Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 223]. Brethren:

3 ⁸To me, the one who is less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach the Gospel of the unsearchable wealth of the Christ among the nations, ⁹and to enlighten all as to what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages in God, Who created all things through Jesus Christ, ¹⁰in order that now the much-variegated wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and to the authorities in the heavenlies through the Church, ¹¹according to the purpose of the ages which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹²in Whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. ¹³Wherefore I ask you not to be fainthearted at mine afflictions on behalf of you, which is your glory. ¹⁴For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from Whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, ¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the wealth of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷that the Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith, having been rooted and founded in love, ¹⁸in order that ye might be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, ¹⁹and to know the love of the Christ which surpasseth knowledge, that ye might be filled to all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to Him Who is able to do exceedingly above all things that we ask for ourselves or think, according to the power which energizeth itself in us, ²¹to Him be the glory in the Church in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 51]. The Lord said:

For Gk. usage, see Mk. 11:22-26; for Sl. usage, see Mk. 11:23-26.

11 ²²“Be having faith in God. ²³“For verily I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, ‘Be thou taken away and be thou cast into the sea,’ and doubt not in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith is coming to pass, it shall be to him whatsoever he shall say. ²⁴“On this account I say to you, all things, whatsoever ye ask for yourselves when ye pray, keep on believing that ye are receiving them, and they shall be to you. ²⁵“And whenever ye stand praying, be forgiving if ye have anything against anyone, in order that your Father Who is in the heavens might also forgive your transgressions. ²⁶“But if ye forgive not, neither will your Father Who is in the heavens forgive your transgressions.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Nativity, and the Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 23rd – Civil Calendar
September 10th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora.

They were three sisters from some place in Asian Bithynia. Brought up in a Christian spirit, they withdrew from the city into the desert, desiring to lift up their minds to God and free themselves from the illusory world, and thus to live their lives with purity and virginity as true brides of Christ. They gave themselves to fasting, prayer and toil, and God adorned them with the gift of wonder-working. When people began to bring the sick to them for healing, they became known against their will. A certain governor, Fronton, heard of them and brought them to trial. Seeing them, the governor was amazed at their beauty, for, although they were nuns and their bodies were withered, their faces were radiant, illumined by an inner peace and the grace of God. The governor at first flattered them and promised to send them to the emperor, who would give them in marriage to his nobles, but when he realized that his flattery and promises were having no effect on these brides of Christ the Lord, he ordered that Menodora be put to torture and her sisters be thrown into prison. After harsh torture, the governor cried to Menodora, all wounded and covered in blood: ‘Offer sacrifice to the gods!’ To this the holy martyr replied: ‘Don’t you see that I am doing nothing but offering myself in sacrifice to my God?’ When she expired under torture, the governor brought out her two sisters and stood them beside Menodora’s dead body, and pointing to it, urged them to deny Christ. As they remained steadfast, he tortured them to death. At that, a thunderbolt fell from the sky and killed the soulless Fronton and his servants. Christians buried the bodies of these holy martyrs, who suffered some time between 305 and 311, in the time of Galerius, and entered into rest in the kingdom of Christ.

2. St. Pulcheria the Empress.

Daughter of the Emperor Arkadios, she vowed to remain in perpetual virginity, and as an earnest of this vow, had a table of gold and precious stones made for the cathedral. She reigned together with her brother Theodosios the Younger, and was greatly zealous for the Orthodox Faith. It was at her instigation that the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus was summoned, which condemned the Nestorian heresy. She built the famous church of the Mother of God at Vlachernai in Constantinople. After Theodosios’ death, she married Marcian, who was chosen as emperor, and lived with him as a brother. It was she who found the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. She entered into rest in the Lord on September 10th, 453, at the age of fifty-five.

3. Ss. Apollos, Lucius and Clement.

Apostles among the Seventy: Apollos (Acts 18:24-25) was bishop in Smyrna before St. Polycarp. St. Lucius (Rom. 16:21) was bishop in Laodicea and St. Clement was bishop in Sardis.

4. The Three Holy Women of Constantinople.

A noblewoman of Constantinople with her two handmaids, they scorned the vanity of the world and withdrew to solitude, where, after eleven years of asceticism, they entered into rest in the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The examples of courage and endurance that are given by the Christian martyrs—thousand upon thousand of them—shine with radiant glory through every page of the history of the Christian Church. But, as the examples of voluntary martyrs are given us to marvel at, so also (and no less) are the examples of the Christian ascetics, known and unknown, for asceticism is nothing other than a long-drawn-out martyrdom. Paul, Bishop of Monemvasia, has given to posterity the instructive example of a group of women ascetics. While he was still a layman and a tax-collector, he happened to stay in a monastery. Seeing ravens set about the fruit trees, stealing the fruit and carrying it off, he was curious, and together with the monks, set off after them to see where they were carrying the fruit. Going thus, they came to an impenetrable forest, into the depths of which the ravens disappeared, left their stolen fruit and quickly returned. Exploring, they found a cave, and in it, three nuns. The eldest of them told him of their life: how she had been a Constantinopolitan noblewoman whose husband had died and whom another noble had wanted to take by force as his wife. But she had decided, after her husband’s death, that she would spend the rest of her life in virginity, and had therefore given her goods away to the poor, and with her two handmaids, had fled to this remote spot. They had spent eleven years there in fasting and prayer, seeing no one and seen of no one but God. He, in His providence, had arranged for birds to bring them fruit to eat. They then begged the abbot to bring them holy Communion. When they had received Communion, three days later, all three holy women entered into rest, and the monks buried them.

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.