Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 148]. Brethren:

11 ⁸Man is not of woman, but woman of man. ⁹For also man was not created on account of the woman, but woman on account of the man. ¹⁰For this cause ought the woman to have authority on the head on account of the angels. ¹¹However neither is man without woman, nor woman without man in the Lord. ¹²For as the woman is of the man, so also the man is by the woman; but all things of God. ¹³Judge in yourselves: Is it becoming for a woman to be praying to God uncovered? ¹⁴Or doth not nature herself teach you that on the one hand if a man should have long hair, it is a dishonor to him, ¹⁵but on the other hand if a woman should have long hair, it is to her glory? For the long hair hath been given to her for a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the churches of God.

¹⁷Now giving this order, I praise ye not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. ¹⁸For indeed, first, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be schisms among you, and in part I believe it. ¹⁹For there must be also heresies among you, that the approved might become manifest among you. ²⁰When ye come together therefore in one place, it is not to eat a Lord’s Supper. ²¹For in eating each one taketh before others his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunk. ²²Have ye not houses in order to eat and to drink? Or do ye despise the Church of God, and put to shame those who have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. ²³For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 71]. At that time:

17 ¹⁰The disciples of Jesus asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that it is necessary for Elias to come first?” ¹¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “Elias indeed cometh first and shall restore all things. ¹²“But I say to you that Elias already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him as much as they wished. Thus also the Son of Man is about to suffer under them.” ¹³Then the disciples comprehended that He spoke to them concerning John the Baptist.

¹⁴And after they came to the crowd, there came to Him a man, kneeling down to Him and saying, ¹⁵“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth badly; for often he falleth into the fire, and often into the water. ¹⁶“And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they were not able to cure him.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and wayward generation, until when shall I be with you? Until when shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out from him; and the boy was cured from that hour.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Proclos and Hilarion, and our venerable Father Michael of Maleinos.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 25th – Civil Calendar
July 12th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Proklos and Hilarion.

These martyrs were born in Kallippi in Asia, Proklos being Hilarion’s uncle. They suffered in the time of Trajan. The judge asked Proklos: ‘Of what race are you?’ Proklos replied: ‘I am of the race of Christ, and my hope is in my God.’ When the judge threatened him with torture, he said: ‘When you are afraid to transgress the emperor’s commands and risk falling into temporal punishment, how much more do we Christians fear to transgress against God’s commands and fall into eternal torment!’ While Proklos was being tortured, Hilarion came up to the judge and said: ‘I too am a Christian!’ After many tortures, the two of them were condemned to death, Proklos being crucified and Hilarion beheaded with the sword. They both entered into the joy of their Lord.

2. Our Holy Father Michael Maleinos.

He was a wealthy man of noble birth. Scorning worldly goods in his youth, he withdrew to Mount Kyminas in Bithynia, where he lived in asceticism, purifying his heart by fasting and prayer. He later had many disciples, of whom the best-known is St. Athanasius the Athonite. He died peacefully in the middle of the tenth century.

3. St. Veronica.

This is the woman with the issue of blood, whom the Lord healed (Matt. 9:20). In gratitude to the Lord, her healer, Veronica caused a statue of the Lord Jesus to be made, before which she prayed to God. By tradition, this statue was preserved up to the time of Julian the Apostate, when it was altered to become a statue of Zeus. This is one of the very rare occasions that a statue has been used in the Eastern Church. St. Veronica remained faithful to Christ till death, and entered peacefully into rest.

4. The Holy Martyrs Theodore and John.

Father and son, they settled after their Baptism in the pagan city of Kiev. The infuriated pagans pulled their house down about their ears, and the two of them perished for the sake of Christ. Their relics are preserved in St. Anthony’s caves. The barren and women who miscarry pray especially to them.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The fabric of righteousness is finer than silk, but is enduring and indestructible and embraces both worlds, while the fabric of unrighteousness and violence is thick and easily rent. In the time of the Kievan Prince Vladimir, there lived in Kiev only one Christian family, Theodore and his son John. When there was a wicked, idolatrous festival, the pagans of Kiev, urged on by demons, plotted to offer John, Theodore’s son, as a sacrifice to the idols. When some of them went to Theodore to demand his son in the name of their ‘gods,’ he said to them: ‘If your gods are alive, let them come themselves and take my son!’ The furious pagans rushed to Theodore’s house, destroyed it and left the bodies of the godly Theodore and his son John in the ruins. Thus far did the fabric of unrighteousness extend. But the fabric of righteousness went further: Prince Vladimir was baptized soon after this, and also baptized the nation, and on the very spot where the house and grave of Theodore and John had been, the church of the most holy Mother of God was built.

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.