Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Ninth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 155].

14 ⁶Brethren, if I should come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophecy, or in teaching? ⁷Likewise, when lifeless things give a sound, whether flute or harp, if a distinction is never given in the sounds, how shall it be known what is being piped or being harped? ⁸For also if a trumpet should give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for war? ⁹Thus also, unless by the tongue ye should give an easily understood speech, how shall it be known what is being spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. ¹⁰There are, if it should happen, so many kinds of speech in the world, and none of them is without its distinctive sound. ¹¹Therefore, if I do not know the force of the speech, I shall be a barbarian to the one who speaketh, and the one who speaketh shall be a barbarian to me. ¹²Even so ye, since ye are zealots of spiritual gifts, keep on seeking that ye may abound to the building up of the Church. ¹³Wherefore let the one who speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I should pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. ¹⁵What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the understanding. I will chant with the spirit, and I will chant also with the understanding. ¹⁶Else if thou bless with the spirit, how shall the one who filleth the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at thy giving of thanks, since what thou sayest he knoweth not? ¹⁷For thou indeed givest thanks well, but the other is not being edified. ¹⁸I thank my God I speak with tongues more than all of you; ¹⁹but in the church I wish to speak five words with my understanding, in order that I might instruct others also, than myriads of words in a tongue.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 81]. At that time:

20 ¹⁷When Jesus went up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples apart in the way and said to them, ¹⁸“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, ¹⁹“and shall deliver Him up to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He shall raise Himself.” ²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Him with her sons, making obeisance and asking something from Him. ²¹And He said to her, “What dost thou wish?” She saith to Him, “Command that these two sons of mine might sit, one on Thy right and one on Thy left, in Thy kingdom.” ²²But Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask for yourselves. Are ye able to drink the cup which I am about to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They say to Him, “We are able.” ²³And He saith to them, “Ye shall indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized; but to sit on My right and on My left is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to those for whom it hath been prepared by My Father.” ²⁴And after the ten heard it, they were indignant on account of the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “Ye know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶“But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever doth wish to become great among you shall be your servant; ²⁷“and whosoever doth wish to be first among you shall be your slave— ²⁸“even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Dormition of Righteous Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, and our venerable Mothers Olympia the deaconess of Constantinople and the Virgin Efpraxia of Tabenna, and our venerable Father Makarios, Abbot of Sheltovod and Unzha.

Epistle

For the Dormition:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Gal. 4:22-27 [§ mid 210]; for Sl. usage, see Gal. 4:22-31 [§§ mid 210, 211].

4 ²²Abraham had two sons: one by the maidservant, and one by the free woman. ²³But on the one hand, the one of the maidservant hath been born according to the flesh; and on the other hand, the one of the free woman through the promise, ²⁴which things are allegorized. For these are the two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai which bringeth forth to slavery, which is Agar— ²⁵for the Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and correspondeth to the present Jerusalem, and she doth slave with her children— ²⁶but the Jerusalem above is free, which is Mother of us all. ²⁷For it hath been written: “Rejoice, thou barren, who bearest not; break forth and cry thou who travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate more than of her who hath the husband [Is. 54:1].” ²⁸Now we, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰But what saith the Scripture? “Cast out the maidservant and her son; for in no wise shall the son of the maidservant inherit with the son of the free woman [cf. Gen. 21:10].” ³¹So then, brethren, we are not children of a maidservant, but of the free woman.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 36]. The Lord said:

8 ¹⁶“No one, having lit a lamp, covereth it with a vessel or putteth it underneath a bed, but placeth it upon a lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light. ¹⁷“For nothing is secret which shall not become manifest, nor hidden that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸“Be taking heed then how ye hear: for whosoever hath, it shall be given to him; and whosoever hath not, even what he seemeth to have shall be taken away from him.”

