Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Titus [§ 301]. Child Titus:

1 ¹⁵All things indeed are pure to the pure, but to those who have been defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind hath been defiled, and their conscience. ¹⁶They confess to know God, but in works deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and reprobate to every good work.

2 ¹But be speaking the things which become sound teaching: ²that the elder men be sober, worthy of respect, temperate, sound in the faith, in love, in patience; ³the elder women likewise, that they behave in a manner befitting holiness, not slanderers, not enslaved by much wine, teachers of that which is good, ⁴in order that they may restore the young women to sober-mindedness, to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, ⁵temperate, chaste, keepers at home, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. ⁶The younger men, in like manner, keep on exhorting to show self-control. ⁷In all things rendering thyself a model of good works: in teaching showing uncorruptness, gravity, integrity, ⁸sound speech that cannot be condemned, in order that the one of the contrary part might be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us. ⁹Exhort slaves to be subject to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting, ¹⁰not purloining, but showing all good faith, in order that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in all things.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 95]. The Lord said this parable:

19 ¹²“A certain well-born man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. ¹³“And having called his own ten slaves, he gave ten minas to them, and said to them, ‘Transact business while I go and return.’ ¹⁴“But his citizens kept on hating him, and sent forth an embassy after him, saying, ‘We are unwilling for this man to reign over us.’ ¹⁵“And it came to pass, when he returned, having received the kingdom, that he commanded those slaves to be called to him, to whom he gave the money, in order that he might find out what each gained by trading. ¹⁶“And the first came up, saying, ‘Lord, thy mina gained ten minas.’ ¹⁷“And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because in a very little thou wast faithful, be thou having authority over ten cities.’ ¹⁸“And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, thy mina made five minas.’ ¹⁹“And he said also to this one, ‘Be thou also over five cities.’ ²⁰“And another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, thy mina, which I was keeping laid up in a napkin. ²¹“‘For I was afraid of thee, because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up what thou didst not lay down, and reapest what thou didst not sow, and gatherest together where thou didst not winnow.’ ²²“He saith to him, ‘Out of thy mouth will I judge thee, O wicked slave. Thou knowest that I am an austere man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow, and gathering together where I did not winnow; ²³“‘and why didst thou not give my money to the bank, and indeed after I came I would have exacted payment from it with interest?’ ²⁴“And to those standing by he said, ‘Take away the mina from him, and give it to the one who hath the ten minas.’ ²⁵“And they said to him, ‘Lord, he hath ten minas.’ ²⁶“‘For I say to you that to everyone who hath shall be given; but from the one who hath not, even what he hath shall be taken away from him. ²⁷“‘Moreover, those enemies of mine, the ones unwilling for me to reign over them, bring here and slaughter them before me.’”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy venerable Martyr Stephen the new of Mt. Afxentios, and of the holy Martyr Irenarchos and Seven Women Martyrs at Sebaste.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 291]. Child Timothy:

1 ⁸Do thou not become ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me His prisoner, but suffer hardship with the Gospel, according to God’s power, ⁹Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, ¹⁰but now hath been made manifest by the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who brought death to nought indeed and brought to light life and incorruption through the Gospel, ¹¹to which I was appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of nations. ¹²For which cause I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have believed, and have been persuaded that He is able to guard the deposit entrusted to me until that day. ¹³Keep on holding fast an outline of sound words which thou heardest from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard thou the good deposit entrusted to thee through the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.

¹⁵This thou knowest, that all they who are in Asia were turned away from me, of whom are Phygellos and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphoros, for many times he refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; ¹⁷but having been in Rome, he sought me out most diligently and found me— ¹⁸may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord in that day—and in how many things he ministered in Ephesus thou knowest better than I need say.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 37]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ²³“Whenever they persecute you in this city, flee ye to another; for verily I say to you, in no wise shall ye finish the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man should come. ²⁴“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his lord. ²⁵“It is enough for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the slave as his lord. If they called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of His household? ²⁶“Therefore do not become afraid of them. For nothing is covered which shall not be uncovered, and hidden which shall not be known. ²⁷“What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops. ²⁸“And do not become afraid because of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear the One Who is able to send away both soul and body into Gehenna. ²⁹“Two little sparrows are sold for an assarium, are they not? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. ³⁰“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹“Therefore do not become afraid; ye excel many sparrows.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 11th – Civil Calendar
November 28th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Stephen the New.

