Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Twenty-Ninth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ mid 220]. Brethren:

2 ¹¹Be remembering that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh—the ones who are called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision in the flesh made by hand— ¹²that at that time ye were without Christ, having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off came to be near by the blood of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 74]. At that time:

14 ¹Jesus entered into a house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a sabbath to eat bread; and they themselves were watching Him closely. ²And behold, there was a certain man before Him suffering from dropsy. ³And Jesus, answering, spoke to the doctors of the law and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” ⁴But they became silent. And He took hold of him, and healed him, and let him go. ⁵And He answered and said to them, “Who is there among you, whose son or ox shall fall into a well, and he will not straightway draw him up on the sabbath day?” ⁶And they were not able to answer Him again to these things. ⁷And He was speaking a parable to those who were invited, aiming at how they kept on choosing for themselves the chief places, saying to them, ⁸“Whenever thou art invited by anyone to wedding festivities, do not begin to recline at table in the chief place, lest perchance one more honorable than thou may have been invited by him; ⁹“and the one who invited thee and him, having come, shall say to thee, ‘Give this one place’; and then thou begin with shame to occupy the lowest place. ¹⁰“But whenever thou art invited, go and recline at table in the lowest place, that whenever the one who hath invited thee should come, he might say to thee, ‘Friend, go up higher’; then there shall be honor to thee before those who recline at table with thee. ¹¹“For everyone who exalteth himself shall be humbled, and the one who humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Synaxis of the holy Martyrs Thyrsos, Lefkios, and Kallinikos of Bithynia, and the Martyrs Philemon, Apollonios, Arrianos of the Thebaid in Egypt, and those with them.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].

6 ¹⁰Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; ¹²because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. ¹³For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; ¹⁶on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 27th – Civil Calendar
December 14th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Thyrsos, Lefkios, and Kallinikos.

Saints Thyrsos (Thyrsus) and Lefkios (Leucius) were eminent citizens of Bithynian Caesarea; the latter being baptized and the former still a catechumen. Kallinikos (Callinicus), however, was a pagan priest who offered sacrifice to idols. When Cumbricius, heir to the Emperor Decius, began to torture and murder the Christians, the intrepid Lefkios stood before him and reproached him: ‘Why have you begun to make war on your own soul, Cumbricius?’ The enraged judge ordered that he be flogged and tortured, and then beheaded with the sword. In terrible torment, Lefkios went to his execution as joyfully as if he were going to a wedding. When he beheld Lefkios’ courageous death, blessed Thyrsos was inflamed with divine zeal, and like Lefkios, went before the judge and rebuked him for his crimes and his lack of belief in the one, true God. He was therefore beaten and cast into prison. He was healed of his wounds by the invisible hand of God, which also opened the prison doors and led him forth. Thyrsos went at once to Phileas, the Bishop of Caesarea, to be baptized by him. After his Baptism, he was again seized and tortured, but he endured all the torments as if in a dream and not in reality. Many idols fell down through the power of his prayer. When he saw this, Kallinikos, a pagan priest, was converted to the Christian Faith, so both he and Thyrsos were condemned to death. Kallinikos was beheaded with the sword, and Thyrsos was placed in a wooden coffin to be sawn asunder, but God’s power prevented this and the saw could not penetrate the wood. Then Thyrsos arose from the coffin, praying and thanking God for his sufferings, and he peacefully gave his soul into the Lord’s hands. At the end of the fourth century, the Emperor Flavian built a church to St. Thyrsos near Constantinople, and placed his holy relics in it. The saint appeared in a vision to the Empress Pulcheria, and suggested that she bury the relics of the Forty Martyrs beside his own.

2. The Holy Martyrs Philemon, Apollonios, Arrianos and others.

During the reign of Diocletian, Arrianos, a judge in Egypt, cruelly persecuted the Christians there. He seized Apollonios and threatened him with torture. Apollonios became afraid of the tortures, and bribed an unknown musician, Philemon, a pagan, to offer sacrifice to the idols in his place, dressed in his clothes. When Philemon went before the idols, the light of the Christian Faith suddenly shone in his heart, and he made the sign of the Cross. He then went out of the temple and began to shout: ‘I am a Christian, a servant of Christ the living God!’ Hearing this, the judge laughed, thinking that Philemon was mocking the Christians. Later, Philemon was subjected to fearful tortures. Finally, both Philemon and Apollonios were beheaded by Arrianos the judge. Then Arrianos himself became a Christian, because his blind eye was healed in a miraculous way at Philemon’s grave. He was condemned to death by the emperor, and was martyred together with four soldiers who had likewise declared themselves to be Christians.

FOR CONSIDERATION

There are three sorts of praiseworthy zeal: zeal in cleansing oneself from sinful desires and thoughts, zeal for the truth of the Faith and zeal for God’s justice among men. All three were perfectly present in the soul of St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker. He showed zeal in self-purification through his whole life, keeping a careful watch over his heart. His zeal for the truth of the Faith was especially evident at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, where he entered into a fearful conflict with Arius. His zeal for God’s justice among men was seen especially in two notable events, when on each occasion he saved three innocent men from the death penalty. Once, in his absence from Myra, the avaricious military governor, Efstathios, sentenced three men to be beheaded, he having accepted a bribe from their enemies. When he was informed of this, St. Nicholas returned to Myra in the greatest haste. The condemned men had been led out to the place of execution, and the executioner had already raised his sword over them. At that instant, St. Nicholas seized the sword, pulled it out of the executioner’s hand and set the condemned men free. He then rebuked Efstathios and brought him to shame and repentance. In a similar way, three generals, Nepotianus, Ursus and Erpilionus, were slandered before Evlavios the governor of Constantinople and the emperor himself. The emperor signed the death-warrant. On the eve of their execution, the three men prayed to God, saying: ‘O God of Nicholas, deliver us innocent men from death!’ That night, St. Nicholas appeared to both the emperor and the governor in their sleep, denounced them for their injustice and ordered them to free the three men from prison at once. The next day, the emperor and the governor each related to the other the selfsame nocturnal vision, and they set the generals free both from their death-sentence and from prison.

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.