Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth 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 [§ 56]. At that time:

12 ²⁸One of the scribes approached Jesus and heard the Sadducees disputing with Him; and perceiving that He answered them well, he questioned Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” ²⁹And Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord [Deut. 6:4]; ³⁰“‘and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength [cf. Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 30:6].’ This is the first commandment. ³¹“And the second is like this: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself [Lev. 19:18].’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²And the scribe said to Him, “Well, Teacher! In truth didst Thou say that God is one and there is not another besides Him; ³³“and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴And after Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said to him, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question Him any more.

³⁵And Jesus answered and was saying, while He taught in the temple, “How say the scribes that the Christ is the Son of David? ³⁶“For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord saith to my Lord, “Sit Thou on My right, until I should place Thine enemies as a footstool of Thy feet [cf. Ps. 109 (110):1].”’ ³⁷“David therefore himself calleth Him Lord; and whence is He his Son?” And the great crowd was hearing Him gladly.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and the Synaxis of the honorable and glorious prophet, forerunner, and Baptist John.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 42]. In those days:

19 ¹It came to pass, while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper parts, came to Ephesus. And having found certain disciples, ²he said to them, “Did ye, having believed, receive the Holy Spirit?” And they said to him, “Nay, we did not even hear whether there is a Holy Spirit.” ³And he said to them, “Into what then were ye baptized?” And they said, “Into the baptism of John.” ⁴And Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the One coming after him, that is, in the Christ, Jesus.” ⁵And after they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And after Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they were speaking with tongues and prophesying. ⁷And all the men were about twelve. ⁸And he entered into the synagogue and kept on speaking boldly for three months, discoursing and trying to persuade them concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 3]. At that time:

1 ²⁹John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, “Behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world. ³⁰“This is He concerning Whom I said, ‘After me cometh a Man Who hath come to be before me, for He was before me.’ ³¹“And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore I came baptizing in the water.” ³²And John bore witness, saying, “I have beheld the Spirit descending out of heaven as a dove, and He abode upon Him. ³³“And I knew Him not, but the One Who sent me to baptize in water, that One said to me, ‘Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, this is the One Who baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴“And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 20th – Civil Calendar
January 7th – Church Calendar

1. St. John the Baptist.

John’s greatest role during his life was enacted on the day of the Theophany, and because of this the Church has, from the earliest times, dedicated the day following that feast to his memory. This day is also connected with an event involving the hand of the Forerunner. The Evangelist Luke desired to take John’s body from Sebaste, where the great prophet had been beheaded by Herod, to Antioch, his own birthplace. He succeeded, though, in acquiring and taking only one hand, which was kept in Antioch till the tenth century. It was then moved to Constantinople, whence it disappeared during the Turkish occupation.

St. John is commemorated several times during the year, but his greatest feast is on this day, January 7th. Among the Gospel-figures surrounding the Savior, the person of John the Baptist holds a very special place, by the manner of his birth in this world and of his earthly life, by his role of baptizer of men to repentance and his Baptism of the Messiah, and lastly, by the tragic manner of his departure from this world. He was of such moral purity that he indeed deserved the name ‘angel’*, as he was named in the Scriptures, rather than being thought of as just a mortal man. St. John differs from all the other prophets in that he had the joy of showing forth to the world the One Whom he had foretold.

About the hand of St. John: it is related that each year, on his feast day, the archbishop would bring it out before the people. Sometimes the hand appeared open, and sometimes clenched. In the first case it indicated that it would be a fertile year, and in the second that it would be a year of famine.

* The word ‘messenger’ is, in Greek, ‘angelos’. See Malachi 3:1; Matt. 11:10. —Tr.

2. The Holy New-Martyr Athanasius.

This martyr of Christ was a poor and simple man, but was rich in faith and in wisdom through the Spirit of God. On one occasion he was inadvertently involved in a quarrel with a Turk. The Turk was educated and adroit with words, but Athanasius strove with all his might to present and uphold the truth of the Christian Faith and its superiority over Islam. They then parted. On the following day, Athanasius was summoned to trial, and found the Turk standing there as his accuser. When the judge called on Athanasius to repudiate his faith and embrace Islam, as he had given the impression of declaring to his companion of the previous day, Athanasius cried out: ‘I would die a thousand deaths before I would deny the Faith of Christ!’ He was therefore condemned to death and beheaded in the year 1700. His body was buried in the Church of St. Paraskeve in Smyrna, the city of his execution.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘The whole man is not outwardly visible,’ says St Basil the Great. As one house is like another, so it is with the external appearance of a man. But a house receives honor from him who inhabits it, as likewise does a man from the spirit within him. It is easily apparent to bodily sight that the house is not the householder, but only the place where the householder lives; but it is only clear to spiritual sight that the body is not the man but only the dwelling his soul inhabits.

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.