Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Pascalion — Movable Calendar

The Sunday of the Third Week of the Great Fast or Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.

Grave Mode — Seventh Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 311]. Brethren:

4 ¹⁴Having then a great High Priest Who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us be holding fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a High Priest Who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who hath been tempted in all respects according to our likeness, without sin. ¹⁶Let us therefore be coming with boldness to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and find grace for help in due season.

5 ¹For every high priest being taken from among men is being appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, ²who is able to feel in due measure with those who are ignorant and led astray, since he himself also is compassed about with weakness. ³And by reason of this he ought, even for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. ⁴And no one taketh the honor to himself, but he who is called by God, even as also Aaron. ⁵Thus also the Christ glorified not Himself to become a high priest, but the One Who said to Him, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee [Ps. 2:7].” ⁶Even as He saith also in another place, “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek [Ps. 109(110):4].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 37]. The Lord said:

8 ³⁴“Whosoever is willing to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me. ³⁵“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life on account of Me and of the Gospel, this same one shall save it. ³⁶“For what shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his soul? ³⁷“Or what shall a man give as an exchange for his soul? ³⁸“For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this generation, the adulterous and sinful one, also the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him, whenever He should come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

9 ¹And He was saying to them, “Verily I say to you, that there are some of those standing here who in no wise shall taste of death, until they see the kingdom of God having come in power.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Theodotos, Bishop of Cyrenia in Cyprus, and the Martyr Hesychios the senator, and the manifestation of the Reigning Icon of the all-holy Theotokos.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 240]. Brethren:

2 ⁵Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶Who, existing in the form of God, deemed it not a prize to be seized to be equal with God; ⁷but He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, and came to be in the likeness of men. ⁸And having been found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death—indeed, the death of a cross. ⁹Wherefore God also exalted Him exceedingly, and freely gave to Him a name that is above every name, ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; ¹¹and every tongue should confess for itself that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 54]. At that time:

10 ³⁸ Jesus entered into a certain village. And a certain woman, by name Martha, received Him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat down beside the feet of Jesus, and was listening to His word. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted about much serving, and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, is it no concern to Thee that my sister left me to serve alone? Speak to her therefore that she should help me.” ⁴¹And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things. ⁴²“But there is need of one thing, and Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”...

11 ²⁷And it came to pass, as He was speaking these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts which Thou didst suck.” ²⁸But He said, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Synaxarion Readings

Synaxarion for the Third Sunday of Great Lent
Adoration of the Precious and Life-giving Cross

“Let all the earth venerate the Cross, through which it has learned to worship Thee, the Logos.”

On this third Sunday of the Great Fast we celebrate the veneration of the precious and life-giving Cross. Since during the forty days of the Fast we are also in a way crucified, mortified to the passions, contrite, abased, and sorrowful, the precious and life-giving Cross is offered to us as refreshment and confirmation, calling to mind the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and comforting us. If our God was crucified for our sake, how great should be our effort for His sake, since our afflictions have been assuaged through the Lord’s tribulations, and by the commemoration and the hope of the Cross of glory. For as our Savior in ascending the Cross was glorified through dishonor and grief, so should we also endure our sorrows, in order to be glorified with Him. Also, as those who have traveled a long hard road, weighed down by the labors of their journey, in finding a shady tree, take their ease for a moment and then continue their journey rejuvenated, so now in this time of the Fast, this sorrowful and laborious journey, the holy fathers have planted the life-giving Cross for our relief and refreshment, to encourage and make easier the labors that lie ahead. Or as when there is a royal procession, the king’s scepter and banners precede him, and then he himself appears, radiant and joyous in his victory, causing his subjects to rejoice with him. So then our Lord Jesus Christ, desiring to show His sure victory over death and His glory on the day of the Resurrection, sends His scepter before Himself, the sign of His kingship, the life-giving Cross, to gladden and refresh us, as it greatly fortifies and enables us to be prepared to receive the King with all possible strength and to praise Him in His radiant victory.

This week lies at the middle of the holy Forty Day Fast. The Fast is like a bitter source because of our contrition and the sadness and sorrow for sin that it brings. And as Moses plunged the branch in the bitter waters of Marah, making them sweet, so God, Who has led us through the spiritual Red Sea away from Pharaoh, through the life-giving wood of the precious and life-giving Cross, sweetens the bitterness of the Forty Day Fast and comforts us as those who were in the wilderness, until the time when by His Resurrection He will lead us to the spiritual Jerusalem. And since the Cross is called, and indeed is, the Tree of Life, it is fitting that the holy fathers have planted the Tree of the Cross in the middle of the Great Fast to commemorate both Adam’s tasting of its sweet fruit and of its being taken from us in favor of the Tree of the Cross, tasting of which we shall in no way die but will have even greater life.

