Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 182]. Brethren:

6 ¹¹Our mouth hath opened to you, O Corinthians, our heart hath been enlarged. ¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in the affections from your inward parts. ¹³Now for the same recompense—I speak as to my children—be ye also enlarged. ¹⁴Cease becoming unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership hath righteousness and lawlessness? And what communion hath light with darkness? ¹⁵And what consonance hath Christ with Belial? Or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁶And what common disposition hath a temple of God with that of idols? For ye are a temple of the living God, even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk about in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to Me a people [cf. Lev. 26:11, 12; Jer. 38(31):33, 39(32):38; Ez. 37:27; Zach. 8:8].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 4]. At that time:

1 ²³There was a certain man in the synagogue of the Jews with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ²⁴saying, “Ha! What is it to us and to Thee, Jesus, O Nazarene? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee Who Thou art, the Holy One of God.” ²⁵And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be thou muzzled, and come forth out of him.” ²⁶And after the spirit, the unclean one, convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. ²⁷And all were amazed, so that they jointly inquired among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new teaching is this, that with authority He commandeth even the spirits, the unclean ones, and they obey Him?” ²⁸And immediately His fame went out into all the country round about Galilee.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Forefeast of the Dormition, the Prophet Micah, and the translation of the precious relics of our venerable Father Theodosios, Abbot of the Kiev Caves.

Epistle

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

or

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§§ 176, 177]. Brethren:

4 ⁶It is God Who said, “Let there be light [cf. Gen. 1:3]” to shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the preeminence of the power may be of God, and not from us. ⁸In every way we are afflicted, but not straitened; we are at a loss, but not utterly at a loss; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. ¹¹For we, the living, are always being delivered to death on account of Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. ¹²So that indeed death energizeth itself in us, but life in you. ¹³But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which hath been written: “I believed, wherefore I spoke [Ps. 115(116):1(10)],” we also believe, and therefore speak, ¹⁴knowing that the One Who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also through Jesus, and shall present us with you. ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, which abounded through the majority, might cause the giving of thanks to abound more to the glory of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 27th – Civil Calendar
August 14th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Prophet Micah the Second.

Of the tribe of Judah and from the village of Morasth, from which he took the name ‘the Morasthite,’ he was a contemporary of the prophets Isaias, Amos and Hosea, and the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He denounced the vices of his people and denounced also the prophets who prophesied ‘of wine and strong drink’. He foretold the fall of Samaria, which would come about because the city’s elders take a bribe and the priests teach for hire, and prophets divine for money. ‘Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps’. But, of all his prophecies, the most important are those of the Messiah, and especially of the place of His birth. He named Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah, ‘whose goings-forth have been from of old, from everlasting’ (5:2). It is not known certainly whether this prophet was killed by the Jews or died peacefully (see Jer. 26:18-19), but it is known that he was buried in his village, and that his relics were found, together with the relics of the Prophet Abbakum, in the time of the Emperor Theodosios the Great, by a mysterious revelation received by the Bishop of Eleftheropolis.

2. The Hieromartyr Markellos, Bishop of Apameia.

Born in Cyprus of rich and eminent parents, he was well-educated, and married and had children. After coming to an agreement with his wife and children, now grown, he withdrew to follow the monastic life in Syria. He became known for his compassion, meekness and spiritual learning, because of which the people of Apameia chose him as their bishop. As a bishop, he labored with zeal to bring pagans to the Christian Faith. When an idolatrous temple was burned down, the idolaters seized Markellos, and on the pretext of his having caused it, threw him into the fire, in about 389. We find in St. Markellos’ ‘Life’ that the blessing of water is mentioned, and its use.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Keep yourself from a parental curse, for it is a terrible thing. Value and seek your parents’ blessing, for it will accompany you throughout your life. The wise Sirach says: ‘The blessing of the father establisheth the houses of the children; but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations’ (Sirach 3:9). The curse with which Noah cursed the descendants of Ham has stayed with them to this day, but the sons of Jacob have had fortune in life, according to their father’s blessing. St. Sergius, as a young man, asked his parents’ blessing to become a monk. His aged parents begged their son to wait and stay with them till their death, and then become a monk. Bishop Hermogenes speaks of an occasion when a son ill-treated his wife. When his mother, in tears, began to chide him for this, the son set on his mother, beat her and cracked her head against the wall. The despairing mother cried out: ‘Lord, let my son be accursed, and receive no blessing from Thee or from me!’ That same day, he began to tremble all over his body, and lived in this state for thirteen whole years, unable even to lift a spoon to his mouth. After thirteen years, he confessed and received Communion, and after that became a little eased and very soon died.

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.