Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Renewal Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 6]. In those days:

2 ³⁸Peter said to the people, “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all those at a distance, as many as the Lord our God shall call forth.” ⁴⁰With more and other words was he both testifying and exhorting, saying, “Be saved from this crooked generation.” ⁴¹Then they indeed who gladly welcomed his words were baptized; and in that day about three thousand souls were added. ⁴²And they were persevering in the teaching of the apostles and in the communion, and in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers. ⁴³And fear came to be in every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 8]. At that time:

3 ¹There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemos, a ruler of the Jews. ²This one came to Jesus by night, and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that Thou hast come from God as a teacher; for no one is able to do these signs which Thou doest unless God be with him.” ³Jesus answered and said to him, “Verily, verily, I say to thee, except one should be born again, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemos saith to Him, “How is a man able to be born when he is old? He is not able to enter the womb of his mother a second time, and be born, is he?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say to thee, unless one should be born of water and of the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶“That which hath been born of the flesh is flesh; and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷“Do not begin to wonder that I said to thee, ‘It is needful for you to be born again.’ ⁸“The wind bloweth wheresoever it is naturally disposed, and thou hearest its sound, but thou knowest not from what place it cometh and where it goeth; thus is everyone who hath been born of the Spirit.” ⁹Nicodemos answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Thou art the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things? ¹¹“Verily, verily, I say to thee that We speak that which We know, and We bear witness of that which We have seen; and ye receive not Our testimony. ¹²“If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³“And no one hath gone up into the heavens, except the One Who came down from out of the heavens, the Son of Man, Who is in the heavens. ¹⁴“And even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus it is needful for the Son of Man to be lifted up; ¹⁵“that everyone who believeth in Him should not perish, but may have everlasting life.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy Father George, monk of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnesus, and our holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 3rd of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 17th – Civil Calendar
April 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer.

He was born in Sicily of devout and virtuous parents, Plotinus and Agatha. After the death of his parents, he moved to Thessalonica, where he became a monk. As a monk, he was an example to all in fasting, restraint, ceaseless supplication, psalmody, vigils and toil. The Bishop of Thessalonica ordained him hieromonk. The famous Gregory of Decapolis, visiting Thessalonica, loved Joseph with heart and soul for his rare character, and took him back with him to his monastery in Constantinople. When the flame of iconoclasm sprang up again under Leo the Armenian, Joseph was sent to Rome to call the pope and the Roman Church to battle for the true Faith. But pirates captured him on the way and took him to Crete, where he was kept in prison for six years by the heretics. Joseph rejoiced that he was made worthy to suffer for Christ, and thanked God constantly, regarding the iron chains with which he was bound as golden ornaments. In the sixth year, around Nativity, the wicked emperor was murdered at the morning service in church. At the same moment, St. Nicholas appeared to Joseph in the prison and said to him: ‘Get up and follow me.’ Joseph felt himself lifted up in the air, and found himself all at once in Constantinople. His arrival was a source of rejoicing to all the Orthodox faithful. He composed canons and hymns for many of the saints. He had the gift of insight, because of which Patriarch Photius made him spiritual father and confessor to his priests, recommending him as ‘a man of God, an angel in the flesh, a father of fathers’. In great old age he gave his soul into the hands of the God he had served so faithfully in work and song. He died peacefully on the eve of Holy Thursday in 883.

2. The Holy Martyr Pherbutha, her widowed sister and their slave.

In the reign of the Persian King Sapor, a bishop, St. Simeon, was executed. His sister, Pherbutha, was taken to court for the queen’s pleasure. Pherbutha was unusually beautiful, and she therefore had many suitors, including pagan priests and soothsayers. Pherbutha refused them all, thus bringing down great wrath upon her head. When, just at that time, the queen fell ill, all the priests informed the king that the queen had been poisoned by Pherbutha, and as a means of healing, proposed that Pherbutha, her sister and their slave, as Christians, be sawn to pieces, that three parts of their bodies be placed on one side and three on the other, and that the queen be taken through between them. The king agreed to this bloody suggestion of the soothsayers,’ and Pherbutha, her sister and their slave-girl suffered in this way for Christ in 343, thereby meriting an unfading wreath in the deathless kingdom of their Lord.

3. Our Holy Father Zosimas.

A monk of the Jordan community in the reign of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger, he found St. Mary of Egypt, gave her Communion and buried her. He entered into rest in the Lord, at the age of 100, in the 6th century.

4. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Niketas.

He was a Slav from Albania. As a monk of the Holy Mountain, he went to Serres, where he disputed with the mullahs about the Faith. Being unable to overcome him by reason, the Turks put him to torture, under which St. Niketas died and gave his soul to God in 1808.

FOR CONSIDERATION

He who glorifies God, him God glorifies. This is demonstrated clearly and abundantly in the lives of the saints. St. Joseph the Hymnographer indeed glorified God in his labors, his sufferings and his compositions. And God glorified him both in life and in death. During his lifetime, St. Nicholas appeared to him in prison and set him free. And when St. Joseph was wondering whether to compose a Canon to St. Bartholomew or not, this apostle appeared to him, clad in white garments, and told him that it was pleasing to God that he compose that canon. When Joseph died, a citizen of Constantinople learned of the glory with which God glorifies those who are pleasing to Him. This man had come to the church of St. Theodore the Phanariot to beg the saint to reveal to him where a runaway servant of his was hiding (for St. Theodore was famed among the people as a saint who revealed where something lost or stolen was to be found, and had therefore acquired the title ‘the Phanariot,’ or ‘the Revealer’). This man prayed for three days and nights, and having received no reply of any sort from the saint, prepared to leave. At that moment, St. Theodore appeared to him in a vision and said: ‘What are you angry about? Joseph the Hymnographer’s soul has parted from his body, and we have been with him during this time; and when he entered into rest tonight, all of us, whom he had glorified in song, carried his soul to heaven and brought him before the face of God. So, I’m late in coming to you.’

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.