Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Sixth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 43]. In those days:

20 ⁷On the first day of the week, after the disciples gathered together to break bread, Paul, who was about to depart on the morrow, kept on discoursing to them; and he was extending the discourse until midnight. ⁸And there were a considerable number of lamps in the upper room where they were assembled. ⁹And a certain young man, by name Eftychos, who sat on the window sill, was borne down by deep sleep. As Paul discoursed yet longer, because he was borne down by sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. ¹⁰And Paul went down, and fell upon him, and having embraced him, said, “Cease being clamorous; for his life is in him.” ¹¹And after he went up, and broke bread and tasted food, he conversed for a considerable time until dawn, and so he went forth. ¹²And they brought the boy alive, and were not a little comforted.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 48]. The Lord said to His disciples:

14 ¹⁰“The words which I speak to you I speak not from Myself; but the Father Who abideth in Me, He doeth the works. ¹¹“Keep on believing Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; otherwise keep on believing Me on account of the works themselves. ¹²“Verily, verily, I say to you, the one who believeth in Me, the works which I do shall that one do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to My Father. ¹³“And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, this will I do, that the Father might be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴“If ye should ask anything in My name, I will do it.

¹⁵“If ye love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶“And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷“the Spirit of the truth, Whom the world is not able to receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He abideth by you, and shall be in you. ¹⁸“I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹“Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no longer, but ye see Me; because I live, ye shall live also. ²⁰“In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. ²¹“The one who hath My commandments and keepeth them, that one is the one who loveth Me. And the one who loveth Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Peter, Dionysios, Andrew, Paul, Christine, Herakleos, Paulinos, and Venedimos, and the seven Virgin-martyrs at Ankyra in Galatia, Tekouse, Alexandra, Claudia, Phaenee, Ephrasia, Matrona, and Julia, and the holy Martyr Theodotos.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 31st – Civil Calendar
May 18th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Theodotus, and the seven maiden martyrs: Tecusa, Alexandra, Claudia, Favina, Euphrasia, Matrona and Julia.

Theodotus was a married man and an innkeeper in Ankyra in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Although he was married, he lived according to the words of the apostle: ‘They who have wives be as though they did not have’ (I Cor. 7:29). But he kept the inn open, in order to be able unsuspectedly to help Christians, and his inn was a refuge for persecuted Christians. Theodotus secretly sent help to the Christian refugees in the mountains, and secretly gathered the bodies of those who had been killed, giving them burial. At that time, seven maidens were taken for trial and tortured for Christ. They were tortured, mocked and then thrown into a lake. One of them, St. Tecusa, appeared to St. Theodotus and told him to take her body out of the lake and bury it. Under cover of night, Theodotus set off with a companion to carry out the martyr’s wishes, and led by an angel of God, succeeded in finding all seven bodies and burying them. But this friend betrayed him to the authorities and the judge put him to harsh torture. Theodotus endured all the tortures as though not in his own body, having his whole mind steeped in God. When the torturers had made his body one great wound and broken his teeth with stones, it was ordered that he be beheaded. When he was taken to the scaffold, many Christians wept for him, but St. Theodotus said to them: ‘Don’t weep for me, my brethren, but glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whose aid I am finishing my course and overcoming the enemy.’ Saying this, he laid his head on the block under the sword and was beheaded, in the year 303. A priest buried the martyr’s body on a hill outside the city and a church dedicated to St. Theodotus was later built on the site.

2. The Holy Martyrs Peter, Dionysius, Andrew, Paul and Christina.

Peter was a young and gifted man; Dionysius was a nobleman; Andrew and Paul were soldiers; and Christina was a sixteen-year-old girl. They all courageously confessed Christ the Lord and underwent torture and death for His name in the year 250. One Nicomachus, who was tortured with them, denied Christ under torture, and instantly lost his mind, tearing at his body with his teeth and foaming at the mouth until he breathed his last.

3. The Holy Martyrs Herakleios, Paulinos and Benedimos.

They were Athenians, and suffered for the Faith in the time of Decius. They were thrown into a burning furnace for the name of Christ.

4. St. Stephen, Patriarch of Constantinople.

The son of the Emperor Basil the Macedonian and brother of Leo the Wise, he came to the patriarchal throne after Photius, and governed the Church of God from 886 to 893. He died peacefully, and went to the Lord Whom he had greatly loved.

FOR CONSIDERATION

To hide one’s virtues and ascetic practices has been normal with ascetics, not only in the first periods of Christianity but also through the ages to the present day. Evdokia, the wife of the famous Prince Dimitri of the Don, the liberator of Russia from the Tartars, was left a widow in 1389, while still fairly young. Imbued with devotion, this princess built churches, gave alms and secretly wore her body out with fastings and vigils. She wore iron chains around her body. However, she showed a smiling face to the world and dressed luxuriously, decking herself with pearls. The world said all sorts of things about her; voices began to be raised about her immoral life. Her sons came to hear about this, and insultingly and bitterly told their mother openly what was being said about her. Their mother undid her luxurious robe and her sons saw, with great amazement, her body all shrivelled and dried up, and bound with iron chains.

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.