Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Fifteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 210]. Brethren:

4 ⁸When ye knew not God, ye slaved for those which are not gods by nature; ⁹but now, having come to know God—indeed rather having been known by God—how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, which ye wish again to slave for anew? ¹⁰Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! ¹¹I am afraid for you, lest perchance in vain I have labored in regard to you.

¹²Brethren, I entreat you, keep on becoming as I am, for I was also as you. Ye wronged me in nothing. ¹³But ye know that through weakness of the flesh I preached the Gospel to you for the first time. ¹⁴And my temptation which was in my flesh ye neither despised, nor spat at; but as an angel of God ye received me, as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵What then was your happiness? For I bear witness to you that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶Have I therefore become your enemy, because I spoke the truth to you? ¹⁷They zealously court you, but not rightly; and they desire to shut you out, that ye may be zealous toward them. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, for whom I again travail until Christ should be formed in you! ²⁰And I was wishing to be present with you just now, and to change my voice, for I am at a loss concerning you.

²¹Tell me, ye who wish to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 26]. At that time:

6 ⁴⁵Jesus constrained His disciples to embark into the ship, and to go before to the other side toward Bethsaida, until He should dismiss the crowd. ⁴⁶And after He bid farewell to them, He departed into the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷And evening having come to pass, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the land. ⁴⁸And He saw them being put to the test in the rowing; for the wind was contrary to them. And about the fourth watch of the night He cometh to them, walking upon the sea, and was intending to pass by them. ⁴⁹But after they saw Him walking upon the sea, they thought it to be a phantom, and cried out; ⁵⁰for all saw Him and were troubled. And straightway He talked with them and saith to them, “Be of good courage! I am; cease being afraid.” ⁵¹And He went up to them into the ship, and the wind abated. And they were amazed in themselves exceedingly beyond measure, and kept on wondering. ⁵²For not only did they not understand, so far as regards the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

⁵³And having passed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret, and were brought to anchor at the shore.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the miracle performed by the Archangel Michael at Colossae (also known as Chonæ).

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 305]. Brethren:

2 ²If the word spoken by angels was confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, ³how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which received a beginning to be spoken of by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard, ⁴God also bearing them witness with both signs and wonders, and various works of power, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to His will?

⁵For not to angels did He subject the coming inhabited world about which we speak; ⁶but one bore witness somewhere, saying, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him [Ps. 8:4]? ⁷“Thou didst make Him for a short time less than the angels; Thou didst crown Him with glory and honor [Ps. 8:5], ⁸“Thou didst subject all things under His feet [Ps. 8:6].” For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing not subject to Him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. ⁹But we see Jesus, Who for a short time was made less than the angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for everyone. ¹⁰For it was becoming to Him, because of Whom are all things and by means of Whom are all things, bringing many sons to glory, to have perfected the originator of their salvation through sufferings.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 51]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ¹⁶“The one who heareth you heareth Me, and the one who rejecteth you rejecteth Me, and the one who rejecteth Me rejecteth the One Who sent Me forth.”

¹⁷And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are being made subject to us in Thy name.” ¹⁸And He said to them, “I was beholding Satan as lightning having fallen out of the heaven. ¹⁹“Behold, I give you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy; and nothing in anywise shall injure you. ²⁰“However cease rejoicing in this, that the spirits are being made subject to you; but be rejoicing that your names were written in the heavens.” ²¹In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, “I give thanks to Thee, O Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, and didst reveal them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing before Thee.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 19th – Civil Calendar
September 6th – Church Calendar

1. The Commemoration of the Miracles of the Holy Archangel Michael.

There was in Phrygia a place called Chonae, not far from Hierapolis, and in that place there was a miraculous spring of water. When the Apostle John the Theologian, together with Philip, was preaching the Gospel in Hierapolis, he looked at this place and foretold that a spring would gush forth in it, a spring of healing water from which many would be restored to health, and that the place would be visited by Michael, the great archangel of God. This prophecy was very soon fulfilled: a spring of water appeared, which became known far and wide for its miraculous power. A pagan in Laodicea had a dumb daughter, which caused him great grief, but the Archangel Michael appeared to him in a dream and urged him to take his daughter to this spring, that she might be restored to health. The father immediately obeyed, took his daughter and there encountered many people who had come to seek deliverance from various ills. They were all Christians. The man asked how he should seek healing, and the Christians told him: ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, you must beg the Archangel Michael.’ The father made his petition accordingly and dipped his daughter in the water, and the girl began to speak. Then this pagan was baptized along with his daughter and his whole household, and built a church to the Archangel Michael over the spring.

Later, a young man called Archippos settled there. Pagans did him much malicious harm, for they did not want such power to be felt from a Christian holy place and many people be drawn to it. In their wickedness, they altered the course of a nearby river, so that it would inundate the church and the spring. But, at the prayers of Archippos, the Archangel Michael appeared and opened a fissure in the rock at the end of the church, through which the flooding river plunged. So the place was saved, and became known as Chonae—“plunging”—from the river’s plunge through the opened fissure. St. Archippos lived there in asceticism till the age of seventy, and entered peacefully into rest in the Lord.

2. The Holy Martyr Romulus, and the 11,000 soldiers.

When the Emperor Trajan was waging war in the East, he once ordered a count of the Christians in his army, and it was found that there were eleven thousand Christians in the imperial army. The emperor ordered that they all be dismissed from the army and sent to Armenia. St. Romulus was an official at the emperor’s court. He went to the emperor and chided him for these dismissals, acknowledging that he himself was a Christian. The emperor ordered that Romulus be beheaded. Of the exiled soldiers, ten thousand were crucified and the others died under various tortures.

3. St. Evdoxius.

A commander in the Roman army, he suffered for Christ in the time of Diocletian, being judged and tortured by the governor of Melitene in Armenia. With him suffered his friends Zeno and Macarius, and 1,104 other soldiers whom Evdoxius had brought to the Christian Faith. After his death, he appeared to his wife Vasilissa, who was faithful to Christ till her death and entered peacefully into rest.

4. Our Holy Father David.

He was a robber leader near Hermopolis in Egypt, and only in his later years came to himself, repented and became a monk. He entered peacefully into rest in the sixth century, being worthy of the kingdom of God through his great asceticism.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Christianity has uprooted many barbaric customs from human society, but some of these customs, praiseworthy from the pagan point of view and shameful from the Christian, have remained to the present day as a hidden putrefaction from seemingly-healed wounds. One of these customs was the seizing and carrying-off of girls. St. Basil writes strongly about this to one of his priests on the occasion of such an occurrence: ‘Do all in your power, when you find this girl, to take her away and return her to her parents, and deprive the abductor of participation in worship, and also those who helped him, according to my earlier direction—each of them with his whole house to be debarred from participation in worship for the space of three years. Any village that receives an abducted girl and hides her, and even holds her by force, is also deprived of such participation, and also anyone who encourages others to do this; that the abductor, like a snake or some such wild beast and universal enemy, may be driven from among them, and that we may show protection to the abused.’

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.