Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 172]. Brethren:

2 ¹⁴Thanks be to God Who always causeth us to triumph in the Christ, and maketh manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Him by us in every place. ¹⁵For we are to God a sweet smelling fragrance of Christ in those being saved and in those perishing: ¹⁶to some on the one hand an odor of death to death, and to others an odor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not as the many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before the face of God speak we in Christ.

3 ¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? If not, do we need, as some, epistles of commendation to you or commendatory ones from you? ²Ye are our epistle, which hath been inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, ³since it is manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, which hath not been inscribed with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in stony tablets, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 95]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

23 ²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and ye leave the weightier matters of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave aside those others. ²⁴“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel! ²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but within they are full of plunder and incontinence. ²⁶“Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the dish, that the outside of them might become clean also. ²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like tombs which have been whitewashed, which on the one hand appear beautiful outwardly, but on the other hand they are full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness within. ²⁸“Thus ye also on the one hand appear righteous to men outwardly, but on the other hand ye are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness within.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Transfiguration of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second General Epistle of Saint Peter [§ 65].

1 ¹⁰Brethren, give the more diligence to make sure for yourselves your calling and election; for if ye do these things, in no wise shall ye ever stumble. ¹¹For thus shall there be richly supplied to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹²Wherefore I will not neglect to be reminding you always concerning these things, although ye know them and have been firmly set in the present truth. ¹³But I deem it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by way of reminding you, ¹⁴knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is soon, even as our Lord Jesus Christ also declared to me. ¹⁵But I will also endeavor for you to have after my decease these things always, so that ye may be able to put yourselves in remembrance. ¹⁶For we did not follow fables which have been cleverly devised, but we became eyewitnesses of that One’s majesty and made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁷For having received from God the Father honor and glory, there was borne along by the magnificent glory such a voice to Him, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸And we heard this voice which was borne along from out of heaven, when we were with Him in the mount, the holy one. ¹⁹And we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which ye do well to take heed, as to a lamp shining in a squalid place, until the day should dawn and the morning star should arise in your hearts.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 45]. At that time:

9 ²⁸Jesus took along Peter and John and Iakovos, and went up into the mountain to pray. ²⁹And it came to pass, as He was praying, the appearance of His countenance was different, and His clothing became white, flashing as with lightning. ³⁰And behold, two men were talking with Him, who were Moses and Elias, ³¹who appeared in glory and were speaking of His decease which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. ³²But Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep; and after they fully awoke, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. ³³And it came to pass, as they were parting from Him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,” not knowing what he was saying. ³⁴And while he was saying these things, a cloud came to be and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they were entering into the cloud. ³⁵And there came to be a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, the Beloved; be hearing Him.” ³⁶And while the voice came to be, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent, and related to no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 70]. At that time:

17 ¹Jesus taketh along Peter and Iakovos and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain in private; ²and He was transfigured before them. And His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as the light. ³And behold, Moses and Elias appeared to them, talking together with Him. ⁴And Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles: one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” ⁵While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, there came to be a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased; be hearing Him.” ⁶And after the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were exceedingly afraid. ⁷And having come to them, Jesus touched them and said, “Arise, and cease being afraid.” ⁸And after they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus alone. ⁹And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus enjoined them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 19th – Civil Calendar
August 6th – Church Calendar

1. The Transfiguration of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the third year of His ministry, the Lord Jesus spoke more frequently to His disciples of His coming Passion, but linked it always with His glory after His suffering on the Cross. That His coming suffering should not utterly shatter His disciples, so that they fall away from Him, He, the all-wise, decided to show them, before His Passion, something of His divine glory. He therefore, taking with Him Peter, Iakovos and John, went up onto Mount Tabor and was there transfigured before them. ‘And His face shone as the sun, and His raiment became white as snow,’ and there appeared beside Him Moses and Elias, the great prophets of the Old Testament. And the disciples saw and were amazed, and Peter said: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles: one for Thee, one for Moses and one for Elias.’ While Peter was still speaking, Moses and Elias disappeared and a bright cloud came and overshadowed the Lord and the disciples, and a voice came out of the cloud: ‘This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased; be hearing Him.’ Hearing this voice, the disciples fell prostrate on the ground as though dead, and remained thus lying in fear until the Lord came to them and said: ‘Arise, and cease being afraid’ (Matt. 17). Why did the Lord take only three disciples with Him onto Tabor, and not all of them? Because Judas was not worthy to behold the divine glory of the Master Whom he was to betray, and the Lord did not want to leave him alone at the foot of the mountain, that the betrayer should not thus work his betrayal. Why did Moses and Elias appear? To shatter the Jewish fallacy that Christ was one of the prophets—Elias, Jeremias or one of the others. This was why He revealed Himself as King over the prophets, and why Moses and Elias appeared as His servants. Up to this moment, the Lord had many times shown His divine power to His disciples, but on Tabor He showed them the glory of His divine nature. This vision of His divine energies and the hearing of the heavenly witness to Him as the Son of God must have been of support to the disciples in the days of the Lord’s suffering, for the strengthening of a steadfast faith in Him and His final victory.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Why did the Lord not reveal His divine glory on Tabor before all the disciples, but only before the three? First, because He Himself had given the law through Moses: ‘At the mouth of two witnesses or...of three, shall the matter be established’ (Deut. 19:15). Three witnesses were, then, enough. There was, though, a special reason for choosing these three disciples. The three of them represented the three chief virtues: Peter—faith, for he was the first to proclaim his faith in Christ as the Son of God, Iakovos—hope, for it was with hope in the promise of Christ that he was the first to lay down his life for the Lord, being the first killed by the Jews; John—love, for he lay on the Lord’s breast and stayed beneath the Lord’s Cross till the end. God is not the God of the many but the God of the chosen: ‘I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob’. God has often valued one faithful man more highly than a whole people. On several occasions, He intended to exterminate the Jewish people, but at the prayers of righteous Moses, He left the people alive. God hearkened to Elias more than to all the royalty of the faithless Ahab. At the prayers of one man, God often saved both towns and men. Thus the sinful town of Ustiug would have been destroyed by fire and hail if the one righteous man in it, St. Procopius the Fool for Christ (see July 8th), had not saved it by his prayers.

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.