Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Friday of the Thirty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint John [§ 70].

2 ⁷Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which ye heard from the beginning. ⁸Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing on its way, and the true light already shineth. ⁹The one who saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in the darkness until now. ¹⁰The one loving his brother abideth in the light, and there is not an occasion of stumbling in him. ¹¹But the one hating his brother is in darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not where he goeth, because the darkness blinded his eyes.

¹²I write to you, little children, because ye have been forgiven your sins for His name’s sake. ¹³I write to you, fathers, because ye have come to know Him Who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one. I am writing to you, little children, because ye have come to know the Father. ¹⁴I am writing to you, fathers, because ye have come to know Him Who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one. ¹⁵Do not keep on loving the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the false pretensions of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing on its way, and the desire of it; but the one doing the will of God abideth forever.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 63]. At that time:

14 ³While Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, reclining at table, there came a woman having an alabaster flask of pure, costly perfumed ointment of spikenard. And she broke the alabaster flask and poured it down upon His head. ⁴And some were feeling indignant within themselves, and saying, “For what hath this waste of the perfumed ointment taken place? ⁵“For it was possible for this perfumed ointment to have been sold for above three hundred denarii, and to have been given to the poor.” And they were snorting with indignation at her. ⁶But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do ye cause her trouble? She wrought a good work toward Me. ⁷“For ye have the poor among yourselves always, and whenever ye wish ye are able to do them good; but Me ye have not always. ⁸“What she could do, she did; she undertook beforehand to anoint My body for the burial. ⁹“Verily I say to you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be proclaimed in all the world, also what she did shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy Father Martinian, monk of Cæsarea in Palestine.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 26th – Civil Calendar
February 13th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Simeon the Myrrh-Streamer.

Stefan Nemanja, the great ruler of the Serbian people, unifier of the Serbian lands, creator of an independent Serbian government, defender of Orthodoxy, driver-out of heresy, was first baptized in the Latin Church when he was a child, but later received a real Baptism and became a member of the Orthodox Church. In its organization, Serbia was at first dependent on Greece, but later shook off this dependence and became completely autonomous. When he had strengthened the state and the Orthodox Church within the state, he then, following the example of his son Sava, received the monastic schema at the monastery of Studenica in 1195, being given the name Simeon. His wife Anna also received the monastic schema and the name Anastasia, and retired to a women’s monastery. After two years’ monasticism at Studenica, Simeon went to the Holy Mountain. There, he stayed at first in the monastery of Vatopedi together with Sava. Father and son spent days and nights in prayer. There they built six chapels: to the Savior, the Unmercenaries, St. George, St. Theodore, the Forerunner and St. Nicholas. They bought the ruins of Hilandar and built a beautiful monastery, in which Simeon lived only eight months before his death. When he was at his last breath, Sava, according to his wish, placed him on a simple rush mat. With his eyes fixed on the icon of the Mother of God with the Savior, the blessed elder pronounced these words: ‘Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.’ And he went to the Lord, on February 13th, 1200.

2. Our Holy Father Martinian.

The life of this saint is wonderful beyond measure and is worth reading in full. What did he not endure to fulfill the law of God? At the age of eighteen, he went off into a mountain in Cappadocia called ‘the Ark’ and there spent 25 years in fasting, vigils and prayer, and struggling with manifold temptations. When a woman came to tempt him and he saw that he would fall into sin with her, he leapt barefoot into the fire and stood in it until the pain brought forth tears from his eyes and he had killed all lust within himself. When other temptations arose, he fled to a lonely rock in the sea and lived there. When, though, in a shipwreck, a woman swam to the rock, he leapt into the sea. But a dolphin took him upon its back and brought him, by God’s providence, to the shore. He then decided to make nowhere his permanent home but to travel incessantly. Thus he passed through 164 towns in two years, exhorting and advising the people. He finally arrived in Athens, where he died in 422.

3. Saints Zoe and Photine.

Zoe (Zoa) at first tempted St. Martinian to immorality, but when she saw this hermit leap into the fire to kill all lust in himself, she repented bitterly, went to a monastery in Bethlehem and lived there in heroic asceticism as a hermit and anchorite. Repenting of all her sins, she received the gift of wonder-working from the Lord. St. Photine (Photinia) was thrown by the sea onto the island where St. Martinian was living in solitude. Martinian immediately left the island, but Photine remained there to the end of her days in fasting and prayer.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The great Stefan Nemanja, whose authoritative word was unreservedly heeded by all, at whom peoples and kings trembled, became a monk and served the monks of the Holy Mountain as a model example of meekness, humility, goodness and prayer. And his death was the death of a truly godly man and spiritual guide. He took to his bed on February 7th, called St. Sava to him, placed his hands on him and blessed him, saying: ‘My beloved child, light of my eyes, comfort and guardian of my old age, the time for us to part has come; the Lord is letting me go forth in peace. But do not grieve, my child, for our parting; this is common to all. Here we part; but we shall meet again hereafter, where there is no more parting.’ On February 12th St. Simeon told Sava to dress him in his burial habit, spread rushes for him on the ground, put a stone for his head and thus lay him there. Then he called together all the monks and asked their forgiveness. At dawn on the 13th, while the monks were singing the morning office in the church, their voices reaching the dying man’s cell, St. Simeon’s face lit up once more and he gave his soul to God.

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.