Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 275].

2 ¹Brethren, we beseech you with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together before Him, ²in order that ye be not quickly shaken from your reason, nor to be stirred—neither by a spirit, nor by a word, nor by an epistle as if by us—as if the day of Christ hath arrived. ³Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day shall not come unless the apostasy should come first, and the man of the sin be revealed, the son of the perdition, ⁴who opposeth and exalteth himself above all which is called God or an object of worship, so as for him to sit in the temple of God as God, showing himself that he is God. ⁵Do ye not remember that when I was yet with you I was telling you these things? ⁶And now ye know that which restraineth, in order that he be revealed in his own time. ⁷For the mystery of the lawlessness already is energizing itself, only there is the one who restraineth now, until he should come to be taken out of the midst. ⁸And then the lawless one shall be revealed—whom the Lord shall destroy by the breath of His mouth, and shall bring to nought by the manifestation of His coming— ⁹whose coming is according to the energy of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰and in all deceit of the unrighteousness in those who are perishing, because they received not the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. ¹¹And on this account God shall send to them an influence of error for them to believe the lie, ¹²that they all might be judged who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in the unrighteousness.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 99]. At that time:

20 ¹As Jesus taught the people in the temple and preached the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes, with the elders, suddenly came upon Him, ²and spoke to Him, saying, “Tell us, by what authority doest Thou these things? Or who is the one who gave Thee this authority?” ³And He answered and said to them, “I also will question you for one word, and tell Me: ⁴“The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?” ⁵And they deduced for themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did ye not believe him?’ ⁶“But if we should say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death; for they have been persuaded that John was a prophet.” ⁷And they answered that they knew not from what place it was. ⁸And Jesus said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy venerable Martyr Stephen the new of Mt. Afxentios, and of the holy Martyr Irenarchos and Seven Women Martyrs at Sebaste.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 291]. Child Timothy:

1 ⁸Do thou not become ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me His prisoner, but suffer hardship with the Gospel, according to God’s power, ⁹Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, ¹⁰but now hath been made manifest by the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who brought death to nought indeed and brought to light life and incorruption through the Gospel, ¹¹to which I was appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of nations. ¹²For which cause I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have believed, and have been persuaded that He is able to guard the deposit entrusted to me until that day. ¹³Keep on holding fast an outline of sound words which thou heardest from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard thou the good deposit entrusted to thee through the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.

¹⁵This thou knowest, that all they who are in Asia were turned away from me, of whom are Phygellos and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphoros, for many times he refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; ¹⁷but having been in Rome, he sought me out most diligently and found me— ¹⁸may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord in that day—and in how many things he ministered in Ephesus thou knowest better than I need say.

Gospel

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

10 ²³“Whenever they persecute you in this city, flee ye to another; for verily I say to you, in no wise shall ye finish the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man should come. ²⁴“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his lord. ²⁵“It is enough for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the slave as his lord. If they called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of His household? ²⁶“Therefore do not become afraid of them. For nothing is covered which shall not be uncovered, and hidden which shall not be known. ²⁷“What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops. ²⁸“And do not become afraid because of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear the One Who is able to send away both soul and body into Gehenna. ²⁹“Two little sparrows are sold for an assarium, are they not? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. ³⁰“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹“Therefore do not become afraid; ye excel many sparrows.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 11th – Civil Calendar
November 28th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Stephen the New.

As aforetime Hannah the mother of Samuel, so Anna the mother of Stephen prayed God to give her a son. Praying thus at one time in the Vlachernai church in front of the icon of the most holy Mother of God, a light sleep fell on her in which she saw the holy Virgin, radiant like the sun, and heard her voice: ‘Woman, go in peace; in fulfillment of your prayer, you have a son in your womb.’ Anna indeed conceived and bore a son, this holy Stephen. He received the monastic schema at the age of sixteen on Mount St. Auxentius near Constantinople, at the hands of the elder John, from whom he learned divine wisdom and asceticism. When John entered into rest in the Lord, Stephen remained on that mountain in strict asceticism, taking on himself labor upon labor. His holiness drew many disciples to him. When the Emperor Constantine Kopronymos began to persecute the icons even more ferociously than his foul father, Leo the Isaurian, Stephen showed himself to be a zealous defender of the veneration of the holy icons. The demented emperor listened to various slanders against Stephen, and himself devised a number of intrigues, solely to break Stephen and to get him out of the way. Stephen was exiled to the island of Prokonnesos, and then taken to Constantinople, put in chains and cast into prison. There he met three hundred and forty-two captive monks, brought from all ends of the kingdom and thrown into prison for their veneration of icons. In the prison, they followed the whole order of church services as in a monastery. The wicked emperor condemned Stephen to death. The saint foresaw his death forty days before, and took his leave of the brethren. The emperor’s servants took him from the prison, and beating and buffeting him, dragged him through the streets of Constantinople, calling on all who were on the emperor’s side to stone this ‘enemy of the emperor’. One of the heretics aimed a blow at the saint’s head with a piece of wood, and the saint breathed his last. As Stephen the Protomartyr had suffered at the hands of the Jews, so this Stephen suffered at the hands of the iconoclast heretics. This glorious soldier of Christ suffered in the year 767, at the age of fifty-three, and was crowned with unfading glory.

2. Our Holy Mother Anna.

A woman of gentle birth, she was tonsured as a nun by St. Stephen the New after her husband’s death. The Emperor Kopronymos urged her to say that she had had physical relations with St. Stephen, in order to humiliate him before the people, but this holy woman refused to become involved in the emperor’s intrigues against the saint, whom she venerated as her spiritual father. She was whipped for this, and then thrown into prison, where she gave her holy soul into God’s hands.

3. The Holy New-martyr Christos.

He was an Albanian Christian living in Constantinople, and was a gardener by profession. In the course of selling his fruit, he incurred the resentment of a Turk who slandered him to the judge, saying that he had promised to embrace Islam and then retracted. After interrogation, he was put in chains and thrown into prison. In prison, he was urged to eat, but he refused, saying: ‘It is better for me to go before my Christ fasting.’ After that, he took out some money that he had concealed under his belt, and gave it to one of the captives with the request that he use it for several liturgies to be celebrated for his soul. He was beheaded by the Turks in 1748, and was glorified forever in the kingdom of Christ our God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The reading of examples of steadfastness in the Faith and the greatness of soul of the saints of God makes us steadfast in faith and great of soul. When Kopronymos’ men urged St. Stephen to reject the veneration of icons and thus please the iconoclast emperor, Stephen stretched out his hand, clenched his fist and said: ‘If I had in myself only a fistful of blood, I would shed it for the icon of Christ!’

The Emperor Maurice had six sons, of which the sixth and youngest was not yet weaned. For this youngest son, the emperor kept a wet-nurse at the court to feed it. A harsh end overtook the Emperor Maurice: Phokas dethroned him and condemned him to death together with all his six sons. The six boys were flogged one after the other before their father’s eyes. When the nurse had to hand over the youngest to be murdered, she, with true greatness of soul, mourned over the outcome of the unhappy emperor and his children, and at that moment resolved to preserve one of them alive. So, when they went to drag the child from her breast, she handed over her own son, and he was beheaded. Finally, the Emperor Maurice was himself beheaded. The emperor’s youngest son grew up believing his nurse to be his mother. When she revealed the secret to him, he became very serious, then deliberately left the world and withdrew to Mount Sinai, where he became a monk and consecrated himself to God, that he might in this way requite the innocent baby that had been put to death in his place.

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.