Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 189]. Brethren:

9 ¹²The ministration of this public work is not only filling up the needs of the saints, but is abounding also through many thanksgivings to God, ¹³since, through the proof of this ministration, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Gospel of the Christ, and for the open-handedness of your contribution toward them and toward all; ¹⁴and in their entreaty on your behalf, they are longing for you on account of the surpassing grace of God upon you. ¹⁵Now thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

10 ¹Now I, Paul, myself beseech you through the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, who in person, indeed, am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you: ²but I entreat you that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I am counting on myself to be daring against some, who count us as walking according to the flesh. ³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, ⁵overthrowing reasonings and every high thing which lifteth itself up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ, ⁶and holding fast in readiness to avenge all disobedience, whenever your obedience should be fulfilled.

⁷Ye look at things according to appearance! If anyone hath persuaded himself to be of Christ, let him consider this of himself, that even as he is of Christ, even so are we of Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 13]. At that time:

3 ²⁰Jesus went into a house; and a crowd cometh together again, so that it is not possible for them even to eat bread. ²¹And after those with Him heard of it, they went out to lay hold of Him; for they were saying, “He is beside Himself.” ²²And the scribes, who were from Jerusalem, came down and kept on saying, “He hath Beelzebul,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casteth out the demons.” ²³And He called them to Himself, and was speaking to them in parables, “How is Satan able to cast out Satan? ²⁴“And if a kingdom should be divided against itself, that kingdom is not able to stand; ²⁵“and if a house should be divided against itself, that house is not able to stand. ²⁶“And if Satan hath risen up against himself, and hath been divided, he is not able to stand, but hath an end. ²⁷“No one in anywise, having entered into the strong one’s house, is able to plunder his vessels, unless he should first bind the strong one; and then he will plunder his house.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Transfiguration, and our venerable Father Maximos the Confessor (transferred to the 12^th of August on account of the Leave-taking), and our holy father among the saints, Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh and Wonder-worker of Zadonsk.

Epistle

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 26th – Civil Calendar
August 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Hippolytus.

Hippolytus was a military supervisor and prison governor in Rome, born and brought up a pagan. When St. Laurence the archdeacon was thrown into prison, Hippolytus was ordered by the emperor to keep a strict eye on this prisoner. Hippolytus saw with his own eyes how Laurence restored the sight of the blind Lucillus and how he healed many other of the sick, and he became a Christian. When St. Laurence baptized him, Hippolytus had a heavenly vision and said: ‘I see innocent souls in great joy’. He then took Laurence into his own home, and all those in it were baptized, including his old nurse Concordia, nineteen souls in all. When Laurence was slain for Christ, Hippolytus took the martyr’s body by night, wrapped it in a winding-sheet and buried it. This somehow came to the ears of the Emperor Valerian, and on the third day after Laurence’s death, Hippolytus was arrested and taken before the emperor. Refusing to deny the true Faith, he was struck on the mouth with stones. The emperor then ordered that he be stripped and flayed. Naked before the emperor, Hippolytus said to him: ‘You have not stripped me, but have begun to clothe me!’ They then threw him to the ground and flayed him mercilessly, but Hippolytus only cried out: ‘I am a Christian!’ The emperor, hearing that Hippolytus and his whole household were Christians, ordered that they all be brought. Old Concordia said: ‘We prefer to die in honor in the Christian Faith with our master than to live in dishonor with you.’ She was killed first, and then the other eighteen, all before Hippolytus’ eyes. Finally, Hippolytus was bound behind a wild horse and dragged hither and thither, until the martyr gave his soul to God.

2. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.

Born in 1724 in the village of Korotsk, in the Novgorod region, into a simple, peasant family, he received the monastic schema at the age of thirty-four and very soon, because of his ascesis and spiritual wisdom, was given higher and higher service until he was consecrated Bishop of Voronezh. He served as bishop for a little under seven years and then, because of ill-health, retired to the monastery of Zadonsk and entered into rest there in 1783. His wonder-working relics are kept there to this day. A great ascetic of the Russian Church, he was a rare shepherd, a man of prayer and the writer of beautiful spiritual works. In his wisdom, his holiness and asceticism, he could be counted an equal of the great fathers of the Orthodox Church of former times. Because of the many witnessed miracles that were performed over his relics, he was first proclaimed a saint by the people, and then officially by the Church in 1861.

3. Our Holy Mother, the Empress Irene, in monasticism, Xenia.

She was the wife of the Emperor Kalo-John (John II Komnenos, 1118-1143). Apart from her monastic asceticism and good works, she is famed for having founded the Monastery of the Pantocrator in Constantinople, one of the most famous and most beautiful monasteries in that city. St. Stefan of Dečani later lived there in asceticism.

4. Our Holy Father Seridos.

Famed for founding a community near Gaza in Palestine, in which famous men such as St. Barsanuphius, St. John, Abba Dorotheos, Dositheos and others lived the ascetic life, St. Seridos departed this earthly life in the sixth century and went to the eternal joy of his Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Give thanks to the Lord and do not forget His great ones, the poor and needy; they can do much for the Lord God.’ These are the words of the great Russian ascetic of the nineteenth century, Father Nazariah, abbot of Valaam. He spoke these words to the wife of a high dignitary in St. Petersburg who had fallen under the tsar’s displeasure because of some serious accusation. The accused official fell ill from anxiety and lay in bed. Hearing that Father Nazariah was in St. Petersburg, the wife of this official hurried off to find him, recounted to him the misfortune that had befallen and begged him to pray for her husband. ‘Have you got any small change?’ asked Father Nazariah. The woman brought some and gave it to him, and Father Nazariah went away. He returned the same evening and gladdened the woman with this news: ‘Glory to God! All those close to the tsar have promised their prayers!’ The woman naturally thought of Tsar Alexander Pavlovitch and his courtiers, while the elder was thinking of the beggars in the streets, among whom he had distributed the coins and whom he had set to pray for this woman’s husband. The news came that the tsar had ordered that the matter of this official be put to debate. This was just what the official had desired. When his wife began to thank Father Nazariah, he said: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, and do not forget His great ones, the poor and needy; they can do much for the 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.