Daily Devotional
Friday, April 25, 2025 (NS)
April 12, 2025 (OS)
Commemorations
Pascalion — Movable Calendar
Friday of the Renewal Week
Menaion — Fixed Calendar
The commemoration of our holy father among the saints, Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium.
Fasting Information
No Fasting.
Bright Week - No Fasting All Week
Scripture Readings
Pascalion — Movable Calendar
Friday of the Renewal Week
Epistle:
The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 7]. In those days:
3 1Peter and John were going up together into the temple during the hour of
prayer, the ninth hour. 2And a certain man, lame from his mother’s womb,
was being carried, whom they used to lay daily at the door of the temple which is called
Beautiful, to ask alms from those going into the temple; 3who, seeing Peter and John
being about to go into the temple, began asking alms. 4And Peter, looking intently
upon him with John, said, “Look on us.” 5And he began to give heed to
them, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, “Silver and
gold have I none; but what I have, this I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazaræan, rise up and be walking.” 7And he took him by the right hand and
raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankle bones were strengthened. 8And
leaping up, he stood and went on walking and entered with them into the temple—walking and
leaping and praising God.
Gospel:
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 7]. At that
time:
2 12Jesus went down to Capernaum, He, and His Mother, and His brethren, and
His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. 13And the passover of the Jews
was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14And He found in the temple those who sell
oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting. 15And after He made a
scourge out of cords, He cast out all from the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured
out the small pieces of money, and turned upside down the tables of the money changers.
16And He said to those who sold doves, “Take away these things from this place.
Cease making the house of My Father a house of merchandise.” 17And His disciples
were reminded that it is written: “The zeal for Thy house shall eat me up [cf. Ps. 68(69):12(9)].” 18Then the Jews
answered and said to Him, “What sign showest Thou to us, seeing that Thou doest these
things?” 19Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it.” 20Then the Jews said, “In forty and six years
was this temple built, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?” 21But He was
speaking about the temple of His body. 22When therefore He was raised from the
dead, His disciples were reminded that He was saying this to them, and they believed the
Scripture and the word which Jesus said.
Menaion — Fixed Calendar
The commemoration of our holy father among the saints, Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium.
No readings given.
Lives of the Saints
(Prologue)
April 25th – Civil Calendar
April 12th – Church Calendar
1. Our Holy Father Isaac II of Syria (St. Isaac the Syrian is commemorated on Jan.
28th).
St. Gregory the Dialogist writes about this Isaac. He went to Italy in the time of the Goths
and went into the church in the town of Spoleto to pray. He asked the verger to leave him locked
in the church all night, and thus spent the night in prayer without moving from that place. He
spent the next day and night in the same way. The verger called him a hypocrite and struck him a
blow—and lost his reason at that same moment. Seeing how the verger was so fiercely tormented,
Isaac bent over him and the evil spirit fled from him, leaving him whole. People came to hear of
this happening, and the whole town thronged around this wonderful elder. They offered him money
and goods, but he refused them all and would accept nothing. Instead, he withdrew to a forest,
where he built himself a cell, which quickly became transformed into a large monastery. Isaac
became famous for his miracles, especially for his discernment. One evening he told the brethren
to take all the hoes out to the vineyard and leave them there. The next day, the brethren set out
for the vineyard, taking their lunch, as they had no workers. When they got there, they found as
many people working as there were hoes to work with. It transpired that these people had come as
thieves to steal the hoes, but by the power of God, they were constrained to work all night.
On another occasion, a couple of almost-naked men came seeking clothing from Isaac. He sent a
monk to a hollow tree at the end of the road, to bring what he found there. The monk went off,
found some clothing and brought it back to the monastery. The abbot took the clothing and gave it
to the beggars. They were profoundly ashamed as they recognized their own clothing, which they
had concealed in that tree.
A man once sent two beehives to the monastery. A monk hid one of them on the way, and brought
the other to the abbot. The saint said to him: ‘Be careful when you go back to that beehive
you hid on the way. It’s been taken over by poisonous snakes. Take care they don’t
bite you!’
St. Isaac reposed in peace in 550.
2. St. Basil the Confessor.
In a time of iconoclasm, this virtuous man was bishop in the city of Parius in Asia Minor. He
refused to sign the imperial order against the veneration of icons, for which he was greatly
persecuted and tortured. But he remained firm as diamond in his Orthodoxy. He died in the first
half of the 8th century, and went to the Lord.
3. Our Holy Father Akakios.
From the village of Gollitsa in Epirus, he was a great Athonite ascetic, spiritual guide and
clairvoyant, and had many heavenly visions. He gave his blessing to several monks to seek
martyrdom. He entered into rest at the age of 98, in 1730.
4. Our Holy Mother Athanasia.
Born on the island of Aegina of rich and eminent parents, she gave her goods to the poor and
went off to a monastery, where she heaped greater and greater asceticism on herself. She took
food only once a day, and that only bread and water, and in the Great Fast only once every two
days. Only at Nativity and Pascha did she taste fish and oil. Although she was abbess of the
monastery, she was the servant of all the other sisters and was ashamed that any should wait on
her. She was made worthy of the great gift of wonder-working, both during her lifetime and after
her death. She entered into rest in the Lord in 860.
FOR CONSIDERATION
The wicked Emperor Constantine Kopronymos had a virtuous daughter, the maiden Anthusa,
‘a beauteous branch of an evil stem’. She remained set against all her father’s
urgings that she marry, for she was firmly bound in whole-hearted love to Christ the Lord. When
her father died, Anthusa gave her goods away to the poor and became a nun in a monastery. It is a
cause of wonder that many men of gentle birth have left the vanity of the world and set off on
the narrow way after Christ; and it is twice as great a cause of wonder that women scorn youth
and wealth and all the transient attraction of the world for the love of Christ. The Lord Himself
said that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Hard, yes: but not
impossible. To those who scorn their own selves, it is easy to scorn riches and the whole
world.
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.
