Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 192]. Brethren:

11 ⁵I reckon to have come behind in nothing of the exceedingly super apostles. ⁶But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in every way we have been made manifest to you in all things. ⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I preached the Gospel of God to you as a free gift? ⁸I stripped other churches, having received wages from them with a view to your ministration. ⁹And when I was present with you, and in need, I burdened no one; for that which I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will keep myself. ¹⁰As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting in regard to me in the regions of Achaia shall not be fenced in. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knoweth. ¹²But what I do, also I will do, that I might cut off the occasion of those wishing an occasion, that in what they boast, they might be found even as we. ¹³For such are false apostles, guileful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And a marvellous thing it is not; for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, of whom the end shall be according to their works. ¹⁶Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish; but if otherwise, receive me even if as foolish, in order that I also might boast a little. ¹⁷What I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this basis of the boasting. ¹⁸Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹For ye bear with fools gladly, being wise yourselves; ²⁰for ye bear it if anyone enslave you, if anyone devour you, if anyone take from you, if anyone exalt himself, if anyone smite you on the face. ²¹I speak by way of dishonor, as though we weakened.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 15]. At that time:

4 ¹Jesus began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered together to Him, so that He stepped into the ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole crowd was on the land toward the sea. ²And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³“Hearken: Behold, the one who soweth went out to sow. ⁴“And it came to pass, as he was sowing, some seed indeed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵“And other seed fell upon the rocky place, where it had not much earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. ⁶“But after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it was dried up. ⁷“And other seed fell into the thorns; and the thorns shot up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸“But other seed fell into the good ground, and it kept on yielding fruit that was springing up and increasing: and one was bearing thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.” ⁹And He was saying to them, “The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Dormition, and the holy Martyr Louppos (transferred to the 22^nd of August on account of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Dormition), and Hieromartyr Irenæos, Bishop of Lyons.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 5th – Civil Calendar
August 23rd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Loupos.

This holy man was a servant of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. When St. Demetrius was killed by being pierced with spears by order of the Emperor Maximian, Loupos dipped the hem of his garment and his ring in the martyr’s blood. Loupos worked many miracles in Thessalonica with this garment and ring, healing people of every pain and infirmity. The Emperor Maximian, who was still staying in Thessalonica, discovered this, and commanded that Loupos be tortured and killed. But the soldiers who drew their weapons on Loupos turned one on the other and wounded one another. After harsh torture, he was beheaded and entered into the heavenly kingdom.

2. The Hieromartyr Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons.

He was sent by St. Polycarp from Asia Minor to preach in Gaul. He became the first Bishop of Lyons and brought many pagans to Christianity. At the time of a persecution of Christians in the year 177, Pothinus was taken for trial; carried there, as he was ninety years old. ‘Who is the Christian God?’ the proconsul asked him. ‘You will find out, if you are worthy,’ old Pothinus answered him. The pagans assaulted him with sticks and stones, and belabored him without mercy. Thrown into prison, St. Pothinus died of the beating and entered into the heavenly kingdom.

3. The Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons.

He was in his youth a pupil of St. Polycarp, the disciple of the apostles, who sent him to preach in Gaul. After St. Pothinus’ death by martyrdom, Irenaeus was made bishop. In his numerous writings, Irenaeus both expounded the Orthodox Faith and defended it against heretics. He suffered for Christ in the time of the Emperor Severus, in 202, along with nineteen thousand Christians.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The mysterious power of the Cross, however inexplicable, is true and indisputable. St. John Chrysostom speaks of the custom that obtained in his time, of placing the sign of the Cross ‘on the imperial diadem and the soldiers’ accoutrements, and of making it on parts of the body: the head, the breast and the heart, both at the table of sacrifice and on lying down in bed.’ ‘If,’ he says, ‘we are striving to drive out demons, we use the Cross, and it is also of aid in healing sickness.’ St. Benedict made the sign of the Cross over a glass containing poison, and the glass shattered as if struck by a stone. St. Julian made the sign of the Cross over a cup of poison brought to him, and drank the poison, suffering no bodily harm from it. The holy martyr Vasilissa of Nikomedia protected herself with the sign of the Cross and stood in the midst of the flames, remaining completely untouched. The holy martyrs Audon and Senis crossed themselves when ravening wild animals were let loose on them, and the beasts became docile and meek as lambs. The sign of the Cross has been the most powerful weapon against great temptations from demons, from the early ascetics down to the present day. The most ferocious of the devil’s devisings are dispersed into nothing, like smoke, when a man signs himself with the Cross. Thus it was the good will of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that the erstwhile sign of wickedness and shame, the cross, should, after His crucifixion on the wood of the Cross, be the vehicle of all-conquering power and might.

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.