¹⁹And His Mother and brethren came to Him, and were not able to meet with Him on account of the crowd. ²⁰And it was reported to Him by some who said, “Thy Mother and Thy brethren are standing outside, wishing to see Thee.” ²¹And He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 7th – Civil Calendar
July 25th – Church Calendar

1. Saint Anna, the Mother of the Most Holy Mother of God.

Today is the commemoration of her falling asleep; her main feast is on September 9th, where her life is written. Anna was of the tribe of Levi, and was the daughter of Matthan the priest. After a long life pleasing to God, she entered into rest at a great age.

2. St. Olympias the Deaconess.

Olympias was born in Constantinople of very eminent parents. Her father, Anysios Secundos, was a senator and her mother was the daughter of the famous aristocrat Evlavios, who is mentioned in the life of St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker. When Olympias was fully grown, she was betrothed to a nobleman who died before his marriage to this honored maiden. The emperor and others exhorted her to take another husband, but in vain; she refused them all and devoted herself to a life pleasing to God, giving of her inherited wealth great gifts to the Church and alms to the poor. She served in the Church as a deaconess, first in the time of Patriarch St. Nectarios, and after his death, under St. John Chrysostom. When Chrysostom went into exile, he advised Olympias to remain in the Church as before and serve it, whichever patriarch should succeed him. But, immediately after the exile of this great hierarch, the church of Hagia Sophia caught fire, and the conflagration took hold of many of the public buildings in the capital in a miraculous way showing God’s displeasure. St. Chrysostom’s enemies accused this holy woman of being a malicious fire-raiser. Olympias was exiled from Constantinople to Nikomedia, where she entered into rest in 408, leaving instructions that her body be placed in a coffin and cast into the sea, and that she be buried wherever the waves threw the coffin up. The coffin was cast up at a place called Vrochthoi, where there was a church dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. Great miracles of healing have been performed through the centuries by her relics. The exiled St. Chrysostom wrote beautiful letters to the exiled Olympias, which to this day serve to give support to all who suffer for God’s justice. Among other things, Chrysostom wrote to Olympias: ‘Now I am deeply joyful, not only because you have been delivered from sickness, but even more because you are bearing adversities with such fortitude, calling them trifles—a characteristic of a soul filled with power and abounding in the rich fruits of courage. You are not only enduring misfortune with fortitude, but are making light of it in a seemingly effortless way, rejoicing and triumphing over it—this is a proof of the greatest wisdom’ (Letter 6 of the seventeen that have come down to us).

3. Our Holy Mother Efpraxia the Virgin.

She was the daughter of a Constantinopolitan nobleman, Antigonus, and a kinswoman of the Emperor Theodosios the Great. With her mother, a young widow, she went to Egypt and travelled around the monasteries, giving alms and praying to God. The seven-year-old Efpraxia, in fulfillment of her burning desire, received the monastic schema in a women’s monastery. As she grew older, she took on herself harsher and harsher asceticism, once fasting for forty days. She entered into rest in the year 413, at the age of thirty. She had great grace from God to heal the gravest sicknesses.

4. Commemoration of the Fifth Ecumenical Council.

This council was held in Constantinople in the time of the Emperor Justinian the Great, in 553. All the Monophysite heresies were condemned at this council, and also the heretical writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoretus of Kyros and Origen (his writings against the resurrection of the dead).

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘As virginity is better than marriage, so a first marriage is better than a second.’ Thus writes St. John Chrysostom to the young widow of the deceased Constantinopolitan noble Tarasios, advising her not to contract a second marriage. Efpraxia the elder, mother of St. Efpraxia and kinswoman of the Emperor Theodosios the Great, was left a widow while still a young woman, on the death of her husband Antigonus, with whom she had lived in wedlock for only two years, and one further year, by a common vow, as brother and sister. The emperor and empress urged her to marry another nobleman, but she refused to do this, and took her daughter Efpraxia off to Egypt. And what shall we say of St. Olympias and of St. Efpraxia? Also of St. Makrina, and those who were only betrothed as maidens and then, when their affianced husbands died, regarded themselves as widows and did not entertain the thought of entering upon another marriage. What purity of heart! What faithfulness to the betrothed! What fear of God! What a steadfast faith in the life to come, in which the betrothed hope to meet again!

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.