Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirty-Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 58].

For Gk. usage, see 1 Pe. 1:1-25, 2:1-10; for Sl. usage, see 1 Pe. 1:1, 2, 10-12, 2:6-10.

1 ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are sojourners of the diaspora of Pontos, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and of Bithynia, ²elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, which hath been kept in the heavens for you, ⁵who are being guarded by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In which ye rejoice now for a little while, if it is needful, though ye have been grieved in diverse temptations, ⁷in order that the testing of your faith, much more precious than perishing gold, though it is being tested by fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory in the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸Whom not having seen, ye love; in Whom though now ye see Him not, but ye believe and are gladdened with a joy unspeakable and glorified, ⁹receiving for yourselves the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched out, who prophesied concerning the grace toward you, ¹¹searching in regard to what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ Who was in them was declaring when He testified beforehand of the sufferings in regard to Christ and the glories after these. ¹²To whom it was revealed that not to themselves, but to you, were they ministering the same things which now were announced to you by those who preached the Gospel to you in the Holy Spirit Who was sent forth from heaven—things into which angels desire to look into.

¹³Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and perfectly hope on the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ, ¹⁴as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves to the former desires in your ignorance, ¹⁵but according as the One Who called you is holy, do ye also become holy in all manner of behavior, ¹⁶because it hath been written: “Become holy; for I am holy [cf. Lev. 11:44, 19:2, 20:7].” ¹⁷And if ye call upon as Father the One Who without respect of persons judgeth according to the work of each, conduct yourselves during the time of your sojourning in fear, ¹⁸knowing that ye were not ransomed with corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your empty manner of life which was handed down from your fathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, ²⁰Who indeed was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake, ²¹who through Him believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²²Since ye have purified your souls in obedience to the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another intensely out of a pure heart, ²³which is begotten anew, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Logos of God Who liveth and abideth forever, ²⁴because “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth and its flower falleth out [cf. Is. 40:6-8; Ps. 102(103):13(15)]; ²⁵“but the word of the Lord abideth forever [cf. Is. 40:8].” And this is the word which was preached in the Gospel to you.

2 ¹Having then laid aside from yourselves all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, ²as newborn babes, desire the pure rational milk, that by it ye might grow in regard to salvation, ³if indeed “ye tasted that the Lord is good [cf. Ps. 33(34):8].” ⁴To Whom coming, a living Stone—having indeed been rejected by men, but chosen by God—precious, ⁵ye also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Sion a cornerstone, chosen, precious; and the one who believeth on Him in no wise shall be put to shame [cf. Is. 28:16].” ⁷To you, therefore, who believe, is the honor, but to those who disobey—the “stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner [Ps. 117(118):22],” ⁸and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense [cf. Is. 8:14]”—they stumble at the word, being disobedient, in regard to that which they also were appointed. ⁹But ye are “a chosen race [Is. 43:20], a royal priesthood, a holy nation [Ex. 19:6, 23:22], a people for a possession [cf. Deut. 7:6, 14:2],” that ye might “tell forth the virtues [cf. Is. 43:21]” of the One Who called you out of darkness into His wondrous light, ¹⁰who once were “not a people,” but now are “a people of God,” who “had not been pitied,” but now “have been pitied [cf. Hos. 1:6, 8, 9, 2:23].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 32]. At that time:

8 ¹The crowd being very great and having nothing that they might eat, Jesus called to Himself His disciples, and saith to them, ²“I am moved with compassion toward the crowd, because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing that they might eat. ³“And if I should dismiss them fasting to their home, they shall be faint in the way; for some of them have come from afar.” ⁴And His disciples answered Him, “From what place shall anyone here be able to fill these with bread in a wilderness?” ⁵And He asked them, “How many loaves have ye?” And they said, “Seven.” ⁶And He commanded the crowd to recline on the ground. And having taken the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and kept on giving them to His disciples, in order that they might set them before them; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷And they had a few small fish; and He blessed them, and said to set them also before them. ⁸And they ate and were filled; and they took up over and above seven provision baskets of fragments. ⁹And they who ate were about four thousand; and He dismissed them. ¹⁰And straightway He embarked into the ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanoutha.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and our venerable Father Theodosios the Cœnobiarch.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 334]. Brethren:

13 ⁷Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: ⁸Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages. ⁹Cease being carried about by various and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be confirmed by grace, not by foods, in which those walking therein were not profited. ¹⁰We have an altar from which those serving the tabernacle have no authority to eat; ¹¹for the bodies of those animals, “whose blood is being brought into the holies for sins” by the high priest, “are being burned outside of the encampment [cf. Lev. 16:27].” ¹²Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered outside of the gate. ¹³Let us be going forth therefore to Him outside of the encampment, bearing His reproach; ¹⁴for we have no abiding city here, but we seek the coming one. ¹⁵Through Him, then, let us be offering up a “sacrifice of praise [Lev. 7:2(12)]” continually to God, that is, “the fruit of the lips [cf. Hos. 14:3(2); Is. 57:19],” giving thanks to His name. ¹⁶But cease being forgetful of doing good and of contributing; for God is well pleased with such sacrifices.

for Sl. usage, see [2 Cor. 4:6-15].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 24th – Civil Calendar
January 11th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodosios the Great.

The first founder and organizer of cenobitic monasticism, he was born of devout parents in Cappadocia, in the village of Mogarisses. As a young man, he visited St. Simeon the Stylite, who blessed him and predicted for him great spiritual glory. Theodosios set out in search of a place in which to found a monastery. He took with him a censer containing cold charcoal and incense. At the place where the charcoal suddenly ignited of itself, he stopped, settled down and began to lead a life of asceticism. There very quickly gathered round him many monks of different nationalities and with different languages. He therefore built a church for each language group, so that services were conducted and God praised at the same moment in Greek, Armenian, Georgian and so forth. But on a day when they were to receive holy Communion, all the brethren gathered in the great church, where the service was conducted in Greek. The refectory was common to all; they held all possessions in common, labored in common, endured in common and often hungered in common. Theodosios was a sublime example to all the monks; an example in work, in prayer, in fasting, in vigils and in all the Christian virtues. And God endowed him with the gifts of wonder-working, to heal the sick, to be present and help from a distance, to tame wild beasts, to predict the future and to increase bread and wheat. Prayer was on his lips day and night. He entered peacefully into rest in the Lord in the year 529, at the age of 105.

2. Blessed Michael of Klops.

A fool for Christ, a Russian of princely family, he made himself a fool in order to hide his virtues from the world and escape the praise of men, and he thus received praise from God. He died in the year 1453 in the monastery of Klops near Novgorod, where his relics are preserved.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A man who is open to a bribe cannot be a Christian. The Orthodox fathers of the Church were never open either to bribes or intimidation. Bribery in things of the Faith is equivalent to Judas’ betrayal of Christ for money; such bribery is a characteristic only of certain heretics. When the Emperor Anastasios (491-518) fell into the Eftychian heresy, he rebelled against the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and attempted to revoke them. In order to win the chief leaders of the Church to his side, he began sending them various gifts. St. Theodosios was the first in renown in Palestine, and to him the emperor sent thirty liters of gold, ostensibly for the needs of his monastery. Theodosios realized immediately that the emperor meant this as a bribe, and acted with very great wisdom. He would not keep the money for the monastery, although it was in great need, nor return it to the emperor for him to work more evil with it against Orthodoxy, so he instantly distributed all the gold to the poor in the emperor’s name, that this act of charity might strengthen his prayers for the emperor’s repentance and return to the true path.

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.