Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 45]. In those days:

21 ⁸We who were Paul’s companions, after we finished our voyage from Tyre, came to Cæsarea and entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. ⁹And this same man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. ¹⁰And as we tarried there more days, a certain prophet, by name Agavos, came down from Judæa. ¹¹And having come to us, he also took up the belt of Paul, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus saith the Holy Spirit, ‘Thus shall the Jews bind in Jerusalem the man whose belt this is, and shall deliver him up into the hands of the Gentiles.’” ¹²And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³But Paul answered, “What are ye doing, weeping and breaking in pieces my heart? For I not only hold myself in readiness to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴And when he would not be persuaded, we held our peace and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 49]. The Lord said to His disciples:

14 ²⁷“Let not your heart continue being troubled, nor being fearful. ²⁸“Ye heard that I said to you, ‘I go away’ and ‘I come to you.’ If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father’; for My Father is greater than I. ²⁹“And now I have told you before it should come to pass, in order that whenever it should come to pass, ye might believe. ³⁰“No longer will I talk much with you; for the ruler of this world is coming, and hath nothing in Me. ³¹“But that the world might know that I love the Father, and even as the Father enjoined Me, thus I do. Arise, let us be going from this place.

15 ¹“I am the vine, the true one, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²“Every branch in Me which beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch which beareth fruit, He pruneth it, in order that it may bear more fruit. ³“Already ye are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴“Abide in Me, and I in you. Even as a branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, unless ye abide in Me. ⁵“I am the vine, ye are the branches. The one who abideth in Me, and I in him, this one beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye are not able to do anything. ⁶“Unless one abide in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is withered—and they gather them together and cast them into the fire—and is burned. ⁷“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask for yourselves whatever ye will, and it shall come to pass for you.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Glykeria at Heraclea.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 26th – Civil Calendar
May 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Glykeria.

The daughter of a governor of Rome, she became poor after her father’s death and went to live in Trajanopolis in Thrace. In the time of the wicked Emperor Antoninus, Glykeria was brought to offer sacrifice to the idol of Zeus. She traced the Cross on her forehead, and when the governor asked her where was her lamp (for they all carried lamps in their hands), Glykeria indicated the Cross on her forehead and said: ‘This is my lamp!’ At her prayers, the idol was struck by lightning and broken into pieces. The governor was furious with her and commanded that she be thrown into prison. He sealed the door of the prison, intending to starve the maiden to death, but an angel of God appeared to Glykeria and gave her heavenly food. After a certain time, when the governor reckoned that the maiden must have died of hunger, he opened the prison and was astounded to see her in good health, bright and merry. The warder, Laodicius, seeing this marvel, himself confessed Christ the Lord and was at once beheaded. After that, Glykeria was thrown into a burning furnace, but she remained untouched by the flames. Standing in the midst of the fire, she praised the Lord, commemorating the wonder with the Three Children in the burning fiery furnace in Babylon. Finally, she was thrown to the lions, and praying to God, this holy maiden gave her soul into the hands of the Lord for Whom she had heroically suffered much torture. She suffered with honor in the year 141. A healing myrrh flowed from her relics, which healed the sick of the gravest illnesses.

2. The Holy Martyr Alexander.

He was a Slav, an eighteen-year-old soldier in the army of the Emperor Maximian. He refused to obey the imperial order to offer sacrifice to the Roman idols, because of which it fell to Captain Tiberian to tell him either to deny Christ or be tortured and killed. As all this advice was in vain, Tiberian arrested him and took him through Macedonia to Constantinople, whither he himself had an errand. In every place, the young Alexander was harshly tortured, but in every place also, Christians came out to him, begging his blessing and encouraging him in his sufferings. His mother, Pimenia, followed him. In the course of this journey, Alexander was many times visited by an angel of God, who eased his pains and encouraged him. In one place called Carasura, the martyr worked a miracle by his prayers: when the soldiers who were escorting him were tormented by thirst, he made a spring of cold water come out of a dry place. On the bank of the River Ergina, Tiberian ordered that the executioner behead Alexander and throw his body into the river. When the executioner swung his axe above Alexander’s head, he saw angels of God around him, resplendent with light, and was afraid and stayed his hand. Alexander asked him why he had done this, and he said that he had seen some young men in a nimbus of light surrounding him. Desiring to die and so be united with the Lord, Alexander prayed to God to take the angels away, so that the executioner would not be afraid. And so the executioner completed his work, in 298. Pimenia retrieved the body of her son and gave it burial. There were many healings at the martyr’s grave. After his death, he appeared to his mother and gave her tidings of her own imminent departure to the other world.

3. Our Holy Fathers John, Evthymius, George and Gabriel of Iviron.

They were the founders of the famous Iviron (Georgian) Monastery on the Holy Mountain. St. John (Ioane) lived in asceticism first in the Lavra of Athanasius, and then founded his own monastery, Iviron. He entered into rest in 998. Evthymius (Ekvtime) and George (Giorgi) translated the holy Scriptures into Georgian. Evthymius died in 1028 and George in 1066. Gabriel was found worthy to receive the wonder-working Portaïtissa icon of the Mother of God which was brought to the monastery by the sea.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Athanasius writes thus on the power of the death of Christ and His Cross: ‘Whose death has ever driven away demons? And whose death has ever been the cause of fear to demons, as was the death of Christ? Wherever the name of the Savior is invoked, there the demons are driven out. What has tamed man’s spiritual passions to such an extent that prodigals become chaste and murderers are no longer servants of the sword, and the fearful become brave? Has not the Christian Faith? Has not the sign of the Cross? And what else has so convinced man of immortality as the Cross of Christ and His bodily Resurrection?’ The death of the Sinless One and the Cross of the Lover of mankind have brought a greater and more enduring victory than all the kings of the earth with their milliard soldiers. For when has an army ever overcome one single demon? Only the invocation of the name of the Crucified puts the armies of demons to flight. Oh, when will all Christians know what riches they have in the name of Christ, and what a weapon in His Cross?

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.