Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 192]. Brethren:

11 ⁵I reckon to have come behind in nothing of the exceedingly super apostles. ⁶But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in every way we have been made manifest to you in all things. ⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I preached the Gospel of God to you as a free gift? ⁸I stripped other churches, having received wages from them with a view to your ministration. ⁹And when I was present with you, and in need, I burdened no one; for that which I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will keep myself. ¹⁰As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting in regard to me in the regions of Achaia shall not be fenced in. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knoweth. ¹²But what I do, also I will do, that I might cut off the occasion of those wishing an occasion, that in what they boast, they might be found even as we. ¹³For such are false apostles, guileful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And a marvellous thing it is not; for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, of whom the end shall be according to their works. ¹⁶Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish; but if otherwise, receive me even if as foolish, in order that I also might boast a little. ¹⁷What I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this basis of the boasting. ¹⁸Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹For ye bear with fools gladly, being wise yourselves; ²⁰for ye bear it if anyone enslave you, if anyone devour you, if anyone take from you, if anyone exalt himself, if anyone smite you on the face. ²¹I speak by way of dishonor, as though we weakened.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 15]. At that time:

4 ¹Jesus began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered together to Him, so that He stepped into the ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole crowd was on the land toward the sea. ²And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³“Hearken: Behold, the one who soweth went out to sow. ⁴“And it came to pass, as he was sowing, some seed indeed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵“And other seed fell upon the rocky place, where it had not much earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. ⁶“But after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it was dried up. ⁷“And other seed fell into the thorns; and the thorns shot up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸“But other seed fell into the good ground, and it kept on yielding fruit that was springing up and increasing: and one was bearing thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.” ⁹And He was saying to them, “The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Dormition, and the translation of the holy Napkin from Edessa to Constantinople, and the Martyr Diomedes.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 284]. Child Timothy:

3 ¹³They who have served well as deacons acquire a good degree for themselves and much boldness in faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly. ¹⁵But if I delay, I write in order that thou mayest know how one ought to be conducting oneself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, pillar and stay of the truth. ¹⁶And confessedly, great is the mystery of piety: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

4 ¹Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, ²speaking lies in hypocrisy, having been branded as to their own conscience, ³forbidding to marry, bidding to abstain from foods, which God created for partaking with giving of thanks by the faithful and those who have fully known the truth. ⁴For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away, if it is received with giving of thanks; ⁵for it is sanctified by the word of God and intercessory prayer.

for Sl. usage, see [Col. 1:12-18], or see [2 Cor. 3:4-11].

Gospel

For Gk. usage, see [Lk. 9:51-57, 10:22-24, 13:22] herein below;

for Sl. usage, see [Lk. 9:51-56, 10:22-24].

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§§ 48, 52, 72]. At that time:

9 ⁵¹When the days were being fulfilled of the taking up of Jesus, He indeed set His face to go to Jerusalem; ⁵²and He sent forth messengers before His face. And they went and entered into a village of Samaritans, so as to make ready for Him. ⁵³And they did not receive Him, because His face was toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴And after His disciples Iakovos and John saw this, they said, “Lord, dost Thou wish that we should command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” ⁵⁵But He turned about and rebuked them, and said, “Ye know not of what manner of spirit ye are; ⁵⁶“the Son of Man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save.” And they went to another village.

⁵⁷And it came to pass, as they went in the way,...

10 ²²He turned to the disciples and said, “All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know Who the Son is, except the Father, and Who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him.” ²³And He turned around to the disciples, and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see what ye see. ²⁴“For I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see what ye see, but saw not, and to hear what ye hear, but heard not.”...

13 ²²And He was going through, by cities and villages, teaching, and making His way toward Jerusalem.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 29th – Civil Calendar
August 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Icon of our Lord Jesus Christ Not-made-with-hands.

