Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 199]. Brethren:

1 ³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴Who gave Himself for our sins, so that He might deliver us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to Whom be the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

⁶I marvel that ye are so quickly transferring yourselves from the One Who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, ⁷which is not another Gospel, only there are some who trouble you and wish to turn around the Gospel of the Christ. ⁸But even if we, or an angel from out of heaven, should preach a gospel to you besides what Gospel we preached to you, let such a one be anathema. ⁹As we have said before, and now again I say, if anyone preach a gospel to you besides what ye received, let such a one be anathema. ¹⁰For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I were yet trying to please men, I should not be a slave of Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 49]. At that time:

9 ⁵⁷As Jesus went in the way, someone said to Him, “I will follow Thee wheresoever Thou goest, Lord.” ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man hath nowhere that He may lay His head.” ⁵⁹And He said to another, “Follow thou Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me to go away first to bury my father.” ⁶⁰But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but do thou go forth and be proclaiming the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹And another also said, “I will follow Thee, Lord, but first permit me to bid farewell to those in my house.” ⁶²But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand upon the plow, and looking to the things behind, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 30]. At that time:

9 ⁹As Jesus passed by from that place, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the custom-house. And He saith to him, “Follow thou Me.” And he rose up and followed Him. ¹⁰And it came to pass, as He reclined at table in the house, also behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining at table with Jesus and His disciples. ¹¹And after the Pharisees saw Him, they said to His disciples, “Why eateth your Teacher with the tax collectors and sinners?” ¹²And Jesus, having heard it, said to them, “They who are strong have no need of a physician, but they who are ill. ¹³“But go and learn what this is, ‘I wish mercy, and not sacrifice [cf. Hos. 6:6]’: For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 29th – Civil Calendar
November 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Matthew the Evangelist.

Matthew the son of Alphaeus was at first a tax-collector, and it was as such that the Lord saw him in Capernaum and said to him: ‘Follow Me!’ Leaving everything, he followed Him (Matt. 9:9). After that, Matthew prepared a feast in his house, and there provided an opportunity for the Lord to voice some great truths about His coming to earth. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Matthew preached the Gospel among the Parthians and Medes and in Ethiopia, the land of the negroes. In Ethiopia, he consecrated as bishop one Platon, a follower of his, and himself withdrew to prayerful solitude on a mountain, where the Lord appeared to him. Matthew baptized the wife and son of the prince of that land, at which the prince was greatly enraged and sent a guard to bring Matthew before him for trial. The soldiers went off, but returned to the prince, saying that they had heard Matthew’s voice, but had been unable to set eyes on him. The prince then sent a second guard. When this guard drew near to the apostle, he shone with a heavenly radiance so brilliant that the soldiers were unable to look at him, but threw down their weapons in terror and returned home. The prince then went himself. When he approached Matthew, such radiance shone forth from the saint that the prince was blinded on the instant. But the apostle had a kind heart: he prayed to God and the prince’s sight was restored—unfortunately, only on the physical plane, his spiritual eyes remaining closed. He seized St. Matthew and put him to harsh torture, twice lighting a fire on his chest, but the power of God kept him alive and unharmed. Then the apostle prayed to God, and gave his spirit into His hands. The prince commanded that the martyr’s body be put into a leaden coffin and cast into the sea. The saint appeared to Bishop Platon and told him where to find his body in its coffin, and the bishop went and brought them back. Seeing this new marvel, the prince was baptized and received the name Matthew. He then set aside all earthly vanity and became a priest, serving the Church in a manner pleasing to God. When Platon died, the Apostle Matthew appeared to this Matthew and counseled him to accept the episcopate. So he became a bishop, and was a good shepherd for many years, until God took him to His immortal kingdom. St. Matthew the Apostle wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, and it was very soon translated into Greek. It has come down to us in Greek, the Aramaic original being lost. Of this evangelist, it is said that he never ate meat, but fed only on vegetables and fruit.

2. Our Holy Father Sergius of Malopinega.

He was a Russian parish priest. As a priest, he lived a godly life and served for twenty-two years in the Vologda region. He entered peacefully into rest on November 16th, 1585, at the age of ninety-two.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Does the Lord’s commandment about unceasing prayer (Lk. 18:1) apply only to monks, or to all Christians? If it applied only to monks, the apostle would not have written to the Christians in Thessalonica: ‘Pray without ceasing’ (I Thess. 5:17). The apostle, then, reiterates the Lord’s command word for word, and gives it to all Christians without distinction of monk or layman. St. Gregory Palamas lived for some time as a young man in a monastery in Beroea. There lived in those parts a well-known ascetic, the elder Job, who was venerated by all. It happened at one time that St. Gregory, in the elder’s presence, quoted the apostle’s words, asserting that unceasing prayer was a necessity for all Christians, not only for monks. The elder Job replied to these words, saying that the Jesus Prayer is a necessity only for monks, and not for all Christians. Gregory, being a young man, ceded the argument, not wishing to quarrel, and withdrew in silence. When Job had returned to his cell and was standing in prayer, an angel of God appeared to him in great heavenly glory, and said to him: ‘Elder, don’t doubt the truth of Gregory’s words; he spoke truly. So, hold your peace and advise others to do the same.’ Thus, then, both the apostle and the angel underlined the commandment that all Christians must pray to God without ceasing. If not unceasingly in church, then unceasingly in every place and at every time, in the depths of your heart. If God does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire of thanking Him for these good things? If He is constantly thinking of us, why do we not think constantly of Him?

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.