Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 145]. Brethren:

10 ¹²The one who thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he should fall. ¹³No temptation hath taken you except what belongeth to man; but faithful is God, Who will not let you be tempted above what ye are able, but with the temptation will also make the way out, in order that ye may be able to bear up under it.

¹⁴On which very account, my beloved, be fleeing from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak as to prudent ones; judge ye what I say. ¹⁶The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not communion of the body of the Christ? ¹⁷For we, who are many, are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the one bread. ¹⁸See Israel according to the flesh: They who eat the sacrifices of the altar are communicants, are they not? ¹⁹What say I then? That an idol is anything, or that a sacrifice to idols is anything? ²⁰But I say that what the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not wish you to become communicants of the demons. ²¹Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²²Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 68]. At that time:

16 ²⁰Jesus gave express orders to His disciples that they should say to no one that He is Jesus the Christ.

²¹From that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples that it is necessary for Him to go away to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day. ²²And Peter took Him to himself and began to rebuke Him, saying, “May God be gracious to Thee, Lord; this in no wise shall be to Thee.” ²³But He turned and said to Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense to Me, for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.” ²⁴Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone is willing to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Dormition of Righteous Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, and our venerable Mothers Olympia the deaconess of Constantinople and the Virgin Efpraxia of Tabenna, and our venerable Father Makarios, Abbot of Sheltovod and Unzha.

Epistle

For the Dormition:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Gal. 4:22-27 [§ mid 210]; for Sl. usage, see Gal. 4:22-31 [§§ mid 210, 211].

4 ²²Abraham had two sons: one by the maidservant, and one by the free woman. ²³But on the one hand, the one of the maidservant hath been born according to the flesh; and on the other hand, the one of the free woman through the promise, ²⁴which things are allegorized. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai which bringeth forth to slavery, which is Agar— ²⁵for the Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and correspondeth to the present Jerusalem, and she doth slave with her children— ²⁶but the Jerusalem above is free, which is Mother of us all. ²⁷For it hath been written: “Rejoice, thou barren, who bearest not; break forth and cry thou who travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate more than of her who hath the husband [Is. 54:1].” ²⁸Now we, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰But what saith the Scripture? “Cast out the maidservant and her son; for in no wise shall the son of the maidservant inherit with the son of the free woman [cf. Gen. 21:10].” ³¹So then, brethren, we are not children of a maidservant, but of the free woman.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 36]. The Lord said:

8 ¹⁶“No one, having lit a lamp, covereth it with a vessel or putteth it underneath a bed, but placeth it upon a lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light. ¹⁷“For nothing is secret which shall not become manifest, nor hidden that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸“Be taking heed then how ye hear: for whosoever hath, it shall be given to him; and whosoever hath not, even what he seemeth to have shall be taken away from him.”

¹⁹And His Mother and brethren came to Him, and were not able to meet with Him on account of the crowd. ²⁰And it was reported to Him by some who said, “Thy Mother and Thy brethren are standing outside, wishing to see Thee.” ²¹And He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 7th – Civil Calendar
July 25th – Church Calendar

1. Saint Anna, the Mother of the Most Holy Mother of God.

Today is the commemoration of her falling asleep; her main feast is on September 9th, where her life is written. Anna was of the tribe of Levi, and was the daughter of Matthan the priest. After a long life pleasing to God, she entered into rest at a great age.

2. St. Olympias the Deaconess.

Olympias was born in Constantinople of very eminent parents. Her father, Anysios Secundos, was a senator and her mother was the daughter of the famous aristocrat Evlavios, who is mentioned in the life of St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker. When Olympias was fully grown, she was betrothed to a nobleman who died before his marriage to this honored maiden. The emperor and others exhorted her to take another husband, but in vain; she refused them all and devoted herself to a life pleasing to God, giving of her inherited wealth great gifts to the Church and alms to the poor. She served in the Church as a deaconess, first in the time of Patriarch St. Nectarios, and after his death, under St. John Chrysostom. When Chrysostom went into exile, he advised Olympias to remain in the Church as before and serve it, whichever patriarch should succeed him. But, immediately after the exile of this great hierarch, the church of Hagia Sophia caught fire, and the conflagration took hold of many of the public buildings in the capital in a miraculous way showing God’s displeasure. St. Chrysostom’s enemies accused this holy woman of being a malicious fire-raiser. Olympias was exiled from Constantinople to Nikomedia, where she entered into rest in 408, leaving instructions that her body be placed in a coffin and cast into the sea, and that she be buried wherever the waves threw the coffin up. The coffin was cast up at a place called Vrochthoi, where there was a church dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. Great miracles of healing have been performed through the centuries by her relics. The exiled St. Chrysostom wrote beautiful letters to the exiled Olympias, which to this day serve to give support to all who suffer for God’s justice. Among other things, Chrysostom wrote to Olympias: ‘Now I am deeply joyful, not only because you have been delivered from sickness, but even more because you are bearing adversities with such fortitude, calling them trifles—a characteristic of a soul filled with power and abounding in the rich fruits of courage. You are not only enduring misfortune with fortitude, but are making light of it in a seemingly effortless way, rejoicing and triumphing over it—this is a proof of the greatest wisdom’ (Letter 6 of the seventeen that have come down to us).

3. Our Holy Mother Efpraxia the Virgin.

She was the daughter of a Constantinopolitan nobleman, Antigonus, and a kinswoman of the Emperor Theodosios the Great. With her mother, a young widow, she went to Egypt and travelled around the monasteries, giving alms and praying to God. The seven-year-old Efpraxia, in fulfillment of her burning desire, received the monastic schema in a women’s monastery. As she grew older, she took on herself harsher and harsher asceticism, once fasting for forty days. She entered into rest in the year 413, at the age of thirty. She had great grace from God to heal the gravest sicknesses.

4. Commemoration of the Fifth Ecumenical Council.

This council was held in Constantinople in the time of the Emperor Justinian the Great, in 553. All the Monophysite heresies were condemned at this council, and also the heretical writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoretus of Kyros and Origen (his writings against the resurrection of the dead).

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘As virginity is better than marriage, so a first marriage is better than a second.’ Thus writes St. John Chrysostom to the young widow of the deceased Constantinopolitan noble Tarasios, advising her not to contract a second marriage. Efpraxia the elder, mother of St. Efpraxia and kinswoman of the Emperor Theodosios the Great, was left a widow while still a young woman, on the death of her husband Antigonus, with whom she had lived in wedlock for only two years, and one further year, by a common vow, as brother and sister. The emperor and empress urged her to marry another nobleman, but she refused to do this, and took her daughter Efpraxia off to Egypt. And what shall we say of St. Olympias and of St. Efpraxia? Also of St. Makrina, and those who were only betrothed as maidens and then, when their affianced husbands died, regarded themselves as widows and did not entertain the thought of entering upon another marriage. What purity of heart! What faithfulness to the betrothed! What fear of God! What a steadfast faith in the life to come, in which the betrothed hope to meet again!

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.