Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Thirty-First Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 333]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Heb. 12:25-27, 13:22-25; for Sl. usage, see Heb. 12:25, 26, 13:22-25.

12 ²⁵Be taking heed that ye do not refuse Him Who speaketh. For if those escaped not who refused the one who gave divine warning on the earth, much more shall we not escape who turn ourselves from the One from the heavens, ²⁶the voice of Whom then shook the earth; but now He hath promised, saying, “Yet once I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven [cf. Hag. 2:7].” ²⁷And the utterance, “Yet once,” signifieth the transposition of the things which are shaken, as having been made, in order that the things which are not shaken might remain....

13 ²²But I beseech you, brethren, keep on bearing with the word of exhortation, for I also wrote to you in few words. ²³Know ye that our brother Timothy hath been set free, with whom, if I should come quickly, I will see you.

²⁴Greet all those who lead you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.

²⁵Grace be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 34]. At that time:

8 ²²Jesus cometh to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man to Him, and beseech Him that He might touch him. ²³And He took hold of the hand of the blind man, and led him forth out of the village. And having put spittle upon his eyes, He laid His hands upon him and was asking him if he did see anything. ²⁴And he looked up and was saying, “I see men as trees walking about.” ²⁵Then He laid His hands upon his eyes again and made him look up; and he was restored and saw everything at a distance clearly. ²⁶And He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither enter into the village, nor tell it to anyone in the village.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Prophet Haggai. The commemoration of our holy father among the saints, Modestos, Archbishop of Jerusalem (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 18^th of December).

Epistle

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

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 36]. The Lord said to those Jews who had come to Him:

10 ⁹“I am the door; by Me if anyone should enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰“The thief cometh not, except that he might steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. ¹²“But the hireling, who indeed is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf seizeth them and scattereth the sheep. ¹³“Now the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not about the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are Mine, and am known of those that are Mine. ¹⁵“Even as the Father knoweth Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also it is needful for Me to bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 29th – Civil Calendar
December 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Prophet Haggai.

Born in Babylon in the time of the captivity of Israel, he was of the tribe of Levi. He prophesied in 520 B.C., and visited Jerusalem as a young man. He urged Zerubbabel and Jesus the priest to restore the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, prophesying for this temple greater glory than the former Temple of Solomon: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts’ (2:9), for the Lord, the Savior, would appear in the new temple. He lived to see the first half of the new temple completed by Zerubbabel, and died in old age, and rested with his fathers.

2. St. Nicholas Chrysoverges, Patriarch of Constantinople.

He governed the Church from 984 to 996, and ordained the great Symeon the New Theologian priest when this spiritual giant was chosen as the superior of the monastery of the holy Martyr Mamas in Constantinople. In his days, there came to pass a wonderful revelation of the Archangel Gabriel at Karyes, when he at that time taught the monk to praise the Mother of God with the hymn ‘Axion Estin’ (It is Verily Worthy), writing the hymn on tablets in a chapel of one of the cells, which has been known from that time by the name ‘Axion Estin’ (see June 13th). He was a great and eminent hierarch, and entered peacefully into rest in the kingdom of God.

3. St. Theophano the Empress.

She was born of eminent parents, Constantine and Anna, who were kin to several emperors. Her parents were for a long time childless, and besought the Mother of God to give them a family. God gave them this daughter, Theophano. Imbued with a Christian spirit right from her youth, Theophano outstripped her companions in every Christian virtue. When she had grown up, she entered into marriage with Leo, the son of the Emperor Basil the Macedonian, and endured much misfortune alongside her husband. Reacting to the slander that Leo carried a knife in his breast with which, at the right opportunity, to kill his father, the gullible Basil shut his son and daughter-in-law up in prison, and these two innocent souls spent three years there. Then, one day, on the feast of the holy Prophet Elias (Elijah), the emperor summoned all his nobles to court for a feast. At one moment, the emperor’s parrot suddenly spoke these words: ‘Alack, alack, my lord Leo!’ and it repeated these words a number of times. This caused great confusion among the courtiers, and they all begged the emperor to release his son and daughter-in-law. The emperor was touched, and did so. After his father’s death, this Leo became emperor, being called ‘the Wise’. Theophano did not consider her imperial dignity to be of much account, but being utterly given to God, she gave thought to the salvation of her soul, fasting and praying and giving alms, founding monasteries and churches. No lying word ever passed her lips, nor any unnecessary speech or the least slander. At the time of her death, she called together her closest friends and took leave of them, then gave her soul to God, in 892. The Emperor Leo wanted to build a church over her grave, and when the patriarch refused to allow this, built the church of All Saints, saying that, if Theophano were a saint, she would be glorified together with the others. At that time, the feast of All Saints was introduced, to be celebrated on the Sunday after the feast of Pentecost.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The saints devoted immense labor to the killing of pride and selfishness in themselves, and to the accustoming of themselves to total obedience and consecration, be it by their own preference when they had the choice or by the direct act of God. The monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified was distinguished by a particular discipline, order and willing obedience. When St. John Damascene arrived at this monastery, none of the eminent spiritual guides would venture to take this famous nobleman and writer as his cell-servant. Then the abbot gave him to an elder who was simple and strict. The elder forbade John to write any hymns, and told John to do nothing without his knowledge and permission. It happened, however, that one of the monks, who had a brother in the same monastery, died, and the monk was in unspeakable grief for his dead brother. At the great entreaties of the brethren, John wrote stichera for the departed for the dead man—the hymns at a funeral that the Church uses today. Having composed them, John began to sing them. When his elder heard the hymns, he was furious and drove John away. Hearing of John’s banishment, the brethren plucked up courage, and going to the elder, begged him to forgive John and receive him back, but the elder remained unmoved. John wept bitterly, and lamented at having transgressed his elder’s command. The brethren once more besought the elder for John, to lay some penance on him and then forgive him. Then the elder laid this penance on his disciple: to clean the lavatories of every cell in the monastery with his own hands if he desired forgiveness. The sorrowful brethren told John of this, thinking that he would leave the monastery rather than do it, but when John received the elder’s message, he rejoiced greatly, and with joy, carried out his command. Seeing this, the elder burst into tears, embraced John and said through his tears: ‘Oh, what a sufferer for Christ have I fathered! Oh, what a true son of holy obedience this man is!’

After this, the elder was rebuked by an angel for stopping St. John from writing his beautiful hymns glorifying Christ and His holy Mother. St. John thereafter wrote many of the hymns that the Church uses today.

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.