Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 37]. In those days:

15 ³⁵Paul and Barnabas were spending time in Antioch, teaching and preaching as good tidings the word of the Lord, with many others also. ³⁶And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return now and visit our brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are holding fast.” ³⁷And Barnabas determined to take with them John, who is called Mark. ³⁸But Paul kept on thinking it not meet to take along that one, since he withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. ³⁹Then a sharp contention arose, so as to separate them from one another: and Barnabas, having taken Mark, sailed away to Cyprus; ⁴⁰and Paul, having chosen for himself Silas, went forth, having been commended to the grace of God by the brethren. ⁴¹And he passed through Syria and Cilicia, rendering more firm the churches.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 38]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

10 ²⁷“The sheep, those that are Mine, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸“And I give them eternal life, and in no wise shall they ever perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹“My Father, Who hath given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰“I and the Father are one.” ³¹Then the Jews took up stones again that they might stone Him. ³²Jesus answered them, “Many good works I showed you from My Father. For what kind of work among these are ye trying to stone Me?” ³³The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we are not about to stone Thee, but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “Ye are gods [Ps. 81(82):6]”’? ³⁵“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came to pass—and the Scripture is not able to be broken— ³⁶“do ye say of Him, Whom the Father sanctified and sent forth into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest,’ because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷“If I do not the works of My Father, cease believing Me. ³⁸“But if I do, even if ye believe Me not, believe the works, that ye might come to know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Tarsus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 17th – Civil Calendar
May 4th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Pelagia of Tarsus.

Born in the town of Tarsus of pagan but noble and wealthy parents, she heard about Christ and the salvation of the soul from Christians, became inflamed with love for the Savior and was a Christian in her soul. There was at that time a terrible persecution of Christians. It happened that the Emperor Diocletian himself stopped in Tarsus and that, during the time of his stay in the town, his son, the heir, fell deeply in love with Pelagia and wanted to make her his wife. Pelagia replied through her mother—a wicked woman—that she was already promised to her betrothed husband, Christ the Lord. Fleeing from the foul heir and her wicked mother, Pelagia sought and found Bishop Linus, a man renowned for his holiness. He instructed her in the Faith and baptized her. Then Pelagia gave away her luxurious clothing and great wealth, returned home and confessed to her mother that she was already baptized. Hearing of this, the emperor’s son, losing all hope of getting this holy maiden as his wife, ran himself through with a sword and died. Then the wicked mother denounced her daughter to the emperor and she was taken for trial. The emperor marveled at the girl’s beauty, and forgetting his son, burned with an impure passion for her. But when Pelagia remained unfaltering in her faith, the emperor condemned her to be burned in a metal ox heated by fire. She entered the ox with prayers of thanksgiving to God on her lips, and received a crown of martyrdom. She suffered with honor in 287. Diocletian bid that her remains be cast out of the city for wild beasts to devour, but God preserved her relics intact. Bishop Linus took her relics and buried them honorably. In the time of the Emperor Constantine Kopronymos (741-775), a beautiful church was built on that site in honor of this holy virgin and martyr Pelagia, who was sacrificed for Christ to reign eternally with Him.

2. The Hieromartyr Silvanos, Bishop of Gaza.

He was at first in military service, but later, urged by the strength of his faith, he transferred to spiritual service. Accused of bringing many pagans to Christianity, he was at first brutally tortured then beheaded with forty other soldiers in 311, and thus became a citizen of heaven.

3. Our Holy Father Nikephoros the Hesychast.

He was at first a Roman Catholic, but then became Orthodox. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain as a monk, with the wise Theoleptos. He was a teacher of St. Gregory Palamas and wrote a work on mental prayer. He went peacefully to the Lord in the 14th century. He taught: ‘Gather your mind and compel it to enter into your heart and remain there. When your mind is firmly in your heart, it must not remain empty, but must incessantly make the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And it must never fall silent. Through this the whole string of the virtues: love, joy, peace and the others, will make their abode in you, by which, then, every request of yours to God will be fulfilled.’

FOR CONSIDERATION

A young man, inexperienced in the spiritual struggle, makes a show to everyone of his good works with self-congratulation. But a soldier experienced in skirmishes with the passions and with demons belittles each work of his and intensifies his prayer for the help of God. Abba Matoes said: ‘The closer a man is to God, the more clearly he knows himself a sinner.’ And, again, he said: ‘When I was young, I thought that I might be able to do some good thing; but now that I am old, I see that I have not done a single good work.’ Did not the Lord say: ‘None is good, but the one God’? If, then, the one God alone is good and the fount of all good, how can a good work be done that is not of God? And how can anyone who performs a good work attribute it to himself and not to God? And, if this is so, by what can a dead man be praised? By nothing but God and the goodness of God.

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.