Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Twenty-First Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians [§ 252]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Col. 1:24-29, 2:1; for Sl. usage, see Col. 1:24-29.

1 ²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings on behalf of you, and fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of the Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the Church, ²⁵of which I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now is made manifest to His saints, ²⁷to whom God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory, ²⁸Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; ²⁹for which I also labor, struggling according to the energy of Him Who Himself energizeth in me in power.

2 ¹For I wish you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 62]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

11 ⁴⁷“Woe to you! For ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸“So then ye bear witness and consent to the works of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchers. ⁴⁹“On this account the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send forth to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰“that the blood of all the prophets, which is being poured out from the foundation of the world, might be required of this generation, ⁵¹“from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the temple. Yea, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. ⁵²“Woe to you, the doctors of the law! For ye took away the key of knowledge; ye yourselves entered not, and those trying to enter ye hindered.” ⁵³And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to hold it against Him terribly and to interrogate Him concerning many things, ⁵⁴lying in wait for Him, seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.

12 ¹In the meantime, after myriads of the populace were gathered together, insomuch that they trampled upon one another, He began to say to His disciples first, “Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Wonder-workers and Unmercenaries Kosmas and Damian.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 153]. Brethren:

12 ²⁷Ye are the body of Christ, and members severally.

²⁸And God set for Himself some in the Church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then works of power, then free gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. ²⁹All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All do not have works of power, do they? ³⁰All do not have free gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? ³¹All do not interpret, do they? But keep on desiring earnestly the better gifts of grace. And yet I show you a more surpassing way.

13 ¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophecy, and know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains from one place to another, but I have not love, I am nothing. ³And if I dole out all of my goods, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but I have not love, I am being profited nothing. ⁴Love is long-suffering, is kind; love is not jealous; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; ⁵doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil; ⁶rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; ⁷covereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸Love never falleth away.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ mid 34]. At that time:

10 ¹After Jesus called to Himself His twelve disciples, He gave to them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every weakness.... ⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, “Do not begin to go into the way of the nations, and do not begin to enter into a city of the Samaritans. ⁶“But go rather to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel. ⁷“And as ye go, be preaching, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens hath drawn near.’ ⁸“Be healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons; freely ye received, freely give.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 14th – Civil Calendar
November 1st – Church Calendar

1. Ss. Kosmas and Damian.

Unmercenaries and wonder-workers, they were brothers in the flesh and in the spirit, born somewhere in Asia of a pagan father and a Christian mother. After their father’s death, their mother, Theodota, devoted all her time and energy to the bringing-up of her sons as true Christians. God helped her, and her sons grew as two choice fruits and as two holy lamps. They were skilled in medicine and ministered to the sick without payment, and so fulfilled Christ’s command: ‘Freely have ye received; freely give’ (Matt. 10: 8). They were so strict in their unpaid ministry to men that Kosmas became greatly enraged with his brother Damian when he took three eggs from a woman, Palladia, and gave orders that, after his death, he should not be buried with his brother. In fact, holy Damian had not taken those eggs as a reward for healing Palladia’s sickness, but because she had sworn by the Most Holy Trinity that he should have them. However, after their death in Fereman, they were buried together in obedience to a revelation from God. These two holy brothers were great wonder-workers both during their lifetime and after their death. A farm laborer, on lying down to sleep at one time, was attacked by a snake, which entwined itself around his mouth and stomach. This poor man would have breathed his last in the greatest torment had he not at the last moment invoked the help of Saints Kosmas and Damian. Thus the Lord glorified forever by miracles those who glorified Him here on earth by their faith, purity and mercy.

2. The Holy Martyr Hermenegild the Heir.

He was the son of the Gothic King Luvigeld, who held the Arian heresy. Hermenegild, however, did not turn from Orthodoxy, in spite of the flattery and threats of his brutal, heretic father. His father threw him into prison, and on Pascha, sent a heretic bishop early in the morning to give him Communion. This man of God would not receive Communion at the hands of a heretic; a fact that the bishop passed on to the king. The king was furious, and ordered the executioners to cut off Hermenegild’s head, which came to pass in 586. Luvigeld later repented of having killed his son and recognized his heresy, but he never officially returned to Orthodoxy before his death.

3. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Iakovos, with his disciples Iakovos and Dionysius.

He was born in the diocese of Kastoria, of parents called Martin and Paraskeve. Working as a shepherd, Iakovos became rich and thus incurred the envy of his brother, who reported him to the Turks as having found some money in the ground. Iakovos fled to Constantinople, where he became poor. He was once the guest of a Turkish bey. The Turks were eating meat, but Iakovos was fasting. The bey said: ‘Your Christian Faith is indeed great!’ and he related how his wife had been sick in mind and how, after trying all doctors and medicines, he had taken her to the patriarch for prayers to be read over her. As soon as the patriarch opened the book to read, a heavenly light filled the church. When the prayer was ended, his wife was made whole. Iakovos, hearing how the bey extolled the Christian Faith, gave away all that he had and went to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk in the monastery of Iviron. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and suffered for the Faith at the hands of the Turks in Jedrene on November 1st, 1520. His wonder-working relics and those of his disciples are preserved in the monastery of St. Anastasia near Thessalonica.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Hilarion of Meglin waged a fierce battle against the Bogomils. At one time, the leaders of the Bogomils came to Hilarion and began to dispute with him about faith. The Bogomils taught that God created the spiritual world, but that the material world was the work of the devil. Hilarion replied to this that it is written in the Scriptures: ‘God is the King of all the earth’ (Ps. 46:7), and also: ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof’ (Ps. 23:1). The Bogomils asserted that the Old Testament was of the devil. To this the saint replied: ‘If the Old Testament indeed came from the devil, could Christ have said: “Search the Scriptures: they testify of Me” (John 5:39), and could He have stated that the greatest commandments are those on love of God and one’s neighbor that were aforetime given by Moses?’ The Bogomils also asserted that Christ brought His body with Him from heaven. To this St. Hilarion replied that, had it been thus, then the body of Christ would not have felt hunger or thirst, nor weariness and suffering, nor would it have undergone death. The Bogomils then showed their disapprobation of the sign of the Cross that Orthodox Christians make. To this, the saint replied: ‘And what will you do when the sign of the Son of Man, the Cross, appears in the heavens, and when all the nations of the world who did not believe in the Cross will lament?’ And he added: ‘How can you say that all evil is material evil, and will not do reverence to that Wood by which the whole material world was sanctified?’

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.