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 our venerable Father Theodore Trichinas ("the Hair-shirt Wearer"), hermit near Constantinople, and our venerable Father Anastasios of Sinai (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 21^st of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 3rd – Civil Calendar
April 20th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodore Trichinas.

He was a citizen of Constantinople, and the son of wealthy parents. He left parents, home and riches while still a young man and settled in a remote monastery in Thrace, where he undertook the most rigorous ascetic life. He slept on a stone so that he might have less sleep; he was always bareheaded and dressed in a hair-shirt, from which he was called ‘Trichinas’ or ‘hairy’. Because of his great and self-inflicted sufferings for the sake of his soul’s salvation, God granted him the gift of working miracles, both in his lifetime and after his death, and he died peacefully in about 400. Healing myrrh flowed from his relics.

2. Our Holy Father Anastasios of Mount Sinai.

He was abbot of Mount Sinai. He was for a long time a monk under the famous abbot, St. John of the Ladder, whom he succeeded on the latter’s death. He was also a great ascetic, and an eloquent narrator of the lives of the saints and the author of other instructive works. He fought an intensive battle against the heresy of the Akephalites, which was condemned by the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon. He died in great old age in 685, and went to the Lord Whom he had served so faithfully.

3. Blessed Anastasios the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch.

He was chosen as Patriarch of Antioch in the reign of the Emperor Justinian while still a monk on Mount Sinai. His virtues, purity of life, great spiritual learning and staunch faith won him the patriarchal throne. But Justinian, according to one historical source, for a short time fell into the heresy of Aphthartodocetism. Eftychios, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Blessed Anastasios reacted sharply against this. The emperor exiled Eftychios and wanted to exile Anastasios also, but could find nothing in his life capable of criticism. When Justinian was dying, he repented and returned Eftychios to the patriarchal throne, but Justin, his successor, succeeded in exiling Anastasios on the basis of certain slanders. Anastasios spent twenty-three years in exile and was then returned to the throne of Antioch during the reign of the Emperor Maurice. He governed the Church of God for six further years and finished his earthly course in 599.

4. Blessed Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch.

An Armenian by birth, he was abbot first of the Pharanite monastery and then on Mount Sinai, and when Blessed Anastasios was driven from the patriarchal throne, he was, against his will, installed as Patriarch of Antioch. John Moschus writes about him in his ‘Meadow,’ praising him highly. Gregory was particularly distinguished by an outstanding compassion, most especially towards sinners. He entered into rest in the Lord in 593

5. The Holy Apostle Zaccheus.

He was at first a publican and a sinner, but when the Lord saw him in the tree in Jericho (Lk. 19), He immediately brought Zaccheus to repentance. Zaccheus later followed the Apostle Peter, who made him Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, where he served the Gospel in faithfulness and died peacefully.

6. Our Holy Father Athanasius of Meteora.

Born in 1310, he lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain. He founded a famous monastery in the Meteora in Thessaly. He had great gifts of discernment and wonder-working.

Author’s note: Philaret also mentions Gabriel the Child-martyr in his ‘Lives of the Saints’. He was born in the village of Zvjerka, near the town of Zabludov and was only six years old when, in 1648, on the day when his parents were not at home, he was lured to a lonely place by a Jew named Schutko and crucified there. His body was found incorrupt thirty years later.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Anastasios of Mount Sinai teaches: ‘God gives to each Christian an angel to care for him through his whole life, unless he drives him away by his evil doings. But, as smoke drives away bees and an evil stench doves, so the guardian of our life, our angel, is driven away from us by our sins: drunkenness, debauchery, anger and the rest. An angel guides every faithful man in every good work, while the demons exert all their strength to disturb the faithful and deprive them of the heavenly kingdom.’ That angels are close to men and take care of them is testified to in the whole of holy Scripture and especially in the New Testament. Besides this, there are in the Orthodox Church innumerable testimonies of holy men and women who witnessed to that which Anastasios emphasises: that a gracious and powerful messenger of God, a soldier of the King of heaven, an angel of light, accompanies each one of us through this life. Who, other than the insane, would drive away such a good friend from himself? Indeed, only the insane and other ignoramuses drive away their greatest friends, their guardian angels.

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.