Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 117]. Brethren:

15 ⁷Be receiving one another, even as also the Christ Himself received us to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ hath become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, in order to confirm the promises to the fathers, ⁹and so that the nations might glorify God for His mercy, even as it hath been written: “For this cause I will confess to Thee among the nations, and I will chant to Thy name [Ps. 17(18):50(49)].” ¹⁰And again he saith: “Rejoice, ye nations, with His people [Deut. 32:43]!” ¹¹And again: “Praise the Lord, all the nations; and praise Him, all the peoples [Ps. 116(117):1].” ¹²And again, Esaias saith: “There shall be a root of Jesse; and the One Who riseth up to rule over the nations, on Him shall the nations hope [Is. 11:10].” ¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, in order for you to abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴And I myself also am persuaded concerning you, my brethren, that ye yourselves also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, being able also to admonish one another. ¹⁵But I am writing more boldly to you, brethren, in part, as reminding you, because of the grace which was given to me by God, ¹⁶in order for me to be a liturgist of Jesus Christ to the nations, ministering as priest in sacred sacrifice the Gospel of God, that the offering of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 48]. At that time:

12 ³⁸Some of the Scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from Thee.” ³⁹But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign; and there shall be no sign given to it, except the sign of Jonas the prophet. ⁴⁰“For even as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹“Men, Ninevites, shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for they repented at the proclamation of Jonas; and behold, something more than Jonas is here. ⁴²“A queen of the south shall be raised in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something more than Solomon is here. ⁴³“But whenever the unclean spirit should go out from the man, he goeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. ⁴⁴“Then he saith, ‘I will return to my house from which I came out.’ And after he cometh, he findeth it unoccupied, swept clean, and adorned. ⁴⁵“Then he goeth and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the latter things of that man become worse than those of the former. Thus it shall be also to this wicked generation.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Leontios, and those with him, Hypatios and Theodoulos.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 29].

12 ¹At that time, Herod the king put forth his hands to maltreat some of those from the Church. ²And he killed Iakovos the brother of John with a sword. ³And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he in addition went on to seize Peter also—and they were the days of unleavened bread— ⁴whom after he laid hold of, he also put in prison, and delivered him up to four sets of four soldiers to guard him, purposing after the passover to bring him forth to the people. ⁵Peter, therefore, on the one hand, was being guarded in the prison, but on the other hand, earnest prayer was being made by the Church to God on his behalf. ⁶And when Herod was about to bring him forth, on that very night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and guards also were before the door keeping the prison. ⁷And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the chamber; and he struck the side of Peter, and woke him up, saying, “Rise up quickly.” And the chains from his hands fell off of him. ⁸And the angel said to him, “Gird thyself about, and bind on thy sandals.” And so he did. And he saith to him, “Cast about thee thine outer garment, and follow thou me.” ⁹And he went out and kept on following him, and did not know that it was real that which was happening by means of the angel, but he kept on thinking he saw a vision. ¹⁰And after they passed a first guard and a second, they came up to the gate, the iron one, which leadeth into the city, which was opened to them of itself; and having gone out, they advanced one street, and straightway the angel departed from him. ¹¹And after Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know of a truth, that the Lord sent forth His angel, and took me out of the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”

Gospel

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.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 1st – Civil Calendar
June 18th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Leontius.

A Roman military commander in Tripoli in Phoenicia in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, he was born in Yelada, ‘of great physical stature, powerful, strong and bold in battle’. The imperial governor, Hadrian, sent a military detachment to seize Leontius, Hadrian being a fierce adversary and persecutor of Christians. The commander of the detachment, Hypatius, fell ill on the way with a grave fever and the unit had therefore to slow its pace. One night an angel of the Lord appeared to Hypatius and said to him: ‘If you desire to be healed, you and your soldiers must cry to heaven three times: “O God of Leontius, help me!”’ Hypatius told his companions about this vision, and they all shouted together as the angel had instructed him, and Hypatius was immediately healed. This miracle amazed them all, and especially a certain Theodulus. Then Hypatius and Theodulus went on ahead of the other soldiers to find Leontius. Leontius received them courteously and offered them refreshment. When he had expounded his faith in Christ, their hearts began to burn with love towards the Lord, and a bright cloud descended upon Hypatius and Theodulus, shedding dew over them. In this way the Holy Spirit of God Himself baptized these two converted souls while St. Leontius spoke the words: ‘In the name of the All-holy Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ The evil Hadrian discovered that Hypatius and Theodulus had become Christians and ordered that they be beaten without mercy and then beheaded with an axe. In this manner Leontius’ spiritual children died. Then Hadrian ordered a most cruel torture for Leontius, but Leontius remained unwavering in his faith. His entire body was covered with wounds, but he prayed to God unceasingly to remain with him. In the midst of these most vicious torments, an angel of the Lord appeared to comfort and encourage him. At last they threw the martyr onto the ground and flogged him until he gave his soul to God. Leontius’ sufferings were witnessed by a certain Notarius, who recorded all that he saw on tablets and placed them in the martyr’s grave. St. Leontius suffered with honor in the year 73.

2. Our Holy Father Leontius the Clairvoyant.

A Greek from the Peloponnese, he lived the ascetic life for sixty years in the monastery of Dionysiou, and went to his rest in 1605 at the age of eighty-five. It is said of Leontius that he left the monastery only once in all the sixty years: he entered it when he first went to Dionysiou and left it when they carried him out to bury him. He had a miraculous gift of discernment and prophecy, and myrrh flowed from his relics after his death.

FOR CONSIDERATION

We see how carefully a scientist investigates natural phenomena, and we must investigate the appearances and acts of God’s grace with still greater care. Consider what one of our great spiritual teachers, Saint John of Kronstadt, witnesses about the act of Communion: ‘I am amazed at the grandeur and creative power of divine Communion. An old woman, who was spitting blood and was so completely exhausted that she was unable to eat, began to recover on the day she received Communion from me. A young girl close to death began to recover after Communion; to eat, drink and talk, whereas she had been earlier almost at her last breath unconscious, in convulsions and unable to eat or drink anything.’ May every priest ponder and observe the action of holy Communion with the attention of a scientist and the love of a man of prayer, as Saint John did.

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.