Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 271]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see 1 Thess. 4:18-5:10; for Sl. usage, see 1 Thess. 5:1-8.

4 ¹⁸Keep on comforting one another with these words.

5 ¹But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need for me to be writing to you; ²for ye yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief at night. ³For whenever they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction standeth over them, even as the pangs of childbirth to her who is with child; and in no wise shall they escape. ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵Ye are all sons of light and sons of day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶So then, let us not be sleeping, as also the rest, but let us be fully awake and sober. ⁷For they who sleep, sleep by night; and they who get drunk, get drunk by night. ⁸But let us who are of the day be sober, having put on a breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹For God did not appoint us for wrath, but for gaining possession of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰Who died for us, that whether we be awake or asleep, we should live together with Him.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 57]. At that time:

11 ¹⁴Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was mute. And it came to pass, after the demon went out, the mute spoke; and the crowds were marvelling. ¹⁵But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, He casteth out the demons.” ¹⁶And others, putting Him to the test, kept on seeking from Him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom having been divided against itself is being brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. ¹⁸“And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom be made to stand, because ye say by Beelzebul I am casting out the demons? ¹⁹“And if I by Beelzebul cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? On this account, they shall be your judges. ²⁰“But if I cast out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God is come upon you. ²¹“Whenever the strong one who hath been armed is guarding his own court, his possessions are in peace; ²²“but when the One Who is stronger than he cometh against him and prevaileth over him, He taketh away his full armor in which he had trusted, and divideth his spoils. ²³“The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who gathereth not with Me scattereth.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The holy Martyrs Zenovios, Bishop of Aegae in Cilicia, and Zenovia, his sister.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 12th – Civil Calendar
October 30th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostles Cleopas, Tertius, Mark, Justus and Artemas.

They were of the Seventy. The risen Lord appeared to Cleopas on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-33). Tertius wrote down Paul’s Epistle to the Romans for him (Rom. 16:22), and died a martyr as Bishop of Iconium, after the Apostle Sosipater (Nov. 10th). St. Mark (or John, see Acts 12:12) was the son of the devout Mary in whose house the apostles and the early Christians found shelter, and the nephew of Barnabas. He was bishop in the Samaritan town of Apollonia. Justus was a son of Joseph the Betrothed. Together with Matthias, he was selected for the lot to be cast to replace Judas the betrayer, but was not chosen (Acts 1:23-26). As bishop in Eleftheropolis, he suffered for the Gospel. St. Artemas was bishop in Lystra in Lykaonia, and died peacefully.

2. The Hieromartyr Zenovios and his sister Zenovia.

From the town of Aegae in Cilicia, they inherited the true Faith and great material wealth from their parents. Inflamed with zeal for the Faith, they, with great love, gave away their riches to the poor. Because they were so open-handed, God shielded these hands from every evil intent by men or demons. The merciful hands of Zenovios, which gave to the poor, were endowed by God with the gift of wonder-working, so that Zenovios was able to heal the sick of every sort of infirmity simply by the touch of his hand, and he was made Bishop of Aegae. At a time of persecution, the judge Licius seized him and said: ‘I offer you the two: life and death—life if you bow down to the gods, and death if you do not.’ Holy Zenovios replied: ‘Life without Christ is not life, but death; and death for Christ’s sake is not death, but life.’ When Zenovios was put to harsh torture, his sister presented herself before the judge and said: ‘I also want to drink this cup of suffering and be crowned with that wreath.’ After torture by fire and in boiling pitch, they were both beheaded with the sword in about 285, and thus brother and sister entered into the immortal kingdom of Christ the King.

3. The Holy Martyrs Marcellus and Cassian.

The Emperor Maximian Hercules (285-305) ordered that all the army offer sacrifice to idols. Marcellus was a soldier at this time, and Cassian a notary. Marcellus, as a Christian, said: ‘If a soldier’s calling is tied up with the offering of sacrifice to idols, I cannot be a soldier,’ and he took off his military belt and weapons and threw them from him. He was immediately condemned to death. Cassian had to put this death-sentence into writing, and he refused to do so. They were beheaded together, and their souls went to the heavenly kingdom. (St. Cassian is commemorated on Dec. 3rd.)

4. The Holy King Milutin.

The son of Uroš I and Queen Helena and brother of Dragutin, he fought fiercely to defend his faith and his people. He fought against Michael Palaiologos because the latter had accepted union with Rome and was putting pressure on the whole Balkan people and the monks of Athos to accept the pope. He fought against Shishman, King of Bulgaria, and Nogai, King of the Tartars, to defend his country from them. All his wars were successful, for he prayed constantly to God and put himself in His hands. He built more than forty churches, both in his own land (Treskavac, Gračanica, St. George in Staro Nagoričane, the Holy Mother of God in Skopje, Banjska and so forth) and in Thessalonica, Sofia, Constantinople, Jerusalem and on the Holy Mountain. He entered into rest in the Lord on October 29th, 1320, and his body was soon seen to be incorrupt and wonder-working. It is still preserved in that state today in the Church of the Holy King in Sofia.

Author’s note: Milutin was married twice, not four times as his detractors would have it; first to Elisabeth, a Hungarian princess, and then to Simonida, a princess of Byzantium.

FOR CONSIDERATION

That great son of the Orthodox Church, King Milutin, saved the Balkans from Uniatism. At the moment when the Byzantine emperor’s conscience was weakened, this knightly and godly Slav stood decisively, and with God’s help saved Orthodoxy, not only in his own land but throughout the Balkans. He who examines the life of this holy king closely will understand why God gave him success after success throughout his life in all that he did. When Milutin came to the throne, he immediately vowed to God that he would build as many churches as the years he reigned. He reigned for forty-two years, and built forty-two churches. Beside some of his churches, as in Thessalonica and Constantinople, he built hospitals for the poor, where they received everything without payment. Apart from that, he took pleasure in giving to the poor out of his own enormous wealth. This powerful and wealthy king often dressed himself in simple clothing, and at night, with two or three of his servants, walked among the people, enquiring for the needy and generously helping the poor. In the midst of his great wealth, he lived a very simple family life, though he never showed this side of himself to outsiders. He had become accustomed to a simple way of life when still in the house of Uroš, his father. It is told how the Emperor Michael Palaiologos sent his daughter Anna with a delegation to the court of King Uroš, offering her to Milutin in order to win the Serbian king to union with Rome. But King Uroš, seeing the senseless Byzantine luxury of the princess and her entourage, exclaimed: ‘What is all this, and what is it for? We are not accustomed to this sort of life!’ He indicated a Serbian princess with a distaff in her hand: ‘See,’ he said, ‘this is the sort of thing we expect in our daughter-in-law.’

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.