As aforetime Hannah the mother of Samuel, so Anna the mother of Stephen prayed God to give her a son. Praying thus at one time in the Vlachernai church in front of the icon of the most holy Mother of God, a light sleep fell on her in which she saw the holy Virgin, radiant like the sun, and heard her voice: ‘Woman, go in peace; in fulfillment of your prayer, you have a son in your womb.’ Anna indeed conceived and bore a son, this holy Stephen. He received the monastic schema at the age of sixteen on Mount St. Auxentius near Constantinople, at the hands of the elder John, from whom he learned divine wisdom and asceticism. When John entered into rest in the Lord, Stephen remained on that mountain in strict asceticism, taking on himself labor upon labor. His holiness drew many disciples to him. When the Emperor Constantine Kopronymos began to persecute the icons even more ferociously than his foul father, Leo the Isaurian, Stephen showed himself to be a zealous defender of the veneration of the holy icons. The demented emperor listened to various slanders against Stephen, and himself devised a number of intrigues, solely to break Stephen and to get him out of the way. Stephen was exiled to the island of Prokonnesos, and then taken to Constantinople, put in chains and cast into prison. There he met three hundred and forty-two captive monks, brought from all ends of the kingdom and thrown into prison for their veneration of icons. In the prison, they followed the whole order of church services as in a monastery. The wicked emperor condemned Stephen to death. The saint foresaw his death forty days before, and took his leave of the brethren. The emperor’s servants took him from the prison, and beating and buffeting him, dragged him through the streets of Constantinople, calling on all who were on the emperor’s side to stone this ‘enemy of the emperor’. One of the heretics aimed a blow at the saint’s head with a piece of wood, and the saint breathed his last. As Stephen the Protomartyr had suffered at the hands of the Jews, so this Stephen suffered at the hands of the iconoclast heretics. This glorious soldier of Christ suffered in the year 767, at the age of fifty-three, and was crowned with unfading glory.

2. Our Holy Mother Anna.

A woman of gentle birth, she was tonsured as a nun by St. Stephen the New after her husband’s death. The Emperor Kopronymos urged her to say that she had had physical relations with St. Stephen, in order to humiliate him before the people, but this holy woman refused to become involved in the emperor’s intrigues against the saint, whom she venerated as her spiritual father. She was whipped for this, and then thrown into prison, where she gave her holy soul into God’s hands.

3. The Holy New-martyr Christos.

He was an Albanian Christian living in Constantinople, and was a gardener by profession. In the course of selling his fruit, he incurred the resentment of a Turk who slandered him to the judge, saying that he had promised to embrace Islam and then retracted. After interrogation, he was put in chains and thrown into prison. In prison, he was urged to eat, but he refused, saying: ‘It is better for me to go before my Christ fasting.’ After that, he took out some money that he had concealed under his belt, and gave it to one of the captives with the request that he use it for several liturgies to be celebrated for his soul. He was beheaded by the Turks in 1748, and was glorified forever in the kingdom of Christ our God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The reading of examples of steadfastness in the Faith and the greatness of soul of the saints of God makes us steadfast in faith and great of soul. When Kopronymos’ men urged St. Stephen to reject the veneration of icons and thus please the iconoclast emperor, Stephen stretched out his hand, clenched his fist and said: ‘If I had in myself only a fistful of blood, I would shed it for the icon of Christ!’

The Emperor Maurice had six sons, of which the sixth and youngest was not yet weaned. For this youngest son, the emperor kept a wet-nurse at the court to feed it. A harsh end overtook the Emperor Maurice: Phokas dethroned him and condemned him to death together with all his six sons. The six boys were flogged one after the other before their father’s eyes. When the nurse had to hand over the youngest to be murdered, she, with true greatness of soul, mourned over the outcome of the unhappy emperor and his children, and at that moment resolved to preserve one of them alive. So, when they went to drag the child from her breast, she handed over her own son, and he was beheaded. Finally, the Emperor Maurice was himself beheaded. The emperor’s youngest son grew up believing his nurse to be his mother. When she revealed the secret to him, he became very serious, then deliberately left the world and withdrew to Mount Sinai, where he became a monk and consecrated himself to God, that he might in this way requite the innocent baby that had been put to death in his place.

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.