Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 37]. In those days:

15 ³⁵Paul and Barnabas were spending time in Antioch, teaching and preaching as good tidings the word of the Lord, with many others also. ³⁶And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return now and visit our brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are holding fast.” ³⁷And Barnabas determined to take with them John, who is called Mark. ³⁸But Paul kept on thinking it not meet to take along that one, since he withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. ³⁹Then a sharp contention arose, so as to separate them from one another: and Barnabas, having taken Mark, sailed away to Cyprus; ⁴⁰and Paul, having chosen for himself Silas, went forth, having been commended to the grace of God by the brethren. ⁴¹And he passed through Syria and Cilicia, rendering more firm the churches.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 38]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

10 ²⁷“The sheep, those that are Mine, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸“And I give them eternal life, and in no wise shall they ever perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹“My Father, Who hath given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰“I and the Father are one.” ³¹Then the Jews took up stones again that they might stone Him. ³²Jesus answered them, “Many good works I showed you from My Father. For what kind of work among these are ye trying to stone Me?” ³³The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we are not about to stone Thee, but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “Ye are gods [Ps. 81(82):6]”’? ³⁵“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came to pass—and the Scripture is not able to be broken— ³⁶“do ye say of Him, Whom the Father sanctified and sent forth into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest,’ because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷“If I do not the works of My Father, cease believing Me. ³⁸“But if I do, even if ye believe Me not, believe the works, that ye might come to know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Timothy the Reader and Mavra of Antinoe in Egypt, and our venerable Father Theodosios, Abbot of the Monastery of the Caves, initiator of the cnobitic monastic life in Russia.

Epistle

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 334]. Brethren:

13 ⁷Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: ⁸Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages. ⁹Cease being carried about by various and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be confirmed by grace, not by foods, in which those walking therein were not profited. ¹⁰We have an altar from which those serving the tabernacle have no authority to eat; ¹¹for the bodies of those animals, “whose blood is being brought into the holies for sins” by the high priest, “are being burned outside of the encampment [cf. Lev. 16:27].” ¹²Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered outside of the gate. ¹³Let us be going forth therefore to Him outside of the encampment, bearing His reproach; ¹⁴for we have no abiding city here, but we seek the coming one. ¹⁵Through Him, then, let us be offering up a “sacrifice of praise [Lev. 7:2(12)]” continually to God, that is, “the fruit of the lips [cf. Hos. 14:3(2); Is. 57:19],” giving thanks to His name. ¹⁶But cease being forgetful of doing good and of contributing; for God is well pleased with such sacrifices.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 16th – Civil Calendar
May 3rd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Timothy and Mavra.*

Strange was the destiny of these wonderful martyrs, husband and newly-wedded wife. Twenty days after their wedding, they were taken for trial for their Christian Faith before Arrianos, the pagan governor of the Thebaid, in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Timothy was a reader in the church where he lived. ‘Who are you?’ the governor asked him. Timothy replied: ‘I am a Christian and a reader in the Church of God.’ The governor said to him further: ‘You see, don’t you, the instruments prepared for torture?’ Timothy replied: ‘But you don’t see the angels of God, which are strengthening me.’ Then the governor commanded that he be pierced through the ears with iron rods, so that the pupils of his eyes leapt out with the pain. They then suddenly hanged him by the feet and stuffed his mouth with wood. Mavra was at first afraid of torture, but when her husband gave her courage, she also confessed her steadfast faith before the governor. He commanded that, first, her hair be torn out, then all her fingers cut off. After many other tortures, to which they would quickly have succumbed had they not been strengthened by the grace of God, they were both crucified, one in sight of the other. And thus, hanging on their crosses, they remained alive for nine full days, counseling each other and encouraging each other in endurance. On the tenth day they gave their spirits into God’s hands, the God for Whom they had suffered crucifixion, and thus became worthy of His kingdom. They suffered with honor for Christ in 286.

* Author’s note: ‘Mavra’ means ‘black,’ from which it comes that in Macedonia the day of these saints is known as ‘Black Day’. On the island of Zakynthos there is a church of Saints Timothy and Mavra, in which many miraculous healings have taken place.

2. Our Holy Father Theodosius (Feodosy) of the Kiev Caves.

From his earliest youth, he fled from laughter and merriment and gave himself to pondering on God and prayer. Because of this, he was often beaten by his mother, and especially when she saw one day an iron belt around his naked body, from which his shirt was stained with blood. Reading one day in the Gospel the words of the Lord: ‘He who loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me,’ he left his parents’ home and fled to Kiev, to the cave of our holy father Anthony. Anthony received him and quickly made him a monk. When his mother found him, and called him to return home, he spoke with her and she then became a nun in a women’s monastery. By his asceticism, his meekness and his goodness, Theodosius quickly outstripped all the other monks and became very dear to Anthony, who made him abbot of the monastery. In his time, the number of brethren in the monastery grew very rapidly, churches and cells were built, and the Rule of the Studion was introduced in its fullness. God endowed Theodosius with great grace in response to his virginal purity, labors in prayer and love for his neighbor, and so this man of God had great power over unclean spirits and healed sicknesses and had insight into the destinies of men. With St. Anthony, St. Theodosius is regarded as the restorer and organizer of Russian monasticism. He entered peacefully into rest in 1074, and his healing relics rest beside those of St. Anthony.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Abba John Kolovos asked his monks: ‘Who or what sold Joseph?’ One of them answered: ‘His brethren.’ To this the elder said: ‘Not his brothers, but his humility.’ Joseph could have revealed that he was their brother, and thus oppose the sale. But he kept silent about that. By humility, then, was he sold, and this same humility later made him ruler of Egypt. We guard ourselves too carefully from the outward difficulties encountered in giving ourselves over to the will of God, and so we lose the good fruits that are reaped in difficult circumstances endured with humility. Abba Poemen spoke wisely thus: ‘We have set aside the light yoke; that is, self-instruction, and loaded ourselves with the heavy one; that is, self-righteousness.’ Christians accept every difficulty as payment for past or present sins, seeking the will of God with faith in all things, and looking to the end with hope.

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.