Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 101]. Brethren:

9 ⁶It is not as though the word of God hath failed. For they are not all Israel those who are of Israel; ⁷nor because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children, but, “In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee [Gen. 21:12]”; ⁸that is, the children of the flesh, these are not children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for a seed. ⁹For this word is of promise: “According to this time will I come, and there shall be a son to Sarah [cf. Gen. 18:10, 14].” ¹⁰And not only this, but when Rebecca also conceived by one, our father Isaac ¹¹(for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works, but of the One Who calleth), ¹²it was said to her, “The greater shall serve the lesser [Gen. 25:23].” ¹³Even as it hath been written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated [Mal. 1:2, 3].”

¹⁴What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it not be! ¹⁵For He saith to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomsoever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomsoever I will have compassion [Ex. 33:19].” ¹⁶So then it is not of the one who willeth, nor of the one who runneth, but of God Who showeth mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, “For this very thing I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and so that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth [Ex. 9:16].” ¹⁸So then to whom He will, He hath mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then to me, “Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath withstood His express will?”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 38]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ³²“Everyone who shall confess in Me before men, I also will confess in him before My Father Who is in the heavens. ³³“But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Who is in the heavens. ³⁴“Never think that I came to cast peace on the earth; I came not to cast peace, but a sword. ³⁵“For I came to divide in two a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶“and a man’s enemies shall be those of his own household.”

11 ¹And it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, He passed over from that place to teach and preach in their cities.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Bessarion the Wonder-worker of Egypt, and our venerable Father Hilarion the New, Abbot of the Dalmaton Monastery, and the holy five Virgin-martyrs, Martha, Mary, Kyria, Vareria (Valeria), and Markia of Palestine (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 7^th of June).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 19th – Civil Calendar
June 6th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Bessarion.

Born and educated in Egypt, he devoted himself to the spiritual life at an early age, and ‘never soiled the spiritual garment in which he was clothed at his Baptism’. He visited St. Gerasimos by the Jordan and learned from St. Isidore of Pelusium. He conquered his flesh in strict fasting and vigils, but as far as possible, hid his asceticism from men. He once spent forty days in prayer, neither eating nor sleeping, and had one single garment that he wore summer and winter. He had a great gift of wonder-working. He had no fixed abode, but lived in the mountains and forests, healing the sick and performing many other miracles to help men and glorify God. He entered peacefully into rest in 466. (In the Greek Prologue, this saint is commemorated on February 20th.)

2. Our Holy Father Hilarion the New.

Abbot of the Dalmatian monastery in Constantinople, he was a disciple of Gregory of Decapolis and an imitator of the life of Hilarion the Great, whose name he took. Strong in prayer, enduring and courageous in suffering, he suffered much for the sake of the holy icons in the days of the iconoclast emperors, Leo the Armenian and others. Then the Emperor Leo was killed by his personal bodyguard in the very church and at the very spot where he had first scoffed at the holy icons and from which he had removed the first icon, and holy Hilarion was let out of prison—but only for a while. He was again tortured and held in prison right up to the time of the Orthodox Empress Theodora. He was gifted with insight and discernment, and saw angels of God taking the soul of St. Theodore the Studite to heaven. Being pleasing to God, he entered into rest in the kingdom of heaven in 845, at the age of seventy.

3. Our Holy Mothers, the Martyrs Archelais, Thecla and Susanna.

As pure and virginal nuns, they lived the ascetic life in an unknown monastery near Rome. When a persecution of Christians arose under the wicked Emperor Diocletian, they fled to Campania and settled near the town of Nola. Their holy life could not be concealed, and people from nearby began to come to them for counsel, instruction and help in various trials and sicknesses, and they were finally seized by the pagans and taken for trial. They publicly and freely confessed their faith in Christ. When the judge, Leontius, questioned holy Archelais about the Christian Faith, she replied: ‘It is by the power of Christ that I overcome the power of the devil and teach the people understanding and knowledge of the one, true God. By the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, it is given that, through me His servant, the sick find healing.’ All three maidens were whipped, flogged with heavy staves, left to languish in prison and finally beheaded. When they were led out to the scaffold, angels appeared to them, which were seen by some of the executioners and inspired such fear in them that they dared not lift up their swords against the holy maidens. They, however, urged the executioners to finish their task. And thus, as lambs, were they beheaded in the year 293, and went to the kingdom of Christ to rest in eternity and delight in beholding the face of God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Rejoicing in iniquity is a filthy garment in which our souls at times take pleasure in clothing themselves. At the hour in which you rejoice at your brother’s falling into sin, you also have fallen, to the joy of the devil, who has caught two fish with one hook. Brotherhood in the flesh is a great bond, but brotherhood in the spirit is greater. If you mourn at the sins of your brother in the flesh, how can you not mourn at the sins of your brother in the spirit? If you conceal the sin of your brother in the flesh, why do you proclaim to the housetops the sin of your brother in the spirit? Who are your brethren in the spirit? All Christians; all who communicate together with you from the one Cup, receiving the one life. Oh, how great was the brotherly love of the saints! How far removed from them was rejoicing in iniquity! The following is told of St. Bessarion: Once all the monks were gathered at prayer in the church. The abbot went up to one of the brethren, who had committed some sin, and told him to leave the church. The monk went outside, and Bessarion followed him, saying: ‘I also am so great a sinner.’

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.