Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

The Saturday of the First Week of the Great Fast

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 303]. Brethren:

1 ¹God, Who of old, in many parts and in many ways, spoke to the fathers through the prophets, ²did in these last of days speak to us through the Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the ages, ³Who being the effulgence of the glory and impress of His hypostasis, and bearing all things by the word of His power, having made for Himself our purification through Himself, sat down on the right of the Majesty in high places, ⁴having become so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they. ⁵For to which of the angels said He at any time, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee [Ps. 2:7]”? And again, “I will be to Him for a Father, and He shall be to Me for a Son [2 Kgs.(2 Sam.) 7:14]”? ⁶And whenever He again should bring in the firstborn into the inhabited world, He saith, “And let all the angels of God do homage to Him [Deut. 32:43 LXX; cf. Ps. 96(97):8(7)].” ⁷And indeed with reference to the angels He saith, “The One Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire [Ps. 103(104):5(4)]”; ⁸but with reference to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Thy kingdom [Ps. 44(45):5(6)]. ⁹“Thou didst love righteousness and didst hate lawlessness; on this account, God, Thy God, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness beyond Thy fellows [Ps. 44(45):6(7)].” ¹⁰And, “Thou, O Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands [Ps. 101(102):25]. ¹¹“They shall perish, but Thou remainest; and they shall all become old as an outer garment [Ps. 101(102):26], ¹²“and as a covering Thou shalt roll them up, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail [Ps. 101(102):26, 27].”

Another Reading for Saturday of the First Week of the Great Fast in Commemoration of Saint Theodore

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

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 10]. At that time:

2 ²³During the sabbath days Jesus was going along through the sown fields; and His disciples began to make their way plucking the ears of grain. ²⁴And the Pharisees were saying to Him, “Behold, why do they that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?” ²⁵And He was saying to them, “Did ye not ever read what David did when he had need and hungered, he and those with him: ²⁶“how he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the loaves set forth before the presence of God, which it is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” ²⁷And He was saying to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. ²⁸“Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

3 ¹And He entered again into the synagogue; and a man was there whose hand had been withered. ²And they were watching Him closely, whether He would cure him on the sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him. ³And He saith to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand in the midst.” ⁴And He saith to them, “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵And having looked round about on them with wrath, being grieved for the hardness of their heart, He saith to the man, “Stretch forth thy hand.” And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored sound as the other.

Commemoration of Saint Theodore

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 52]. The Lord said to His disciples:

15 ¹⁷“These things I command you, that ye be loving one another.

¹⁸“If the world hate you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hath hated you. ¹⁹“If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world—but I chose you for Myself out of the world—therefore the world hateth you. ²⁰“Keep on remembering the word which I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they know not the One Who sent Me. ²²“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no pretext for their sin. ²³“The one who hateth Me hateth My Father also. ²⁴“If I did not do the works among them which no other one hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵“But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled which hath been written in their law: ‘They hated Me without a cause [cf. Ps. 34(35):22, 68(69):5(4)].’ ²⁶“But whenever the Paraclete should come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth Who proceedeth from the Father, that One shall bear witness concerning Me. ²⁷“And ye also are bearing witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.

16 ¹“These things I have spoken to you, in order that ye should not be made to stumble. ²“They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea moreover, there cometh an hour that everyone who killeth you should think that he offereth God a service.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Onesimos of the Seventy.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Philemon [§ mid 302 B].

¹Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow worker, ²and to Apfia the beloved, and to Archippos our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I thank my God, making mention of thee always in the time of my prayers, ⁵hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and in regard to all the saints, ⁶that the communion of thy faith might become energized in full knowledge of every good which is in you in regard to Christ Jesus. ⁷For we have much joy and consolation over thy love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through thee, brother. ⁸Wherefore, though I have much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee to that which is becoming, ⁹yet for the sake of love I rather beseech, being such a one as Paul, an elder, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, ¹⁰I beseech thee concerning my child, Onesimos, whom I begot in my bonds— ¹¹the one who was once useless to thee, but is now useful to thee and to me—whom I am sending back. ¹²Now receive thou him, that is, mine own heart, ¹³whom I was wishing to hold for myself, that he may minister to me in the bonds of the Gospel; ¹⁴but without thine opinion I wished to do nothing, that thy good may not be as according to necessity, but according to willingness. ¹⁵For perhaps on this account he was separated from thee for a season, in order that thou mayest receive him in full forever, ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved, especially to me, and how much more to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord! ¹⁷If then thou holdest me a partner, take him to thyself as thou wouldest me. ¹⁸But if he wronged thee in anything or oweth thee, be reckoning this to me; ¹⁹I, Paul, am writing it with mine own hand, I will repay it; not that I may mention that to me thou owest even thyself. ²⁰Yes, brother, may I benefit from thee in the Lord; refresh thou my heart in the Lord.

²¹Having trusted to thine obedience, I am writing to thee, knowing that even beyond what I may say thou wilt do. ²²And at the same time also, be preparing a lodging for me, for I hope that through your prayers I shall be graciously given to you. ²³There greeteth thee Epaphras, my fellow captive in Christ Jesus, ²⁴Mark, Aristarchos, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 28th – Civil Calendar
February 15th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Onesimus.

One of the Seventy, he was a slave of Philemon, a rich and distinguished citizen of Colossae in Phrygia. He offended his master, Philemon, in some way and fled to Rome, where he heard the Gospel from the Apostle Paul and was baptized. By this time, Paul had also brought Philemon to the true Faith, and he reconciled the two of them, Philemon and Onesimus, master and slave, writing a special epistle to Philemon—one of the most moving writings to be found in the New Testament: ‘I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.... Perhaps he departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant; a brother beloved.’ Deeply moved by this letter, Philemon received Onesimus as a brother, indeed, and gave him his freedom. Onesimus was later made bishop and received the see of Ephesus after the death of the Apostle Timothy. This is recorded in the epistles of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer. At the time of the persecution under Trajan, Onesimus, by then an old man, was arrested and taken to Rome. There he testified before the judge, Tertylus, was imprisoned and finally slain. A wealthy woman took his body, placed it in a silver coffin and buried it in the year 109.

2. Our Holy Father Evsevios.

A Syrian hermit, he lived at first under the guidance of holy men, but later went into the solitude of the desert. He fed himself entirely on vegetable foods, never even tasting fruit, and spent all his time in prayer in the open air, enduring all weathers. He lived to the age of 95 and entered into rest in the Lord in 440.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Peace of soul is precious to all men. With those who have acquired peace of soul, the body can be in constant motion, occupation or pain, but their souls, cleaving to God, remain always in unshakable peace. St. Seraphim of Sarov teaches: ‘We must endeavor by every means to keep peace of soul. Do not be troubled by the insults of men. It is necessary at all costs to restrain oneself from anger, and by watchfulness over oneself to keep the mind and heart from vain movement.... For the guarding of peace of soul, it is also necessary to flee from judging others. By non-judgement and silence, peace of soul is preserved. When a man attains to such a state, he receives divine revelation. For a man to be able to keep himself from judging others, he must be vigilant over himself; he must not dare to receive vain thoughts from another, and must be as one dead before all that is of this world. We must tirelessly keep our hearts from vain thoughts and impressions (Prov. 4:23). By constant watchfulness over the heart, a purity of heart is born in which God is seen, according to the words of eternal truth: “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).’

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.