In the time that our Lord was preaching the Gospel and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people, there was in the city of Edessa, on the banks of the Euphrates, a certain Prince Avgar, who was riddled with leprosy. He heard of Christ, the Healer of every pain and sickness, and sent a portrait-painter, Ananias, to Palestine with a letter to Christ, in which he begged the Lord to come to Edessa and heal him of his leprosy. In the event of the Lord’s not being able to come, the prince commanded Ananias to paint His likeness and bring it, believing that the portrait would heal him. The Lord replied that He could not come, as the time of His Passion was at hand, and He took a napkin and wiped His face, leaving a perfect reproduction of His most pure face on the napkin. The Lord gave this napkin to Ananias, with a message to say that the prince would be healed by it, but not entirely, and He would therefore send him later an envoy who would rid him of the remainder of the disease. Receiving the napkin, Avgar kissed it and the leprosy fell from his body, with just a little remaining on his face. Later, the Apostle Thaddaeus, preaching the Gospel, came to Avgar, healed him secretly and baptized him. Then the prince smashed the idols that stood at the city’s gateway and placed the napkin with the face of Christ above the entrance, stuck onto wood, surrounded with a gold frame and ornamented with pearls. The prince also wrote above the icon on the gateway: ‘O Christ our God, no one who hopes in Thee will be put to shame’. Later, one of Avgar’s great-grandsons restored idolatry, and the Bishop of Edessa came by night and walled-in the icon above the gateway. Centuries passed. In the time of the Emperor Justinian, the Persian King, Chozroes, attacked Edessa, and the city was in great affliction. The Bishop of Edessa, Evlavios, had a vision of the most holy Mother of God, who revealed to him the secret of the icon, walled in and forgotten. The icon was found, and by its power the Persian army was defeated. It was taken to Constantinople in 950 to heal the emperor, and was kept there for the veneration of countless multitudes of Christians. It was lost in the Fourth Crusade to undisciplined crusaders.

2. The Holy Martyr Diomedes.

A doctor from Tarsus of eminent parents, he taught the people the Christian Faith as he healed them. The Emperor Diocletian ordered that he be beheaded in Nicaea in 298. Those who beheaded him and took his head to the emperor were blinded, and when they restored the head to his body, with prayer, they were healed.

3. Our Holy Father Joachim of Osogovsk.

He lived the ascetic life in the second half of the eleventh century on the mountain of Osogovsk, in a cave in a place called Sarandopor. In that place another ascetic, Theodore of the Sheepfield, to whom St. Joachim appeared in a dream, built a church. Many miracles have been performed throughout the centuries over the relics of St. Joachim, and are being performed even to this day.

4. The Holy Martyr Stamatios.

He was a villager, born in Volos in Thessaly. When some inhuman agha collected the imperial tax from the people and left them in a terrible plight, Stamatios went to Constantinople with several companions, to complain to the vizier. The sultan’s nobles bore Stamatios a grudge for his stern accusation, and they arrested him. They first tried to convert him to Islam by flattery, promising him riches, glory and honor. Then the Turks tortured him and finally beheaded him in front of Hagia Sophia, in 1680. Thus this soldier of Christ was crowned with the wreath of martyrdom.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The Orthodox Church surpasses all other so-called “Christian” groups in the richness of her Tradition. Protestants look only to the holy Scriptures, but the Scriptures can only be interpreted within the Tradition. The Apostle Paul himself commands: ‘Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle’ (II Thess. 2:15). The tradition concerning Prince Avgar is doubtless an apostolic tradition, although it is not referred to by any of them in their epistles. The Apostle Thaddaeus wrote nothing, and therefore, according to Protestant thinking, he said nothing, and gave nothing to the faithful. Why was he then an apostle of Christ? The tradition about Prince Avgar is mentioned by St. John Damascene in his defence of the veneration of icons.

How marvellous and touching is Avgar’s letter to Christ! Having been inspired to write to Him, telling Him that he had heard of His miraculous power to heal the sick, and having begged Him to come and heal him, he continues: ‘I hear this also, that the Jews hate You and prepare some sort of wickedness against You. I have a city; it’s small but beautiful, and abounds in every good thing. Come to me here and live with me in my city, which will provide for all the needs of us both.’ Thus wrote a pagan prince, at the time that the princes of Jerusalem were preparing death for the Lord, the Lover of mankind.

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.