Through the power of Thy Cross, O Christ our God, preserve us also from the temptations of the evil one. And make us worthy to venerate Thy divine Passion and life-bearing Resurrection, having radiantly traversed the great length of the Fast, and have mercy on us, as Thou art good and lovest mankind. Amen.

Translated from Triodion, siest ‘Tripesnets: Triod’ Postnaya, Moscow, 1904, by Robert Parent.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 15th – Civil Calendar
March 2nd – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Cyrenia on the island of Cyprus.

He was chosen for his wisdom and virtue as bishop, and governed the Church of God with love and zeal. When a persecution of Christians arose in the time of the wicked Emperor Licinius, this man of God was taken before the judge and put to various tortures. When the torturer, Sabinus, urged him to deny Christ and worship pagan idols, Theodotus replied: ‘If you knew the goodness of my God, Who, it is my hope, will by these brief tortures make me worthy of eternal life, you would wish to suffer for Him as I do!’ They hammered nails into his body, and he thanked God; then, believing that the end was near, he counseled and instructed the Christians that were around him. But, by the providence of God, there came at that moment an order from the Emperor Constantine to free all Christians who had been brought to trial for the sake of Christ. Then this saint also was freed, returned thus tortured to his see in Cyrenia and lived for a further two years. He then entered into rest in the Lord Whom he had served faithfully and for Whom he had suffered greatly. He finished his earthly course in 302, and went to the courts of the Lord.

2. The Holy Martyr Troadios.

He suffered for Christ as a young man. Gregory of Neocaesarea saw him in a vision courageously enduring torture for Christ until he was murdered. And he saw his soul parting with joy from the body and hastening to heaven. St. Troadios suffered and was glorified in the 3rd century.

3. The Four Hundred and Forty Martyrs of Lombardy in Italy.

Massacred in about 579, their deaths are recorded by St. Gregory the Dialogist. Forty of them were beheaded in one place and four hundred in another, all because they refused to eat food offered to idols, and the four hundred also because they refused to follow the custom of the Lombard pagans of dancing around a goat’s head that had been brought to the demons for sacrifice.

4. Our Holy Father Agathon, a great Egyptian ascetic of the 5th century.

He was a contemporary of St. Makarios and a disciple of St. Lot. His care was to fulfill all the commandments of God. One of the brethren expressed his liking for a knife with which he had been cutting willow wands for baskets. The saint joyfully offered the knife to the brother as a gift. St. Agathon also said: ‘I would be content to be able to take on myself the body of a leper, and give him mine.’ Is that not perfect love? (In the Greek Calendar, he is commemorated on Jan. 8th).

5. The Holy Martyr Euthalia.

This holy Euthalia was a Sicilian maiden who had a mother with the same name and a brother named Sermilianus. They were all pagans. The elder Euthalia became ill of an issue of blood. The holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyprinus (May 10th) appeared to her in a dream and told her that she would be healed only if she were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Euthalia believed in Christ, was baptized, and was healed. Seeing this miracle, her daughter was also baptized. Sermilianus began to mock his mother and sister for their Christian Faith, then to threaten them. The mother fled from the house in fear. Then the brother began to persecute his sister. But she was unafraid, for Christ was dearer to her than her brother, and she said to Sermilianus: ‘I am a Christian, and have no fear of death.’ The wicked brother sent a servant to her to violate her, but when the servant assaulted St. Euthalia, he was stricken blind. The evil brother saw that wonder, but his heart remained obdurate. Like Cain, he hurried after his sister, grabbed hold of her and cut off her head. Thus was the holy virgin Euthalia crowned with a wreath of eternal glory. And thus in this example were fulfilled the words of Christ that He was bringing a sword among men which would divide those of one blood but not those of one faith (Matt. 10:34-35).

FOR CONSIDERATION

If anyone loses his faith in God, he is given folly in its place. And of all forms of folly, it is difficult to find one greater than this: that someone who calls himself a Christian should go and glean miserable proofs of God and of eternal life from other faiths and philosophies. He who does not get gold from a rich man is not likely to have it from a poor one. The revelation of eternal life, the firm proofs, the demonstration, the real phenomenon of the spiritual world—all this is not just the laying of the foundation of the Christian Faith, but the building of the walls and floors, the decoration and all the furnishings, the roof and domes of the magnificent edifice of the Christian Faith. A ray from the spiritual world shines through every word of the Gospels, not to mention the wonderful happenings, both evangelical and post-evangelical, through the whole two-thousand-year history of the Church. Christianity has opened wide the gate of the other world. It is revelation, God’s revelation.

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.