Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 107].

11 ²⁵Brethren, I do not wish you to be ignorant regarding this mystery—in order that ye be not wise in yourselves—that hardness in part hath happened to Israel until the fullness of the nations should enter in. ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved, even as it hath been written: “The Deliverer shall come out of Sion, and He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; ²⁷“and this is the covenant from Me to them, whenever I should take away their sins [cf. Is. 59:20, 21; Jer. 38(31):31, 34].” ²⁸On the one hand, as regards the Gospel they are enemies for your sakes; but on the other hand, as regards the election they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. ²⁹For not to be repented of are the gifts of grace and calling of God. ³⁰For even as ye also once disobeyed God, but now ye were shown mercy by their disobedience, ³¹so also these now disobeyed, that by the mercy shown to you they also might have mercy shown them; ³²for God shut up all in disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all. ³³O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ³⁴“For who did know the mind of the Lord? Or who became His counselor [Is. 40:13]?” ³⁵Or who first gave to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him? ³⁶For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be the glory to the ages. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 44].

12 ¹At that time, on the sabbath, Jesus went through the sown fields; and His disciples hungered, and began to pluck the ears of grain and to eat. ²But after the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Behold, Thy disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on a sabbath.” ³But He said to them, “Did ye not read what David did when he hungered and those with him: ⁴“how he entered into the house of God and ate the loaves set forth before the presence of God, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only? ⁵“Or did ye not read in the law that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? ⁶“But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷“But if ye had known what this is, ‘I wish mercy and not sacrifice [cf. Hos. 6:7],’ ye would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸“For the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Aquilina, and our holy father among the saints, Triphyllios, Bishop of Lefkosia in Cyprus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 26th – Civil Calendar
June 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Aquilina.

Born in the Palestinian town of Biblos of Christian parents, little Aquilina was already, at the age of seven, living as a true Christian, and by the age of ten was so filled with divine understanding and the grace of the Holy Spirit that she used to preach Christ with great power and zeal to her girl friends. When Diocletian’s persecution began, Aquilina was handed over to the imperial governor, Volusianus, who was more like a beast than a man. He ordered that she first be flogged and then that a heated rod be passed through her ears and brain. Until the last moment, the virgin Aquilina freely and clearly confessed Christ the Lord; but when her brains started flowing with her blood from her head, she fell as if dead. Believing her to be indeed dead, the governor ordered that her body be taken outside the city and thrown onto a dungheap for the dogs to eat. But, during the night, an angel of God appeared to her and said: ‘Arise and be healed!’ and the maiden arose and was restored to health, and stood a long time expressing her gratitude and praise to God and begging Him not to deny her a martyr’s death. A voice was heard from heaven: ‘Go; and it shall be to thee as thou desirest,’ and Aquilina went into the city. The city gates opened of their own accord for her, and she passed through them and went to the governor’s palace like a ghost, standing before his bed and showing herself to him. The governor was seized with unspeakable terror when he saw the maiden whom he had thought dead. On the following day, he ordered the executioner to take Aquilina out and behead her with the sword. Before her execution, she knelt in prayer and surrendered her spirit into God’s hands, leaving her dead body to be beheaded by the executioner. Her relics gave healing to many of the sick. St. Aquilina was twelve years old when she suffered for the Lord; she endured her Passion and was crowned with a wreath of martyrdom in the year 293.

2. St. Triphyllius, Bishop of Levcosia in Cyprus.

A pupil of St. Spiridon and later his fellow-bishop on the island of Cyprus, he was a merciful man, pure in thought, chaste in his life, a living fountain of tears, and a great ascetic. He governed Christ’s flock well, and when he went to his rest, received his crown among the great hierarchs in heaven. He entered peacefully into rest in 370.

3. St. Anna and her son John.

Taken as an orphan into the house of a nobleman and treated as an adopted child, she was cared for and educated in that house. The rich man considered her worthy to be married to his son. When the old man died, the family urged the son to put his wife away because of her low birth and to marry another more suited to his rank and wealth. The rich man’s son feared God and did not want to do this. Seeing her husband in difficulties with his family, Anna secretly left him and ran off to a distant island where there was not a living soul. She was pregnant, and soon gave birth to a son. They labored on the island for thirty years in fasting and prayer. Then, by divine providence, a hieromonk landed on the island. He baptized her son and named him John. Anna lived her ascetic life in the fifth century and died peacefully.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Meekness and gentleness adorned the saints and gave them the strength and the motive not to return evil for evil. When the Emperor Constantius, Constantine’s son, fell ill in Antioch, he summoned St. Spiridon to come and pray over him. In company with his deacon, Triphyllius, St. Spiridon left Cyprus, and arriving at the imperial court in Antioch, asked for admittance. He was clad in poor clothing, with a simple woven cap on his head and a palm staff in his hand, and he was clutching to his breast a small earthenware pot in which he had some oil that had been set before the Holy Cross (such being the custom among Christians in Jerusalem). Dressed in this way, worn out by fasting and the journey, the saint gave no hint of his rank and dignity. And so, when he wished to set foot in the emperor’s court, one of the imperial servants, taking him for a pauper, struck him a blow on one cheek. The meek and forgiving saint turned the other cheek to him. When he managed, with great difficulty, to reach the emperor, he placed his hand on Constantius’ head, and the emperor immediately recovered.

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.