Daily Devotional

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 (NS), February 6, 2025 (OS)

Fast Day, but Wine and Olive Oil Allowed.

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fifth Week

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord, and our holy father among the saints, Bucolos, Bishop of Smyrna, and Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople and the Equal-to-the-apostles.

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Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint John [§ 73].

For Gk. usage, see 1 Jn. 3:21-4:11; for Sl. usage, see 1 Jn. 3:21-4:6.

3 ²¹Beloved, if our heart be not condemning us, we have boldness toward God. ²²And whatsoever we may ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing before Him. ²³And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and be loving one another, even as He gave us commandment. ²⁴And the one keeping His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit Whom He gave to us.

4 ¹Beloved, cease believing every spirit, but keep on putting the spirits to the test, if they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²In this know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh is of God; ³and every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ hath come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of the antichrist, which ye have heard that it is coming, and now already it is in the world. ⁴Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is the One in you than the one in the world. ⁵They are of the world; therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them. ⁶We are of God: the one knowing God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷Beloved, let us be loving one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loveth hath been born of God and knoweth God. ⁸The one who loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. ⁹In this was manifest the love of God among us, because God hath sent forth His only-begotten Son into the world, in order that we might live through Him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He Himself loved us, and sent forth His Son to be an expiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 65]. At that time:

14 ⁴³While Jesus spoke to the disciples, there came up Judas the Iscariote, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. ⁴⁴And the one who delivered Him up had given a signal to them, saying, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, it is He Himself; lay hold of Him and lead Him away safely.” ⁴⁵And having come, straightway, he went to Him and saith, “Hail, Rabbi!” and ardently kissed Him. ⁴⁶And they laid their hands upon Him and seized Him. ⁴⁷And a certain one of those who stood by drew the sword and struck the slave of the high priest, and took off his ear. ⁴⁸And Jesus answered and said to them, “As against a robber ye came out with swords and clubs to arrest Me. ⁴⁹“Daily I was with you in the temple teaching, and ye did not lay hold of Me. But it is that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” ⁵⁰And having left Him, they all fled. ⁵¹Now a certain young man was following Him, having a linen cloth thrown about over his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, ⁵²but he left behind the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

⁵³And they led Jesus away to the high priest; and there came together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. ⁵⁴And Peter followed Him from afar, even to inside the court of the high priest. And he was sitting together with the servants, and warming himself by the light of the fire. ⁵⁵And the chief priests and the whole sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus, in order to put Him to death; and they were not finding any. ⁵⁶For many were bearing false witness against Him, but their testimonies were not alike. ⁵⁷And some rose up and were bearing false witness against Him, saying, ⁵⁸“We heard Him saying, ‘I will destroy this temple, the one made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” ⁵⁹And not even so was their testimony alike. ⁶⁰And the high priest stood up in the midst and questioned Jesus, saying, “Answerest Thou nothing? What is it which these bear witness against?” ⁶¹But He was silent, and answered nothing. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saith to Him, “Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” ⁶²And Jesus said, “I am; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right of the power, and coming on the clouds of the heaven.” ⁶³And the high priest, having torn his tunics, saith, “What need have we still of witnesses? ⁶⁴“Ye heard the blasphemy; what doth it appear to you?” And they all condemned Him to be liable to the penalty of death. ⁶⁵And some began to spit upon Him, and to cover His face all around, and to buffet Him, and to say to Him, “Prophesy to us: Who is the one that smote Thee?” And the servants were striking Him with slaps on the face with the palms of their hands.

⁶⁶And as Peter was in the court below, there cometh one of the young maidservants of the high priest. ⁶⁷And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “Thou also wast with Jesus the Nazarene.” ⁶⁸But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor even understand what thou sayest.” And he went forth outside to the forecourt, and a cock crowed. ⁶⁹And the young maidservant, having seen him again, began to say to those standing by, “This is one of them.” ⁷⁰And again he kept on denying it. And a little after, again, they who stood by were saying to Peter, “Truly thou art one of them; for thou art also a Galilæan, and thy mode of speech is like one.” ⁷¹But he began to curse and to swear, saying, “I know not this Man of Whom ye speak.” ⁷²And for the second time a cock crowed. And Peter was reminded of the word which Jesus said to him, “Before a cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice.” And having thought thereon, he began to weep.

