Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Twenty-Sixth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 278].

1 ¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to a command of God our Savior, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, ²to Timothy, my genuine child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

³As I besought thee to remain in Ephesus when I was going to Macedonia, it was so that thou mightest command some not to teach different doctrines, ⁴nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which produce inquiries rather than the dispensation of God which is in faith. ⁵Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith without hypocrisy, ⁶which some, having missed the mark, turned aside to vain talking, ⁷wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor about what kind of things they are of which they affirm for themselves.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 86]. At that time:

17 ²⁰Jesus, having been questioned by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God is coming, answered them and said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; ²¹“nor shall they say, ‘Behold, here!’ or ‘Behold, there!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” ²²And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it. ²³“And they shall say to you, ‘Behold, here!’ or ‘Behold, there!’ Do not begin to go forth nor follow. ²⁴“For even as the lightning, which lighteneth out of one part under the heaven and shineth to the other part under the heaven, so also the Son of Man shall be in His day. ²⁵“But first there is need for Him to suffer many things and to be rejected by this generation.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Platon of Ankyra and Romanos the deacon of Cæsarea.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 292]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹Be thou empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; ²and the things which thou heardest from me in the midst of many witnesses, commit thou these things to faithful men who shall be competent also to teach others. ³Thou therefore suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. ⁴No one serving as a soldier is entangled with the affairs of life, in order that he might please the one who enlisted him. ⁵And if anyone also contend as an athlete in the games, he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully. ⁶The farmer who laboreth must be first to partake of the fruits. ⁷Be considering what I say; O may the Lord give thee understanding in all things! ⁸Be remembering Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, Who hath been raised from the dead, according to my Gospel, ⁹in which I suffer hardship even to bonds as a malefactor, but the word of God hath not been bound. ¹⁰On this account I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might also attain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 1st – Civil Calendar
November 18th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Plato (Platon).

From the town of Ankyra in Galatia, he was born and brought up a Christian. Even in his youth, he showed great perfection in every virtue. Plato did not conceal his faith in Christ the Lord, but preached it openly, denouncing idolaters for their bowing down to dead creatures in place of the living Creator. For this, he was brought before the governor, Agrippinos, for trial, and was harshly tortured by him. When the governor began to urge him to escape death and save his life by worshipping idols, Plato replied: ‘There are two deaths: the temporal and the eternal; and there are two lives: the one transitory and the other without end.’ Then Agrippinos put him to harsher torture. Among other tortures, he commanded that red-hot cannon balls be placed on his naked body, and that his flesh be cut into strips. ‘Torture me more harshly,’ cried the martyr to the torturers, ‘that your inhumanity and my endurance may be the more clearly seen.’ When the torturer spoke to the martyr about the philosopher Plato, saying that he was a pagan philosopher, he replied: ‘I am not like Plato, nor he like me, except in our names. I learn and teach the wisdom that is of Christ, while he teaches the wisdom that is folly before God.’ After that, Plato was thrown into prison, where he spent eighteen days without bread or water. When the warders marveled that Plato could live without food for so long, he said to them: ‘You are satiated by food, but I by holy prayer; you rejoice in wine, but I in Christ the true Vine.’ He was finally beheaded with the sword in about 266, and received a wreath of eternal glory.

2. The Holy Martyrs Romanos and Barulas.

Holy Romanos was a deacon of the Church in Caesarea, and at one time preached the Gospel in Antioch. When there was an idolatrous feast, and the governor of Antioch, Asclepiades, was going into a pagan temple to offer sacrifice, Romanos stood in front of him and said: ‘You sin, O governor, when you go to the idols. They are not gods, for Christ is the only true God.’ The furious governor put Romanos to torture, and he was flogged and flayed without mercy. At that moment, he saw a child called Barulas, and said to Asclepiades: ‘This little child has more understanding than you, old man, for he knows the true God, and you do not.’ The governor began to question Barulas about his faith, and he confessed his faith in Christ the Lord as the one, true God, and his unbelief in the false idols. Then Asclepiades commanded that little Barulas be beheaded with the sword, and Romanos be strangled in the prison, which came to pass in the year 303. Thus both these martyrs inherited the kingdom of Christ.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matt. 5:39), commanded the Lord. This is the briefest and dearest teaching on humility. Wicked demons fear no one so greatly as the man filled with the Lord’s commandments. There was a rich nobleman in Alexandria who had a young daughter into whom an evil spirit entered, and the girl went out of her mind. Someone told the despairing father that no one would be able to heal his daughter but monks, solitaries, who lived in the desert and came to Alexandria from time to time to sell the baskets that they had woven: but that none of them would go into the house of a rich nobleman in case he was asked why he was there. It would be best for him to buy their baskets and invite them to his house to be paid; then, when they went to the house, he could ask them to pray to God for all its occupants, and especially that God would help and heal the mad girl. The father did this: he went to the bazaar on the agreed day, and found one of St. Makarios’ disciples selling baskets. He quickly bought the baskets and asked the monk to go to his house for payment. When the monk entered the house, the mad girl suddenly leapt in front of him and struck him a blow on the cheek. The monk silently presented the other cheek. At this, the evil spirit cried out with a great shout and left the girl, and she became calm and rational. When the monk returned to the desert, he told the elders what had happened, and they all glorified God, Who gives such great power to those who fulfill His commandments.

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.