Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 172]. Brethren:

2 ¹⁴Thanks be to God Who always causeth us to triumph in the Christ, and maketh manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Him by us in every place. ¹⁵For we are to God a sweet smelling fragrance of Christ in those being saved and in those perishing: ¹⁶to some on the one hand an odor of death to death, and to others an odor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not as the many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before the face of God speak we in Christ.

3 ¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? If not, do we need, as some, epistles of commendation to you or commendatory ones from you? ²Ye are our epistle, which hath been inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, ³since it is manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, which hath not been inscribed with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in stony tablets, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 95]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

23 ²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and ye leave the weightier matters of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave aside those others. ²⁴“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel! ²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but within they are full of plunder and incontinence. ²⁶“Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the dish, that the outside of them might become clean also. ²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like tombs which have been whitewashed, which on the one hand appear beautiful outwardly, but on the other hand they are full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness within. ²⁸“Thus ye also on the one hand appear righteous to men outwardly, but on the other hand ye are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness within.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Kallinikos of Gangra in Asia Minor, and the Martyr Theodote and her three sons in Bithynia (commemorated on some Greek calendars on the 22^nd of December).

Epistle

For St. Kallinikos:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 99]. Brethren:

8 ²⁸We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose. ²⁹For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformable to the image of His Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰But whom He foreordained, these also He called; and whom He called, these also He justified; and whom He justified, these also He glorified. ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He Who indeed spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God? God is the One Who justifieth. ³⁴Who is the one who condemneth? Christ is the One Who died, but much more is He the One also Who was raised, Who also is at the right of God, Who also intercedeth for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶Even as it hath been written: “For on account of Thee, we are being put to death the whole day; we were counted as sheep of slaughter [Ps. 43(44):23(22)].” ³⁷But in all these things we more than conquer through the One Who loved us. ³⁸For I have been persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things coming, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 11th – Civil Calendar
July 29th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Kallinikos.

Born in Cilicia and brought up in Christian piety, he left all and began to preach the Gospel. He was arrested in Ankyra by the pagan governor, Sacerdos. When the governor, in fury, threatened him with torture if he would not worship idols, St. Kallinikos replied: ‘Every torture for my God is as welcome to me as bread is to a hungry man.’ After harsh torture and beating, the governor shod him with iron shoes, with the nails sticking inwards, and ordered that he be driven out to the town of Gangra, for he did not dare to have him further tortured or killed in Ankyra, as many men, beholding the heroic endurance of the man of God, were turning to the Christian Faith. On the way, the soldiers became thirsty and there was no water. St. Kallinikos prayed to God and brought forth water from a rock. When they arrived in Gangra, the torturers threw Kallinikos into a fiery furnace. The saint prayed to God, saying: ‘I thank Thee, O heavenly Father, that Thou makest me worthy in this hour to die for Thy holy name!’ He then went into the fire. When the fire was extinguished, his dead body was found whole and untouched by the flames. He suffered with honor, and was crowned with a wreath of eternal glory, in about 250.

2. The Holy Martyr Seraphima.

A maiden from Antioch, she lived in the house of one Sabina, wife of a senator, whom she brought to the Christian Faith. Hearing of her, Virilos, a torturer of Christians, ordered that she be brought before him. As Seraphima remained steadfast in her faith, the torturer ordered that she be cast into prison, and he sent some young men to spend the night with her and defile her. Seraphima was praying to God in the prison when the young men arrived at the door. There, suddenly, an angel of God appeared in light before them with a sword in his hand, and they fell as dead, utterly without consciousness and incapable of movement. The following day, a torturer begged Seraphima to restore the young men to consciousness by her prayers. Dismissing all this as magic, Virilos ordered that this holy maiden be burned with torches and then beaten with rods. When they were beating her, a piece of rod broke off and flew through the air, striking Virilos in the eye and blinding him. Finally, this handmaid of Christ was beheaded and gave her soul to God. The devout Sabina buried her body, from which a healing myrrh began to flow. St. Seraphima suffered during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117-138).

3. The Holy Martyr Theodotia.

A young widow with three children, Theodotia labored in the service of God in Thessalonica, together with St. Anastasia (see December 22nd). In the time of Diocletian’s persecution, she was condemned to death and thrown into a fiery furnace together with her three children. Their holy souls soared up to their heavenly abode.

4. The Holy Martyr Eustathius (Evstati) of Mtskheta.

A Persian, born in the village of Arbuket, he went to the town of Mtskheta at the age of thirty, and seeing the life and faith of the Christians, received Baptism. He was tortured for Christ and beheaded in Tiflis in 589. His relics are preserved in the cathedral at Mtskheta, and give healing to the faithful.

FOR CONSIDERATION, From “My Life in Christ”—St. John of Kronstadt.

Our God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.” He is not a God of torments and punishments. Our torments are the fruit of our sins and the work of the incorporeal fallen spirits. Therefore if you suffer grievously, only blame your sins and the devil, but chiefly yourself, because the devil would not do you any harm if he did not find anything in you that he could fasten on to.

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.