15 ¹And straightway in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole sanhedrin, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

Epistle

For St. Photios:

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)

February 19th – Civil Calendar
February 6th – Church Calendar

1. St. Boukolos (Bucolus), Bishop of Smyrna.

He was a disciple of St. John the Theologian, who consecrated him bishop of the city of Smyrna. There were few baptized Christians in Smyrna, and St. Boukolos shone like a lamp in the pagan darkness. He was adorned with all the virtues, especially gentleness and meekness. Before his death, Boukolos named the famous Polycarp as his successor in the episcopate. Then he peacefully departed this life and went to the Lord.

2. The Holy Martyr Fausta.

Suffering for Christ in the reign of the Emperor Maximian (between 305 and 311), she made her torturers marvel by her heroism and brought them to the Christian Faith. These were the eighty-year-old pagan priest Evilasius, and Maximus the Eparch. When the judge threatened Fausta with even harsher tortures, she asked him to have a picture of her made, showing her enduring all the tortures with which he was threatening her. When it was ready and shown to her, holy Fausta said: ‘As this picture feels no torture, so my body does not feel the torture of your punishments, for my soul is established in the Lord.’ The judge cast her into a cauldron of boiling water, where this thirteen-year-old girl departed this life with prayer on her lips, and went to Paradise.

3. The Holy Martyr Dorothea.

She was an eminent and beautiful maiden from Caesarea in Cappadocia. The administrator of the district, Saprikios, gave Dorothea into the care of two pagan sisters, Christina and Kallista, to turn her from Christ. But it happened the other way around: Dorothea succeeded in bringing both sisters to the Christian Faith. Saprikios in fury ordered that the sisters be tied together back to back, cast into a vat of pitch and then set alight. He then condemned Dorothea to death. She listened to the sentence with joy and cried out: ‘I thank Thee, O Christ, Thou Lover of souls, that Thou callest me to Thy Paradise and leadest me to Thy most holy court!’ A nobleman, Theophilus, who was present laughed at these words and called out to Dorothea: ‘Here, you bride of Christ; send me apples and wild roses from your Bridegroom’s paradise!’ ‘Yes; I’ll do that!’ the martyr replied. When Dorothea was at the place of execution, a handsome youth suddenly appeared with three marvelous apples and three red wild roses. This was an angel from God, and it was winter-time. At Dorothea’s bidding, the angel took them to Theophilus and said: ‘Here is what you asked for.’ When Theophilus received the message and saw the gift, he was very much afraid. Everything within him turned topsy-turvy, and he rejected paganism and became a Christian. He was tortured and killed for Christ, and his soul quickly followed Dorothea’s to the Lord’s Paradise.

4. St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople.

A great light in the Church, he was a kinsman of the emperor and grandson of the famous Patriarch Tarasios. He was reputed to be the wisest and most intelligent person in the empire, and was an instructor of many in Constantinople on subjects that ranged from secular science to the most sublime types of theology. He was a forceful protector of the Church from the power-seeking of the pope and other Roman perverters of the Faith. He passed through all the ranks from layman to patriarch in six days, being made patriarch on the Nativity of Christ in 858. He departed this life in the Lord in about 895.

5. Our Holy Fathers Barsanuphius and John.

Great ascetics from Gaza, gifted with insight and wonder-working power, they left us a well-known book of answers to various questions on the spiritual life. They lived in the sixth century.

6. The Holy Martyrs Martha and Mary and their brother Lycarion.

All three were crucified for Christ, then stabbed to death with a lance.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Barsanuphius, who spent fifty years shut in his cell forbidding himself the sight of a single man, attained through the grace of God gifts of discernment and clairvoyance. Here are some of the thoughts from his book Answers: ‘Every thought that is not preceded by the silence of humility does not originate in God. All that happens with confusion and bustle is of the devil.’ ‘When you pray, and God is slow to hear you, He does this for your good, to help you learn patience.’ ‘Visible robbers are the servants of invisible robbers in the thoughts.’ ‘The Lord Jesus Christ endured all things and finally ascended onto the holy Cross, which brought about the death of the body and the passions, and a holy and perfect rest.’ ‘The Lord desires you to reverence every man more greatly than yourself.’ When the elder was asked if he would use the services of a paid advocate in a dispute in which the monastery was engaged, he replied: ‘If you buy the advocacy of men, God will not be your advocate (lawyer).’

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.