Daily Devotional

Tuesday, December 3, 2024 (NS), November 20, 2024 (OS)

Fast Day, but Fish, Wine and Olive Oil Allowed.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

The commemoration of the Forefeast of the Entrance of the Virgin into the Temple, and our venerable Father Gregory the Decapolite, and our father among the saints, Proklos, Archbishop of Constantinople.

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Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 268]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see 1 Thess. 3:8-13; for Sl. usage, see 1 Thess. 3:9-13.

3 ⁸Now we live, if ye be standing fast in the Lord. ⁹For what giving of thanks are we able to render to God concerning you, for all the joy with which we rejoice on account of you before our God, ¹⁰night and day entreating exceedingly in order to see your face and to instruct the deficiencies of your faith? ¹¹Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, make straight our way toward you. ¹²And may the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all, even as we do also toward you, ¹³to the end that He might establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 87]. The Lord said:

17 ²⁶“Even as it came to pass in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷“They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed all. ²⁸“In like manner also as it came to pass in the days of Lot: They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; ²⁹“but on the day Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed all. ³⁰“In the same way shall it be in the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹“In that day, he who shall be on the housetop, and his vessels in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And the one in the field, likewise let him not return to the things behind. ³²“Be remembering the wife of Lot. ³³“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it shall preserve it alive. ³⁴“I say to you, in that night there shall be two upon one bed: one shall be taken and the other shall be left. ³⁵“Two women shall be grinding in the same place: one shall be taken and the other shall be left. ³⁶“Two shall be in the field: one shall be taken and the other shall be left.” ³⁷And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Wheresoever the body is, there also the eagles will be gathered together....

18 ⁸“However, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 36]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

10 ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰“The thief cometh not, except that he might steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. ¹²“But the hireling, who indeed is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth the sheep. ¹³“Now the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not about the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are Mine, and am known of those that are Mine. ¹⁵“Even as the Father knoweth Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also it is needful for Me to bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 3rd – Civil Calendar
November 20th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Gregory of Decapolis.

He was born in Isaurian Decapolis of eminent and devout parents, Sergius and Maria. When he had finished his schooling, his parents desired him to marry, but he fled to the desert and became a monk. He lived in various places: in Byzantium and Rome, and on Mount Olympus. Wherever he found himself, he made men marvel by his asceticism and miracles. It happened at times that his face was lit up with heavenly light, and that angels of God appeared to him; he looked upon the beauty of the angels and heard their blessed singing. He lived a long and godly life, and died peacefully in Constantinople in the ninth century, his soul entering into the joy of his Lord.

2. St. Proklos (Proclus), Patriarch of Constantinople.

A disciple of St. John Chrysostom, he was consecrated Bishop of Kyzikos in 426, and in 435 was chosen as Patriarch of Constantinople. He governed the Church of God as a wise hierarch. In his time, two unusual events occurred. The first was the translation of the relics of St. John Chrysostom from Comana to Constantinople, at the desire of both the emperor and the patriarch (the Emperor Theodosios the Younger was on the throne at that time, with his sister Pulcheria).

The second event was the earthquake in Constantinople and the surrounding country. Many of the greatest and most beautiful buildings fell in the terrible earthquake. Then the patriarch, together with the emperor and many of the clergy, the nobles and the people, made a procession. While they were praying in this procession, a child was miraculously lifted up high into the air, finally becoming invisible to the eye. It then returned, and landed gently on the ground. Asked where he had been, the child replied that he had been lifted up to heaven among the angels, and had heard them sing: ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us!’ Hearing this song, all the people in the procession began to sing it, and the earthquake ceased at once. From that time, this wonderful hymn was adopted by the Church. The boy soon died and was buried in the Church of St. Irene.

St. Proklos served as hierarch for twenty years, and entered peacefully into rest in the Lord in 446.

3. The Holy Martyrs Efstathios, Thespesios and Anatolios.

These three were brothers from Nikomedia, of pagan parents, Philotheos and Evsevia, who, together with their three sons, later received the true Faith from Anthimos, Bishop of Nikomedia. Philotheos was ordained priest. When he and his wife had died, a terrible persecution broke out under the Emperor Maximian, and Philotheos’ three sons were taken for trial. Tried, interrogated and tortured in various ways, they were finally condemned to death. Angels appeared to them many times in the prison, giving them manna for food and filling their youthful hearts with strength and courage in endurance. When they were led out to the scaffold, two of their friends, Palladios and Akakios, came up to them and began to speak with them. While they were still talking, the holy martyrs gave their souls into God’s hands. The soldiers then beheaded their dead bodies, and carried them off to show the judge. They suffered for Christ the Lord in about 313, and entered into the eternal kingdom of Christ.

4. St. Isaac, Archbishop of Armenia.

He was born in Constantinople at the time that his father was an envoy from the King of Armenia to the Byzantine court. He was the tenth Archbishop of Armenia, and as such governed the Church for fifty years. His episcopate was distinguished, among other things, by the translation of the Scriptures into Armenian. He was told in a vision that Armenia would, one day, fall away from the pure, Orthodox Faith. This great hierarch entered peacefully into rest in 440, and went to the Lord.

5. The Holy Persian Maidens Thekla, Vaoutha, and Denahis.

In the days of King Sapor, these three maidens were persecuted as Christians and finally beheaded with knives. Three fig trees grew over their graves, the fruits of which healed all manner of pains and ills.

FOR CONSIDERATION

No other mortal man has interpreted the Epistles of the Apostle Paul with so much depth and love as St. John Chrysostom. If St. Paul had interpreted them himself, he could have done no better. Lo, history tells us that it was St. Paul himself who interpreted them through the mind and pen of St. Chrysostom. When St. Proklos was a novice with Patriarch Chrysostom, his obedience was to keep him informed of visitors. A certain noble was slandered to the Emperor Arkadios, and the emperor drove him from the court. This nobleman came to beg St. John to be an intermediary between himself and the emperor. Proklos went to inform the patriarch, but looking through the open door, he saw a man leaning over the patriarch and whispering in his ear while he was writing. This went on throughout the night. St. Proklos told the nobleman to come again the next evening, and himself wondered how that man managed to be with the patriarch, and how he could have got to him unannounced. The same thing happened the next night, and Proklos wondered the more. It continued a third night, and he was utterly astounded. When St. Chrysostom asked him if such and such a nobleman had come, Proklos replied that he had been waiting three nights already, but that he, Proklos, had not dared to disturb him because of the elderly, bald stranger who had been whispering in the patriarch’s ear for the whole three nights. The astonished Chrysostom said that he had been unaware of anyone’s having been with him the preceding three nights. When he asked the novice for a description of the elder, Proklos indicated the icon of the holy Apostle Paul, and said that the man had been like him. It had obviously been the Apostle Paul himself, directing the pen of his great interpreter.

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.