Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 24]. In those days:

10 ¹There was a certain man in Cæsarea, by name Cornelius, a centurion from a cohort which is called Italic, ²a pious man and one who feared God with all his house, who both did many alms to the people and entreated God continually. ³He saw in a vision plainly, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God come in to him and say to him, “Cornelius.” ⁴And after he looked intently on him, he became afraid, and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Thy prayers and thine alms are gone up for a memorial before God. ⁵“And now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon, who is surnamed Peter. ⁶“This man is staying as a guest with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” ⁷And when the angel who spoke to Cornelius departed, he called two of his household servants, and a pious soldier of those who remained in service to him. ⁸And after he related in full all things to them, he sent them forth to Joppa. ⁹And on the morrow, as they sojourned and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. ¹⁰And he became very hungry, and was wishing to taste food. But while they prepared, a state of ecstasy fell upon him. ¹¹And he beholdeth the heaven having been opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as a great sheet bound at the four corners, and being let down upon the earth, ¹²in which were all the quadrupeds of the earth, and the beasts, and the creeping things, and the birds of the heaven. ¹³And there came a voice to him, “Rise up, Peter, slay and eat.” ¹⁴But Peter said, “Not at all, Lord; for I never ate anything common or unclean.” ¹⁵And a voice again came for the second time to him, “What God cleansed, cease thou making common.” ¹⁶And this took place thrice; and the vessel was taken up again into the heaven.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 24]. The Lord said to those Jews who had believed Him:

6 ⁵⁶“The one who eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷“Even as the living Father sent Me forth, and I live because of the Father, also the one who eateth Me, even he shall live because of Me. ⁵⁸“This One is the bread, the One having come down out of the heavens—not as your fathers ate the manna, and died. The one who eateth this bread shall live forever.” ⁵⁹These things He said in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum.

⁶⁰Many of His disciples, therefore, after they heard this, said, “Hard is this saying; who is able to hear it?” ⁶¹But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were murmuring about this, said to them, “Doth this offend you? ⁶²“What if then ye should see the Son of Man ascending where He was before? ⁶³“It is the spirit that maketh alive; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴“But there are some of you who believe not.” For Jesus knoweth from the beginning who they are who believe not, and who is the one who shall deliver Him up. ⁶⁵And He was saying, “Therefore, I have told you, that no one is able to come to Me, except it be given to him from My Father.” ⁶⁶From this time on, many out of His disciples went away to the things left behind, and no longer walked about with Him. ⁶⁷Then said Jesus to the twelve, “Ye do not also wish to go away, do ye?” ⁶⁸Then Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; ⁶⁹“and we have believed and have come to know that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, the living One.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Nathanael, and our holy father among the saints, Theodore the Sykeote, Bishop of Anastasioupolis.

Epistle

No reading given.

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)

May 5th – Civil Calendar
April 22nd – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodore the Sykeote.

His birthplace was the village of Sykeon in Galatia, because of which he was named ‘the Sykeote’. While still a ten-year-old boy, Theodore gave himself to strict fasting and all-night vigils under the eye of an elder, Stephen, who lived in his house. His mother, Maria, was a rich widow and intended her son to devote himself to a soldier’s calling. But St. George appeared to her in her sleep and told her that Theodore was destined for the service, not of an earthly king, but of the King of heaven. St. George also appeared to Theodore many times, either to instruct him or to save him from some danger in which the evil demons had placed him. He also had several visions of the most holy Mother of God. Theodore’s asceticism exceeded in its severity the asceticism of all the other ascetics of his time. He tormented his body in hunger and thirst and iron girdles and standing all night in prayer. All this—only to link his soul in love to God and to achieve total mastery over his body. The merciful Lord’s love responded to Theodore’s love. He gave him great power over evil spirits and over all the ills and pains of men. He became known on all sides as a miraculous healer. For his great purity and devotion, he was chosen against his wishes as Bishop of Anastasioupolis. He spent eleven years in episcopal service, and then begged God to release him from this service in order to devote himself again to his beloved asceticism. After that, he returned to his monastery, where, in old age, he gave his soul to the Lord for Whose sake he had undergone so much voluntary suffering. He died at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Herakleios, in about 613.

2. The Holy Martyr Leonidas.

The father of Origen, he suffered for Christ in Alexandria in 202. First, by imperial decree, all his goods were confiscated and then he was condemned to death. Origen wrote to his father in prison: ‘Father, do not worry about us, and do not flee from martyrdom on our account.’

3. Our Holy Father, the Monk Vitalis.

In the time of Patriarch John the Merciful, a young monk appeared, who, as soon as he arrived, compiled a list of all the prostitutes in Alexandria. His way of asceticism was exceptional and singular. During the day he hired himself out for the heaviest work, and at night he went into the brothels, gave the money he had earned to some prostitute and shut himself in her room with her for the whole night. As soon as he had shut the door, Vitalis begged the woman to lie down and sleep, while he spent the entire night in a corner of the room in prayer to God for that sinner. So he kept the sinner from sinning even for one night. The second night he would go to another, the third to another, and so on in order until he had gone through them all, then he went back to the one with whom he had started. By his counsel, many of these sinners left their foul calling; some married, others went to a monastery and others began some honest work for payment. All these women were forbidden by Vitalis to say why he came to them. As a result, he became a scandal to the whole of Alexandria. People reviled him in the streets, spat on him and buffeted him. But he bore it all patiently, revealing his good works to the Lord but concealing them from men. When he died, all became known about him. There began to be many miraculous healings over his grave; people came from various places, bringing their sick to it. Spat on by men, he was and is glorified by the all-seeing God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

At the time of the Council of Nicaea, various quarrelsome clerics wrote accusations against one another and gave them to the emperor. The Emperor Constantine took all these accusations, and without opening them, burned them in a brazier and said to the astonished bystanders: ‘If I were, with my own eyes, to see a bishop or priest or monk in some sinful act, I would cover him with my clothing, so that no one should see him in his sin.’ Thus the great Christian emperor put the scandalmongers to shame and shut their mouths. Our Faith forbids us to spy on the sins of others, and calls us to be merciless judges of ourselves. A sick man in a hospital is occupied with his own sickness and has neither the desire nor the time to examine the other sick people and sneer at their illnesses. Are not we all, in this world, like sick men in the hospital? And is it not common sense to occupy ourselves with our own sicknesses and not with another’s? Do not let anyone think that he will be healed of his sickness in this world. This world is the hospital and the place of healing, but in the other world there are no hospitals: there is either a king’s court or a prison.

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.