Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Movable Calendar (Paschalion)

Monday of the Third Week of the Great Fast

There is No Divine Liturgy This Day Because of the Great Fast.

No readings given.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Sabinos of Egypt, and the holy Apostle Aristoboulos of the Seventy, Bishop of Britain (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 15^th of March).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 29th – Civil Calendar
March 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Aristobulus, one of the Seventy.

He was the brother of the Apostle Barnabas and was born in Cyprus. He was a follower of the Apostle Paul, who mentions him in his Epistle to the Romans (16:10). When the great Apostle Paul created many bishops for different parts of the world, he made this Aristobulus bishop of Britain (i.e. England). In Britain there was a wild people, pagan and wicked, and Aristobulus endured among them unmentionable torments, misfortunes and malice. They smote him without mercy, dragged him through the streets, mocked him and jeered at him. But in the end this holy man came to success by the power of the grace of God. He enlightened the people, baptized them in the name of Christ the Lord, built churches, ordained priests and deacons and finally died there in peace and went to the kingdom of the Lord Whom he had served so faithfully. (In the Greek Calendar, St. Aristobulus is commemorated on March 15th).

2. The Holy Martyr Sabinas.

An Egyptian from the city of Hermopolis, he was the administrator of that city. In the time of a persecution of Christians he went off into a mountain with many other Christians and shut himself in a hut, where he spent the time in fasting and prayer. But a poor man who had brought him food and for whom Sabinas had done much betrayed him; as Judas did Christ, so this poor man for money (for two pieces of gold) betrayed his benefactor. Sabinas, with six others, was taken by soldiers, bound and brought to judgement. After harsh torture, he was thrown into the River Nile, where he gave his spirit to God in 287.

3. The Hieromartyrs Trophimos and Thallos.

Brothers by birth from Syria, they publicly and freely preached Christ and denounced the folly of the Greeks and Romans. The infuriated pagans decided to stone them to death, but when they threw the stones at these two brothers, the stones turned back upon the throwers and the brothers remained uninjured. After this they were both crucified. From their crosses the brothers instructed and encouraged the Christians, who were standing nearby in great distress. After much suffering, they gave their spirits to the Lord to Whom they had remained faithful to the end. They suffered with honor in the year 300, in the town of Bofor.

Author’s Note: In the Greek Calendar, Our Holy Father Christodoulos is also commemorated. He lived in asceticism on the island of Patmos and built a monastery there in honor of St. John the Theologian. He entered into rest in 1111. Many miracles have been wrought over his relics.

FOR CONSIDERATION

If we fulfill the law of God in our thoughts, we will find it easy to fulfill it in our actions. That is: if we are not at fault in our thinking, we shall not be at fault in our actions. Or, to develop this further, if our hearts are fixed on God, our tongues and hands and feet and our whole being will be in harmony with Him. Prepare your heart for God, consecrate it to God and worship Him; fulfill the law of God in it, enkindle the love of God in it and unite it with God. The rest will all follow and be conformed to the heart. It is not he who holds the spoke of the wheel that drives the wheel, but he who holds its axis. The heart is the axis of our being. Speaking of the commandments of God, our holy father Hesychios says: ‘If you make yourself fulfill them in thought, you will rarely find it necessary to toil over the fulfilling of them in action.’ That is, if we set our hearts, like an axis, on God, the wheels will easily go with the axis and draw the whole man after the heart. ‘Thy law is within my heart’ (Ps. 40:8), says the wise David.

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.