Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Eleventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 123]. Brethren:

1 ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus, ⁵that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge, ⁶even as the testimony of the Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷so as to not lack in even one gift of grace, while ye eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹Faithful is God, by Whom ye were called into the communion of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 78]. At that time:

19 ³The Pharisees came to Jesus, putting Him to the test and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” ⁴And He answered and said to them, “Ye read, did ye not, that the One Who made them from the beginning ‘made them male and female [Gen. 1:27],’ ⁵“and said, ‘On account of this a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be into one flesh [Gen. 2:24]’? ⁶“Therefore they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God yoked together, let not man separate.” ⁷They say to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to divorce her?” ⁸He saith to them, “Moses, in view of your hard-heartedness, permitted you to divorce your wives; but it hath not been so from the beginning. ⁹“And I say to you, that whosoever shall divorce his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and he who marrieth her who hath been divorced, committeth adultery.” ¹⁰His disciples say to Him, “If the case of the man is so with the wife, it is not expedient to marry.” ¹¹But He said to them, “Not all find room for this saying, but those to whom it hath been given: ¹²“for there are eunuchs who were so born from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens. The one who is able to find room for it, let him make room.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the translation of the relics of the Proto-martyr Stephen the Archdeacon, and Blessed Basil of Moscow, Fool for Christ's sake and Wonder-worker.

Epistle

For the Proto-martyr:

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 17]. In those days:

6 ⁸Stephen, full of faith and of power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹But there rose up some of those from the synagogue which is called that of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. ¹⁰And they were not able to stand against the wisdom and the spirit by which he was speaking. ¹¹Then they suborned men, who said, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹²And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes. And having set upon him, they seized him, and brought him to the sanhedrin. ¹³And they set up false witnesses, saying, “This man ceaseth not speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; ¹⁴“for we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazaræan shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵And having looked intently upon him, all those sitting in the sanhedrin saw his face as though it were a face of an angel.

7 ¹Then the high priest said, “Are then these things so?” ²And he began saying, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, ³“and said to him, ‘Get thee out from thy land and from thy kindred, and come here into a land which I shall show thee [cf. Gen. 12:1].’ ⁴“Then after he went out from the land of the Chaldæans, he dwelt in Haran. And from that place, after his father died, He removed him into this land in which ye now dwell. ⁵“And He did not give him an inheritance in it, not even the breadth of a footstep. And yet He promised to give it to him for a possession, and his seed after him, though he had no child.... ⁴⁷“But Solomon built Him a house. ⁴⁸“But the Most High dwelleth not in temples made by hand, even as the prophet saith, ⁴⁹“‘The heaven is a throne to Me, and the earth a footstool of My feet; what manner of house will ye build Me,’ saith the Lord, ‘or what is the place of My rest [cf. Is. 66:1]? ⁵⁰“‘My hand did make all these things, did it not [cf. Is. 66:2]?’ ⁵¹“O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and in the ears, ye always fall in a direction contrary to the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, also do ye. ⁵²“Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they slew those who announced beforehand about the coming of the righteous One, of Whom now ye have become betrayers and murderers, ⁵³“ye who received the law by the disposition of angels, and guarded it not.” ⁵⁴And when they heard these things their hearts were sawn asunder, and they were gnashing their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into the heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right of God; ⁵⁶and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens having been opened and the Son of Man standing on the right of God.” ⁵⁷And they cried out with a loud voice, and they held their ears together, and rushed upon him with one accord. ⁵⁸And they cast him outside of the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses themselves laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man who was called Saul. ⁵⁹And they kept on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰And having knelt down, he cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not make this sin stand against them.” And having said this, he fell asleep.

