Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 297]. Child Timothy:

3 ¹⁶Every Scripture is God-inspired and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness, ¹⁷in order that the man of God may be perfect, equipped for every good work.

4 ¹I bear witness therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is about to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ²proclaim the word; attend to it in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. ³For there will be a time when they will not uphold sound teaching, but according to their own desires, they who have an itching ear will heap up to themselves teachers; ⁴and indeed they shall turn away their ear from the truth, and shall be turned aside over to fables.

Gospel

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

17 ²⁶“Even as it came to pass in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷“They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed all. ²⁸“In like manner also as it came to pass in the days of Lot: They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; ²⁹“but on the day Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed all. ³⁰“In the same way shall it be in the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹“In that day, he who shall be on the housetop, and his vessels in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And the one in the field, likewise let him not return to the things behind. ³²“Be remembering the wife of Lot. ³³“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it shall preserve it alive. ³⁴“I say to you, in that night there shall be two upon one bed: one shall be taken and the other shall be left. ³⁵“Two women shall be grinding in the same place: one shall be taken and the other shall be left. ³⁶“Two shall be in the field: one shall be taken and the other shall be left.” ³⁷And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Wheresoever the body is, there also the eagles will be gathered together....

18 ⁸“However, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Temple. The commemoration of the Great-martyr Katherine and the Great-martyr Mercurios (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 24^th of November). The commemoration of the holy Equal-to-the-apostles Clement, Archbishop of Okhrid, Enlightener of the Slavs and Wonder-worker of Bulgaria.

Epistle

For the Great-martyrs:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§§ 208, 209]. Brethren:

3 ²³Before faith came, we were being guarded under the law, having been closed up to the faith about to be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law hath become our tutor until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many as were baptized into Christ, ye put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise.

4 ¹Now I say, as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; ²but he is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time of the father. ³So we also, when we were infants, were enslaved under the elements of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵in order that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive what is our due, the adoption as sons.

For Sl. usage, see [Eph. 6:10-17].

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

For the Great-martyr:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 21]. At that time:

5 ²⁴A great crowd was following Jesus and pressing upon Him. ²⁵And a certain woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years— ²⁶and who suffered much under many physicians and spent all from her own means, and was not profited at all, but rather came to be the worse for it— ²⁷after she heard about Jesus, came in the crowd behind, and touched His garment; ²⁸for she was saying within herself, “If I might but touch His garments, I shall be made well.” ²⁹And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she knew in her body that she had been healed from the scourge. ³⁰And Jesus, straightway having fully known in Himself that the power from Him went forth, turned around in the crowd and was saying, “Who touched Me on My garments?” ³¹And His disciples were saying to Him, “Thou seest the crowd pressing on Thee, and sayest Thou, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³²And He kept looking around Himself to see her who had done this. ³³And the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing that which had been done for her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth. ³⁴And He said to her, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee well; go in peace, and be sound in body from thy scourge.”

for Sl. usage, see [Lk. 21:12-19].

For the Hierarch:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

5 ¹⁴“Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. ¹⁵“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. ¹⁶“Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

¹⁷“Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place. ¹⁹“Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 8th – Civil Calendar
November 25th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy and Great Martyr Katherine.

The daughter of King Constus, she lived with her mother in Alexandria after her father’s death. Her mother was secretly a Christian, and through her spiritual father, brought Katherine to the Christian Faith. In a vision, St. Katherine received a ring from the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of her betrothal to Him. This ring remains on her finger to this day. Katherine was greatly gifted by God, exceptionally well-educated in Greek philosophy, medicine, rhetoric and logic, and added great physical beauty to this. When the wicked Emperor Maxentius offered sacrifice to idols and ordered everyone to do the same, St. Katherine came with daring before him and denounced his idolatrous errors. The emperor, seeing that she surpassed him in wisdom and learning, summoned 150 of the wisest men, to dispute with her about faith and put her to shame, but Katherine was wiser than they, and put them to shame. The furious emperor commanded that all 150 wise men be burned. These wise men, at St. Katherine’s prayers, all confessed the name of Christ at the moment of death, and proclaimed themselves Christians. When the martyr was in prison, she brought Porphyrius the general, with two hundred of his soldiers, to the Faith, and also the empress, Augusta-Vasilissa. They all suffered for Christ. At St. Katherine’s martyrdom, an angel of God appeared to her, stopping and breaking the wheel on which she was being tortured, and after that the Lord Christ Himself appeared to her, strengthening her. After many tortures, Katherine was beheaded with the sword at the age of eighteen, on November 25th, 310. Milk flowed from her body in place of blood. Her wonder-working relics are preserved on Sinai.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Many learned pagans have come into the Church of Christ and received Baptism because the Church preaches immortal life as an established fact and not as some conjecture of man’s understanding. St. Clement of Rome studied the whole of Greek philosophy, and his soul remained empty and unsatisfied. As a young man of twenty-four, he desired with his whole soul to discover if there was another, better life than this. Philosophy had given him the thinking of various people, but no certain proof. He mourned for his lost parents and brothers, and constantly tormented himself with the question: Would he see them again in another life? The all-seeing God so guided him that he met a man who spoke to him of the Christians and their belief in life beyond the grave. This roused the young Clement to set off at once from Rome for Judea, that he might, there in the very cradle of the Christian Faith, come to positive knowledge concerning life beyond the grave. When he heard the preaching of the Apostle Peter, based entirely on Christ risen from the dead, Clement scorned all the conjecture of philosophy and sincerely embraced the Christian Faith, receiving Baptism and giving himself utterly to the service of the Church of God. As then, so today: he who has a firm faith in the risen Christ and a clear certainty of life beyond the grave will endeavor to fulfill all of God’s commandments.

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.