Daily Devotional

Sunday, June 8, 2025 (NS), May 26, 2025 (OS)

No Fasting.

Eighth Sunday, or the Sunday of Holy Pentecost

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Karpos of the Seventy.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Eighth Sunday, or the Sunday of Holy Pentecost

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 3].

2 ¹While the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all with one accord in the same place. ²And suddenly there came to be a sound out of the heaven, like as of a violent wind borne along, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³And there appeared to them tongues, as if of fire, being distributed; and it sat upon each one of them. ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, even as the Spirit was giving them to utter. ⁵And there were Jews abiding in Jerusalem, pious men, from every nation of those under the heaven. ⁶And the report of this having arisen, the multitude came together and was confounded, because they were hearing, each one of them, speaking in his own dialect. ⁷And they were all amazed and wondering, saying to one another, “Behold, all these who are speaking are Galilæans, are they not? ⁸“And how do we each hear in our own dialect in which we were born? ⁹“Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those who dwell in Mesopotamia, also Judæa and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, ¹⁰“also Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya which are in the region of Cyrene, and the Romans, both Jews and proselytes, who sojourn here, ¹¹“Cretans and Arabians—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the magnificent works of God.”

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 65].

20 ¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first of the week—and the doors were closed where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews—Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith to them, “Peace be to you.” ²⁰And after He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, after they saw the Lord. ²¹Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; even as the Father hath sent Me forth, I also send you.” ²²And after He said this, He breathed on them, and saith to them, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: ²³“if ye forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven to them; if ye retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 27].

7 ³⁷In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus was standing and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸“The one who believeth in Me, even as the Scripture said—rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly.” ³⁹But this He said concerning the Spirit, Whom those who believe in Him were about to receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. ⁴⁰Many therefore of the crowd, having heard the utterance, were saying, “This is truly the Prophet.” ⁴¹Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” But others were saying, “The Christ is not coming out of Galilee, is He? ⁴²“Hath not the Scripture said that of the seed of David and from the village of Bethlehem, where David was, the Christ is coming?” ⁴³Therefore a division occurred in the crowd on account of Him. ⁴⁴And some of them were wishing to lay hold of Him, but no one laid hands on Him. ⁴⁵Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did ye not bring Him?” ⁴⁶The officers answered, “Never did a man so speak as this Man.” ⁴⁷Then the Pharisees answered them, “Ye have not also been deceived, have ye? ⁴⁸“Not one of the rulers believe in Him or of the Pharisees, doth he? ⁴⁹“But this people who knoweth not the law are accursed!” ⁵⁰Nicodemos (the one who came by night to Him, being one of them) saith to them, ⁵¹“Our law doth not judge the man, unless it should first hear him, and know from the man himself what he doeth, doth it?” ⁵²They answered and said to him, “Thou art not also of Galilee, art thou? Search and look, for a prophet hath not been raised out of Galilee.”...

8 ¹²Then Jesus spoke again to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; the one who followeth Me in no wise shall walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of the life.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Karpos of the Seventy.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 8th – Civil Calendar
May 26th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Carpus.

One of the Seventy, he was a follower and companion of the Apostle Paul, who installed him as Bishop of Varna in Thrace. But he also preached the Gospel in Crete, where he was host to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. St. Dionysius testifies that he was a man with an exceptionally pure mind, of great humility and guilelessness. He further relates how the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to Carpus in a vision with His angels, and how he never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision. He endured many assaults for the name of Christ, and finally suffered at the hands of the faithless Jews and was murdered. His soul entered into the kingdom of God, to delight forever in the vision of the Lord in glory.

2. The Holy Apostle Alphaeus.

He was the father of two of the Twelve Apostles: Iakovos the son of Alphaeus, and Matthew the Evangelist. He entered peacefully into rest.

3. Our Holy Father John of Psychaita.

He left the world at an early age and retired to the Lavra of Psychaita in Constantinople, where he labored in asceticism for many years for the love of Christ. He was exiled in the eighth century for his veneration of the holy icons.

4. The Holy New-Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica.

This martyr of Christ’s was born in Thessalonica during the Turkish oppression. He was tricked by the Turks as a young man into accepting Islam, and at first his conscience did not trouble him for such an act, and he went on pilgrimage with some other Moslem pilgrims and became a dervish. But, living as a dervish in Thessalonica, he began to repent bitterly, and in his repentance the thought came to him that there was no way in which he could cleanse himself from the terrible sin except with his own blood. So, having repented and resolved on martyrdom, he appeared before the Turks dressed as a Christian. They threw him into prison and put him to various tortures. But Alexander would only cry out: ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die!’ Finally the Turks sentenced him to death, which filled the repentant Alexander with joy, realizing that the sentence was a sign of God’s forgiveness of his sins and acceptance of his sacrifice. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794, and was glorified in the Church both in heaven and on earth.

FOR CONSIDERATION

We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord Who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, one a pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St. Carpus related this event to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).

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.