For the Fool for Christ's Sake:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 87]. The Lord said this parable:

21 ³³“There was a certain man, a master of a house, who planted a vineyard, and put a hedge around it, and dug a wine-vat in it in which to press grapes, and built a tower. And he let it out to vinedressers, and went abroad. ³⁴“And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent forth his slaves to the vinedressers to receive his fruits. ³⁵“And the vinedressers took his slaves, and indeed beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶“Again he sent forth other slaves, more than the first; and they did to them in like manner. ³⁷“But afterwards he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸“But after the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us gain possession of his inheritance.’ ³⁹“And they took him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. ⁴⁰“Whenever the lord, therefore, of the vineyard should come, what shall he do to those vinedressers?” ⁴¹They say to Him, “He will evilly destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to other vinedressers who shall render to him the fruits in their seasons.” ⁴²Jesus saith to them, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner; this came to be from the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes [Ps. 117(118):22, 23; cf. Is. 28:16]’?”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 15th – Civil Calendar
August 2nd – Church Calendar

1. The Finding and Translation of the Relics of St. Stephen, the Archdeacon and Protomartyr.

When the wicked Jews stoned St. Stephen to death, they left his body for the dogs to eat. But God’s providence disposed otherwise. The martyr’s body lay in an open place outside the town a night and two days; then, on the second night, Gamaliel, Paul’s teacher and a secret follower of Christ, came and took his body to Caphargamala, and there buried it in a cave on his own land. Gamaliel buried his friend Nicodemus, who died lamenting over Stephen’s grave, in the same cave. He also buried his godson Abibus there, and in accordance with his wishes, was buried there himself. Centuries passed, and no one living knew the whereabouts of Stephen’s grave. But in 415, in the time of Patriarch John of Jerusalem, Gamaliel appeared three times in a dream to a priest, Lucian, in Caphargamala, and told him in minute detail about the burial of all the above mentioned, indicating precisely the forgotten place of their burial. Moved by this dream, Lucian informed the patriarch, and with his blessing, went with a group of men and dug up the four graves, Gamaliel having already told him in the dream which grave was which. A strong and fragrant aroma from the relics of these saints filled the cave. St. Stephen’s relics were solemnly translated to Sion and there buried with ceremony, and the relics of the others were taken to a hill above the cave and laid to rest in a church there. Many healings of the sick were performed in those days over the relics of St. Stephen. Later, they were taken to Constantinople. Thus the Lord crowned with great glory him who first shed his blood for His name.

2. The Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome and others with him.

He was pope in Rome from 254 to 257, and fought against the heretic Novatius. Healing Lucilla, the daughter of the tribune Nemesius, he baptized them both. He suffered in the time of Valerian with twelve of his priests, being beheaded during a celebration of the Liturgy.

3. Blessed Basil, the Fool for Christ of Moscow.

His father was called Jacob and his mother Anna. At the age of sixteen, he gave himself to the ascesis of folly for Christ, and persevered in that hard asceticism for seventy-two years, living to the age of eighty-eight. He went barefoot, bareheaded and in tatters, and had no settled shelter. He set sinners on the right way, reprimanded the nobles and had true insight into distant events. Suffering greatly from hunger, from cold and from the insults of men, Blessed Basil gave his holy soul to God. Tsar Ivan IV the Great was at his funeral, with the metropolitan. He was buried in the Moscow church of the most holy Mother of God, later renamed for him.

FOR CONSIDERATION

We must be patient and merciful towards sinners if we want our long-suffering God to be merciful to us. The great compassion of Blessed Alexander, Patriarch of Antioch, became proverbial. One of his scribes stole some gold from him and fled to the Thebaid. In the desert, some robbers seized him and took him off with them. Coming to know of this, Alexander sent 85 gold pieces to the robbers as a ransom. It was therefore said: ‘The mercy of Alexander cannot be overcome by any sin.’ St. John the Merciful writes: ‘Long-suffering is of God, being changeless, and His mercy is kind.... How many criminals who set out to do murder or to steal does He conceal, to avoid their being seized and put to torture? Pirates roam the seas, and He does not command the seas to drown them. How many falsely swear by the holy Mysteries, and He is patient, not repaying the evil here. Brigands rob on the highway, and He does not give them to the wild beasts to devour.... Immoral men go off with harlots, and He is patient. Why all this? He waits for repentance and conversion. Truly, God does not will that a sinner perish.... Therefore, my brethren, let us be ashamed before our most gracious Lord God.’

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.