Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirty-Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 61]. Beloved:

4 ¹Since then Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same thinking, for the one who suffereth in the flesh hath ceased from sin, ²in order that he should no longer live the remaining time in the flesh to the desires of men, but to the will of God. ³For the time of your life which hath passed away was sufficient for you to have wrought the will of the nations and to have walked in licentiousness, desires, drunkennesses, revellings, carousals, and lawless idolatries, ⁴in which they are astonished by the strangeness of your not running with them to the same excess of profligacy, blaspheming. ⁵They shall render an account to Him Who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶For to this end was the Gospel preached also to the dead, in order that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but be living according to God in the spirit.

⁷But the end of all things hath drawn near. Be therefore sober-minded and watchful in the prayers. ⁸And before all things have fervent love among yourselves, for “love shall cover a multitude of sins [cf. Prov. 10:12].” ⁹Be hospitable to one another, without murmurings. ¹⁰According as each one received a free gift, minister the same to one another, as good stewards of the diversified grace of God. ¹¹If anyone speak, let it be as the words of God; if anyone minister, let it be as from strength which God supplieth, in order that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Whom is the glory and the might to the ages of the ages. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 51]. The Lord said:

For Gk. usage, see Mk. 11:22-26; for Sl. usage, see Mk. 11:23-26.

11 ²²“Be having faith in God. ²³“For verily I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, ‘Be thou taken away and be thou cast into the sea,’ and doubt not in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith is coming to pass, it shall be to him whatsoever he shall say. ²⁴“On this account I say to you, all things, whatsoever ye ask for yourselves when ye pray, keep on believing that ye are receiving them, and they shall be to you. ²⁵“And whenever ye stand praying, be forgiving if ye have anything against anyone, in order that your Father Who is in the heavens might also forgive your transgressions. ²⁶“But if ye forgive not, neither will your Father Who is in the heavens forgive your transgressions.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

23. The commemoration of Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ankyra.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 246]. Brethren:

3 ²⁰Our citizenship existeth in the heavens, from where we also patiently await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹Who shall transform the body of our humiliation, that it may become conformed to the body of His glory, according to the energy of Him Who is able even to subject all things to Himself.

4 ¹Therefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, thus be standing in the Lord, beloved ones. ²I beseech Evodia and I beseech Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord; ³yea, I ask thee also, genuine yoke-fellow, keep on assisting those women who struggled together with me in the Gospel, and Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

for Sl. usage, see [Heb. 13:7-16].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 10]. At that time:

2 ²³During the sabbath days Jesus was going along through the sown fields; and His disciples began to make their way plucking the ears of grain. ²⁴And the Pharisees were saying to Him, “Behold, why do they that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?” ²⁵And He was saying to them, “Did ye not ever read what David did when he had need and hungered, he and those with him: ²⁶“how he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the loaves set forth before the presence of God, which it is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” ²⁷And He was saying to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. ²⁸“Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

3 ¹And He entered again into the synagogue; and a man was there whose hand had been withered. ²And they were watching Him closely, whether He would cure him on the sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him. ³And He saith to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand in the midst.” ⁴And He saith to them, “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵And having looked round about on them with wrath, being grieved for the hardness of their heart, He saith to the man, “Stretch forth thy hand.” And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored sound as the other.

for Sl. usage, see [Jn. 10:9-16].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 5th – Civil Calendar
January 23rd – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ankyra.

He was born in 258 in the town of Ankyra of a pagan father and a Christian mother. His devout mother, Ephrosyne, prophesied a martyr’s death for her son, and left this world when Clement was twelve years old. Her friend Sophia took Clement into her own home as her son and saw that he was brought up a Christian. Clement became so famed for his virtuous life that he was chosen as bishop of Ankyra at the age of twenty. He acquired a mature wisdom in his early years, and harnessed and conquered his body by great restraint. He ate only bread and vegetables, and never anything slaughtered or with blood. In the reign of Diocletian, he was tortured as terribly ‘as anyone has ever been since the foundation of the world’. He spent twenty-eight years under torture and imprisonment. Eleven different torturers tormented him. One time when they were smiting him on the face, spitting on him and breaking his teeth, he cried out to Domentian the torturer: ‘You are doing me honor, O Domentian, not torturing me; for the mouth of my Lord Jesus Christ was struck in like manner, and His cheeks slapped; and lo, I, unworthy as I am, am now made worthy of this!’ When he was brought before the Emperor Diocletian in Rome, the emperor placed on one side various instruments of torture, and on the other side gifts—medals, clothing, money—whatever the emperor was able to bestow, and then told Clement to choose. Christ’s martyr, with a scornful glance at all the emperor’s gifts, chose the instruments of torture. And he was terribly tortured; piece by piece the flesh was flayed from his body until the bones showed white beneath. He was healed of these wounds, and was finally beheaded by a soldier in 312, while he was presiding at the Liturgy as bishop in the church in Ankyra. St. Clement’s miracles are without number.

2. Commemoration of the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

Held in Constantinople in 680-681 and 692, this council condemned the Monothelite heresy, which held the erroneous teaching that there is in Christ only a divine will and not a human one. In addition to that, it made some rulings concerning the order and discipline of the clergy.

3. St. Paulinus the Merciful.

He was first a Roman senator and then Bishop of Nola. Following the example of his friend, St. Ambrose, he received Baptism, after which he withdrew to the Spanish Pyrenees, where he lived a life of asceticism. But, as no light can be hidden, so St. Paulinus was found and chosen as Bishop of Nola. He was a good and merciful shepherd, and entered peacefully into rest in the year 431. His relics are preserved in the Church of St. Bartholomew in Rome.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Compassion has always been a characteristic of a true pastor of Christ’s flock. In his sermons, St. John Chrysostom stressed and praised nothing more strongly than compassion. St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, bewailed every day in which he was not given the opportunity to show mercy to someone. St. Paulinus was deservedly called the Merciful, for he was truly merciful in the fullest Christian meaning of the word. One time, when the Vandals were looting Nola, they also took many people into slavery. A certain widow, whose only son the Vandal prince, Rig, had carried away into slavery, came to her bishop, and in tears, sought money of him to buy her son back. Having nothing, the bishop dressed himself in the garments of a poor man and told the widow to take him before the prince and exchange him for her son. The prince returned her son to her and took Paulinus off to Africa, where he served as the prince’s gardener until he was freed by the providence of God and returned to Nola with the rest of the slaves.

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.