Whom Paul was affirming to be alive.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 55]. The Lord said to His disciples:

16 ²³“Verily, verily, I say to you that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you. ²⁴“Until now ye asked nothing in My name. Keep on asking, and ye shall receive, in order that your joy may be made full. ²⁵“These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; but an hour is coming when I will no longer talk to you in proverbs, but I shall announce plainly to you concerning the Father. ²⁶“In that day ye shall ask for yourselves in My name, and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you; ²⁷“for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. ²⁸“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.” ²⁹His disciples say to Him, “Behold, now Thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. ³⁰“Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and hast no need that anyone should question Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.” ³¹Jesus answered them, “Now do ye believe? ³²“Behold, an hour is coming and now hath come, that ye shall be scattered each to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³“These things I have spoken to you, in order that ye may have peace in Me. In the world ye shall have affliction; but be of good courage, I have overcome the world.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Hermeas at Comana.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 13th – Civil Calendar
May 31st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Hermas.

One of the Seventy, he is mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (16:14). A Greek by birth, he spent a long time in Rome. He was bishop in Philippoupolis, and finished his life a martyr. He compiled the very instructive book ‘The Shepherd’ through revelations from the angels of God. Hermas was a rich man, but fell into extreme poverty through his own sins and those of his sons. A man appeared to him, clad in white and with a staff in his hand, and told him that he was the angel of repentance, sent to him before the end of his life. The angel gave him twelve commandments:

1. To believe in God.

2. To live in simplicity and innocence.

3. To love truth and flee from falsehood.

4. To guard his thoughts in chastity.

5. To learn patience and magnanimity of soul.

6. To know that a good and an evil spirit attend every man.

7. To fear God, but not the devil

8. To perform every good deed and to restrain himself from every evil one.

9. To pray to God in faith from the depths of his heart, so that his prayer might be heard.

10. To preserve himself from melancholy, the daughter of doubt, and from anger.

11. To try true and false prophecies.

12. To preserve himself from every evil desire.

2. The Holy Martyr Hermias.

He was a soldier in the imperial army till old age, when he suffered for another Emperor: Christ. The wicked judge tried in vain to make him renounce the Christian Faith and offer sacrifice to idols, then he ordered that Hermias’ teeth be broken with a stone and the skin stripped from his face with a knife. After that, he was thrown into a flaming furnace, but he remained unharmed, protected by the grace of God. He was then made to drink the strongest poison, which was given to him by a magician on the judge’s orders, but the poison did him no harm at all. When the magician saw this, he was so amazed that he confessed Christ himself, and was immediately slain with the sword. They then poked out both of Hermias’ eyes, and he said mildly to the judge: ‘Take the eyes of flesh which used to gaze upon the vanity of the world; I have other eyes in my heart with which I clearly see the true light.’ He was then hung upside down by the feet, and those who were torturing him became blind and staggered around him. St. Hermias called them to himself, laid his hands upon them and restored their sight by his prayers. Seeing all this, the judge became as furious as a lion, and drawing out his sword, cut off the head of the man of God. Christians came and took Hermias’ body in secret, and gave it burial. His relics gave healing to all the sick and wretched. St. Hermias suffered in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, in the year 160.

3. The Holy Martyr Philosophos.

This martyr of Christ’s was born near Alexandria. During a persecution of Christians, Philosophos refused to renounce Christ the Lord before the pagan princes and judges, and they therefore inflicted terrible tortures on him. After he had been tortured in various ways, they finally placed him on a soft bed, bound hand and foot, and put a harlot in with him to entice him into sin. When Philosophos felt passion awakening in himself through the touch of the woman’s hands, he took the tongue between his teeth, bit it through and spat it out in the harlot’s face. His passion was extinguished, and the harlot was so aghast that she fled from him at once. He was afterwards beheaded with the sword, in about 252, whilst still young in years, and entered into the kingdom of eternal youth. (In the Greek Prologue, St. Philosophos is commemorated on May 1st.).

FOR CONSIDERATION

This life is a spiritual battle: to conquer or be conquered. If we conquer, we shall enjoy the fruits of victory through all eternity; but if we are conquered, we shall suffer the horrors of defeat through all eternity. This life is a duel between man and everything that sets itself against God. God is the almighty Ally of every man who whole-heartedly calls upon Him for aid. Saint John of Kronstadt says: ‘This life is neither a joke nor a plaything, although men may turn it into either. They fritter away the time given to us to prepare for eternity, disporting themselves with empty words. They go about visiting, sitting and gossiping, playing this or that game. They get together in the theaters and amuse themselves there. Life is, for them, amusement. But woe to those who do nothing but amuse themselves!’

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.