Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Thirty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 146]. Brethren:

10 ²³All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient; all things are lawful to me, but not all things build up. ²⁴Let no one seek that of his own, but each one that of the other. ²⁵Keep on eating everything that is sold in a market, examining nothing for the sake of conscience: ²⁶for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof [Ps. 23(24):1].” ²⁷And if any of the unbelievers invite you, and ye wish to go, be eating everything set before you, examining nothing for the sake of conscience. ²⁸If anyone should tell you, “This is a sacrifice to idols,” cease eating, on account of that one who informed, and for the sake of conscience; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof [Ps. 23(24):1].”

Another Saturday Reading for the Departed

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 270].

4 ¹³Brethren, we do not wish you to be ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not be grieving, even as the rest who have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and is risen, so also those who fell asleep through Jesus will God bring with Him. ¹⁵For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we the living, the ones remaining over until the coming of the Lord, in no wise shall precede those who fell asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. ¹⁷Then we the living, the ones remaining over, shall be carried off together with them in clouds to a meeting of the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 105]. The Lord said:

21 ⁸“Be taking heed lest ye be led astray; for many shall come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and ‘The time hath drawn near.’ Do not then begin to go after them. ⁹“But whenever ye hear of wars and instabilities, do not begin to be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end is not straightway.... ²⁵“And there shall be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars; and upon the earth anguish of nations, with perplexity, roaring of the sea and rolling swell; ²⁶“men fainting from fear and expectation of those things which are coming upon the inhabited world, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. ²⁷“And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory....

³³“The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but My words in no wise shall pass away. ³⁴“And be taking heed to yourselves, lest your hearts should be weighed down with carousing, and drinking, and cares of this life, and that day should come upon you suddenly. ³⁵“For as a snare shall it come upon all those sitting upon the face of the whole earth. ³⁶“Be vigilant then, in every season entreating that ye might be accounted worthy to escape all these things which are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Commemoration of the Departed on Meatfare Saturday

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 16]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

5 ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, that the one who heareth My word and believeth the One Who sent Me hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed over out of death into life. ²⁵“Verily, verily, I say to you, that an hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live. ²⁶“For even as the Father hath life in Himself, so He also gave to the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷“and He also gave to Him authority to execute judgment. That He is Son of Man, ²⁸“cease marvelling at this; for an hour is coming in which all those in the graves shall hear His voice, ²⁹“and shall go forth—they who did good things to a resurrection of life, but they who practised bad things to a resurrection of condemnation. ³⁰“I am not able to do anything of Myself. Even as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me, the Father.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration our holy Father Timothy of Symbola in Bithynia, and the revelation of the miraculous Kozelshchanskaya Icon of the Mother of God.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 320]. Brethren:

9 ¹The first tabernacle also used to have both ordinances of worship and the sanctuary of this world. ²For a tabernacle was furnished: the first in which were both the lampstand and the table, and the laying forth of the loaves, which is called Holy; ³and after the second veil, a tabernacle which is called Holy of Holies, ⁴which hath a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant which hath been covered all around from every side with gold, in which was the golden jar having the manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; ⁵and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, concerning which now is not the time to speak severally. ⁶Now after these things were thus furnished, the priests, on the one hand, enter into the first tabernacle, performing worship services; ⁷on the other hand, into the second, the high priest entereth alone once for all every year, not without blood, which he offereth on behalf of himself and the faults of ignorance of the people.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 54]. At that time:

10 ³⁸ Jesus entered into a certain village. And a certain woman, by name Martha, received Him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat down beside the feet of Jesus, and was listening to His word. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted about much serving, and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, is it no concern to Thee that my sister left me to serve alone? Speak to her therefore that she should help me.” ⁴¹And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things. ⁴²“But there is need of one thing, and Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”...

11 ²⁷And it came to pass, as He was speaking these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts which Thou didst suck.” ²⁸But He said, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 6th – Civil Calendar: Non-Leap Year
March 5th – Civil Calendar: Leap Year
February 21st – Church Calendar

1. St. Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The Persian King Chozroes attacked Jerusalem, ransacking the city, in the time of the Greek Emperor Herakleios, in 614. He took the Precious Cross off to Persia and enslaved an enormous number of Christians, including Patriarch Zacharias. The Jews supported the Persian king in his wickedness towards the Christians. It is recorded, among further malice on the part of the Jews, that they bought 90,000 Christian slaves from Chozroes and killed them all. The aged patriarch spent fourteen years in slavery. Many miracles were wrought in Persia by the Precious Cross, and the Persians exclaimed: ‘The Christian God has come to Persia!’ The Emperor Herakleios later compelled King Chozroes to return the Precious Cross to Jerusalem, together with the patriarch and the remaining slaves. The emperor himself carried the Cross into the holy city on his back. St. Zacharias spent his remaining days in peace, and went to the Lord in 632. Patriarch Modestos deputized for him on the patriarchal throne, and after him came St. Sophronios (see March 11th).

2. Our Holy Father Timothy.

A hermit in a place called Symbola on Asiatic Olympus, Timothy entered a monastery very young and spent his earthly life in fasting, prayer, vigils and unceasing toil right up to a great age. He remained pure and chaste throughout his life. God gives power over evil spirits to the pure and chaste, and this gift He gave to Timothy. Through careful watching over his soul, Timothy built within himself a glorious abode for the Holy Spirit. This holy man entered into rest in 795.

3. St. Efstathios (Eustathius), Archbishop of Antioch.

A great zealot for, and protector of, Orthodoxy, he was especially prominent at the First Ecumenical Council, where he disproved by erudite reasoning the teaching of the Arians. With the other holy fathers, Efstathios confessed the truth that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, is equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit by divine essence. After the death of the Emperor Constantine, the Arians somehow again gained the ascendancy and began hotly to persecute Orthodoxy. St. Efstathios was deposed from his throne and exiled first to Thrace and then to Macedonia. He suffered much and long, until at last he gave his holy soul to God in about 345.

4. St. John III Scholastikos, Patriarch of Constantinople.

A lawyer, he was ordained priest and became patriarch in 565. He wrote canons which have been included in the Nomocanon*. In his day, the Cherubic Hymn and the prayer ‘Of Thy Mystical Supper’ were introduced into the Liturgy. He departed this life peacefully and gave his soul to God in 577.

* A compilation of canon and secular law compiled in Byzantium and adopted as the basic constitution of the Slav churches.—Tr.

FOR CONSIDERATION

What is divination? There are three types of belief: in blind chance, in dead things, and in the absolute power of the spirits of darkness. By divination, events are predicted, the powers of things differentiated and the spirits of darkness invoked. No other faith has so totally condemned and rejected divination as has Christianity. No faith but Christianity is free of and clean from divination. Other faiths are more or less divinatory, and some are utterly based on it. Divination means the submission of man to the lowest of creation and of the being of man, hence divination can be called belief in darkness. Therefore the Apostle Paul says: ‘refuse profane and old wives’ tales, and exercise thyself unto godliness’ (I Tim. 4:7).

Christianity is a faith of light in two senses: firstly in that it raises man above chance, above all other creatures and the spirits of darkness, and secondly, in that it submits man to the power of God the living, wise and almighty. The all-seeing God exists, and so blind chance does not. In spiritual union with this all-seeing and living God, man can be raised above all other creatures and made stronger than all the spirits of darkness.

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.