Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 12]. In those days:

4 ²³The apostles, having been set free, came to their own company and reported as much as the chief priests and the elders said to them. ²⁴And after they heard that, with one accord they lifted up their voice to God and said, “Master, Thou art the God Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them, ²⁵“Who by the mouth of Thy servant David said, ‘Why did the nations act arrogantly and the peoples meditate empty things [Ps. 2:1]? ²⁶“‘The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ [Ps. 2:2].’ ²⁷“For of a truth, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together against Thy holy Servant Jesus, Whom Thou didst anoint, ²⁸“to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel foreordained to be done. ²⁹“And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to Thy slaves to speak Thy word with all boldness, ³⁰“as Thou stretchest forth Thy hand for healing and signs and wonders to be done through the name of Thy holy Servant Jesus.” ³¹And having made entreaty, the place was shaken in which they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and were speaking the word of God with boldness.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 16]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

5 ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, that the one who heareth My word and believeth the One Who sent Me hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed over out of death into life. ²⁵“Verily, verily, I say to you, that an hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live. ²⁶“For even as the Father hath life in Himself, so He also gave to the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷“and He also gave to Him authority to execute judgment. That He is Son of Man, ²⁸“cease marvelling at this; for an hour is coming in which all those in the graves shall hear His voice, ²⁹“and shall go forth—they who did good things to a resurrection of life, but they who practised bad things to a resurrection of condemnation. ³⁰“I am not able to do anything of Myself. Even as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me, the Father.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Terence, Africanos, Maximos, Pompeios, and 36 others, and also the blessed Zenon, Alexander, and Theodore at Carthage, and our holy father among the saints, Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Epistle

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

for Sl. usage, see [Heb. 13:7-16].

Gospel

For the Hieromartyr:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 67]. The Lord said:

12 ³²“Cease being afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³“Sell your possessions and give alms. Make for yourselves purses which do not become old, an unfailing treasure in the heavens, where no thief draweth near nor moth destroyeth; ³⁴“for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ³⁵“Let your loins be girded about and the lamps be kept burning; ³⁶“and be ye like to men waiting for their own lord—whenever he should depart from the wedding festivities—that when he cometh and knocketh, straightway, they might open to him. ³⁷“Happy are those slaves whom the lord, after he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say to you that he shall gird himself about and shall have them recline at table, and will come forth and minister to them. ³⁸“And if he should come in the second watch, and in the third watch should he come, and find them thus, happy are those slaves. ³⁹“But know ye this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰“Ye therefore also keep on becoming ready, for in the hour ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 23rd – Civil Calendar
April 10th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Terence, Africanus, Maximus, Pompeius and 36 others with them.

They suffered for Christ and were crowned with wreaths of glory in the time of the Emperor Decius. By the emperor’s orders, the governor of Africa notified all the people that they must offer sacrifice to idols. In the case of opposition, the governor was to put the stubborn to harsh torture. Hearing this threat, many lapsed from the Faith and worshipped idols. But these forty martyrs remained steadfast, for which they were put to torture. St. Terence encouraged his companions with these words: ‘Let us, my brethren, keep ourselves from denying Christ our God; that He may not deny us before His heavenly Father and the holy angels.’ The governor divided them into two groups; thirty-six of them, after flogging and having salt rubbed in their open wounds, he beheaded. But the first four he cast into prison with heavy chains round their necks and on their hands and feet. An angel of God appeared to them in the prison and touched their chains, which fell from them. Then the angel brought them a table abundantly heaped with food, and fed them. They were again taken out and tortured, and again shut up in the prison. Also, the governor ordered sorcerers to gather as many poisonous reptiles as possible, such as snakes and scorpions, and to shut them up with the martyrs. But the reptiles would not touch the men of God, but huddled together in one corner, where they remained for three days. When the prison was opened on the third day, the reptiles fell on the sorcerers and bit them. At last the governor passed sentence of death on these four martyrs. When they were taken to the scaffold, they joyfully sang psalms and hymns of thanksgiving to God, Who had accounted them worthy of a martyr’s death. They suffered with honor and attained to the kingdom in the year 250.

2. The 6,000 Holy Martyrs in Georgia.

In the wilderness of David-Garejeli in Georgia, there were twelve monasteries in which monks had lived the ascetic life for centuries. In 1615, Shah Abbas I invaded Georgia, laid it waste and slew innumerable Christians. One day, while out hunting at dawn on the day of Pascha itself, he saw the light of many candles shining in the hills. This was the monks of all twelve monasteries in procession all round the Church of the Resurrection, walking with candles in their hands. When the shah discovered that it was monks, he asked in disbelief: ‘Isn’t the whole of Georgia put to the sword by now?’ and ordered his generals to go and slaughter the monks at once. An angel of God appeared to Abbot Arsenius, and revealed their imminent death to him, and Arsenius informed the brethren. They then all received Communion in the Holy Mysteries and prepared for death. Then the attackers arrived, hacked the abbot to pieces when he came out ahead of the others, and then killed all the rest. They all suffered with honor and were crowned with unfading wreaths in 1615. Thus ended the history of these famous monasteries, which had been like a flame of spiritual enlightenment in Georgia for more than 1,000 years. There remain just two today: St. David and St. John the Baptist. The King of Georgia, Archil, gathered the remains of all the martyrs and buried them. Their relics are to this day full of myrrh for the healing of those in sickness. [These saints are commemorated on Bright Tuesday.]

FOR CONSIDERATION

When a man detaches his mind from the earth and opens it to God with the desire of pleasing Him, then God reveals His will to him in various ways. St. Peter Damascene writes: ‘If a man has a wholehearted desire to please God, to him will God show His will through his thoughts, or through some other person or through holy Scripture.’ Such a man will be careful and will await the promptings of God, both inward and outward. For him there is no such thing as chance, and the world becomes for him as a ten-stringed harp that gives forth no sound but in response to the finger of God.

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.