Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

The Sunday of the Third Week of the Great Fast or Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.

Mode Three — Eleventh Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 311]. Brethren:

4 ¹⁴Having then a great High Priest Who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us be holding fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a High Priest Who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who hath been tempted in all respects according to our likeness, without sin. ¹⁶Let us therefore be coming with boldness to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and find grace for help in due season.

5 ¹For every high priest being taken from among men is being appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, ²who is able to feel in due measure with those who are ignorant and led astray, since he himself also is compassed about with weakness. ³And by reason of this he ought, even for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. ⁴And no one taketh the honor to himself, but he who is called by God, even as also Aaron. ⁵Thus also the Christ glorified not Himself to become a high priest, but the One Who said to Him, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee [Ps. 2:7].” ⁶Even as He saith also in another place, “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek [Ps. 109(110):4].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 37]. The Lord said:

8 ³⁴“Whosoever is willing to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me. ³⁵“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life on account of Me and of the Gospel, this same one shall save it. ³⁶“For what shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his soul? ³⁷“Or what shall a man give as an exchange for his soul? ³⁸“For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this generation, the adulterous and sinful one, also the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him, whenever He should come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

9 ¹And He was saying to them, “Verily I say to you, that there are some of those standing here who in no wise shall taste of death, until they see the kingdom of God having come in power.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Basil the presbyter of Ankyra.

No readings given.

Synaxarion Readings

Synaxarion for the Third Sunday of Great Lent
Adoration of the Precious and Life-giving Cross

“Let all the earth venerate the Cross, through which it has learned to worship Thee, the Logos.”

On this third Sunday of the Great Fast we celebrate the veneration of the precious and life-giving Cross. Since during the forty days of the Fast we are also in a way crucified, mortified to the passions, contrite, abased, and sorrowful, the precious and life-giving Cross is offered to us as refreshment and confirmation, calling to mind the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and comforting us. If our God was crucified for our sake, how great should be our effort for His sake, since our afflictions have been assuaged through the Lord’s tribulations, and by the commemoration and the hope of the Cross of glory. For as our Savior in ascending the Cross was glorified through dishonor and grief, so should we also endure our sorrows, in order to be glorified with Him. Also, as those who have traveled a long hard road, weighed down by the labors of their journey, in finding a shady tree, take their ease for a moment and then continue their journey rejuvenated, so now in this time of the Fast, this sorrowful and laborious journey, the holy fathers have planted the life-giving Cross for our relief and refreshment, to encourage and make easier the labors that lie ahead. Or as when there is a royal procession, the king’s scepter and banners precede him, and then he himself appears, radiant and joyous in his victory, causing his subjects to rejoice with him. So then our Lord Jesus Christ, desiring to show His sure victory over death and His glory on the day of the Resurrection, sends His scepter before Himself, the sign of His kingship, the life-giving Cross, to gladden and refresh us, as it greatly fortifies and enables us to be prepared to receive the King with all possible strength and to praise Him in His radiant victory.

This week lies at the middle of the holy Forty Day Fast. The Fast is like a bitter source because of our contrition and the sadness and sorrow for sin that it brings. And as Moses plunged the branch in the bitter waters of Marah, making them sweet, so God, Who has led us through the spiritual Red Sea away from Pharaoh, through the life-giving wood of the precious and life-giving Cross, sweetens the bitterness of the Forty Day Fast and comforts us as those who were in the wilderness, until the time when by His Resurrection He will lead us to the spiritual Jerusalem. And since the Cross is called, and indeed is, the Tree of Life, it is fitting that the holy fathers have planted the Tree of the Cross in the middle of the Great Fast to commemorate both Adam’s tasting of its sweet fruit and of its being taken from us in favor of the Tree of the Cross, tasting of which we shall in no way die but will have even greater life.

Through the power of Thy Cross, O Christ our God, preserve us also from the temptations of the evil one. And make us worthy to venerate Thy divine Passion and life-bearing Resurrection, having radiantly traversed the great length of the Fast, and have mercy on us, as Thou art good and lovest mankind. Amen.

Translated from Triodion, siest ‘Tripesnets: Triod’ Postnaya, Moscow, 1904, by Robert Parent.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 4th – Civil Calendar
March 22nd – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Basil, Priest of Ankyra.

Under the Emperor Constantius there was much suffering at the hands of the Arians. At that time, Basil became known as a staunch defender of Orthodoxy and a true shepherd of his flock in Ankyra. When, after Constantius, Julian the Apostate came to the throne and began to persecute the Christians, Basil openly denounced this new wickedness and encouraged his people in the Faith. For this he was thrown into prison. When the Emperor Julian came to Ankyra, Basil was brought before him and he began to urge Basil to abandon the Christian Faith, promising him honors and wealth. Then Basil answered him: ‘I believe in my Christ, Whom you have denied and Who gave you this earthly kingdom, but He will shortly take this from you. How can you have no shame before the altar under which you were saved from death as an eight-year-old child when they sought to kill you? Therefore He will soon take this earthly kingdom from you, and your body shall not be buried when you have spewed forth your soul in bitter torments.’ Julian was furious and ordered that a strip of skin be torn from his body every day. And his torturers carried this out for seven days. When Basil was brought out again before the emperor, he tore a strip of his own flesh off and threw it into Julian’s face, shouting: ‘Take this and eat it, Julian, if such food is sweet to you, but Christ is life for me!’ This occurrence was noised in the town, and the emperor left Ankyra in secret out of shame and went to Antioch. And they continued to torture Basil with red-hot irons until he surrendered his soul to his Lord for Whom he had suffered so much. This was in the year 363.

2. St. Drosida.

The daughter of the Emperor Trajan, she was seized with five other women when they were gathering the bodies of the martyrs who had suffered for Christ by night, and was for this cruelly mutilated by the emperor. The five women were terribly tortured and at last thrown into molten copper, where they surrendered their souls to their Lord. But Drosida remained under strict imperial guard. However, she escaped from the court and after eight days she gave her soul into God’s hands.

3. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Efthymios (Euthymius).

He was born in the village of Dimitsana in the Peloponnese. As a boy, he lived as a Christian, but later he went to Romania and there gave himself over to great debauchery. In this debasement, the evil spirit led him to embrace Islam. No sooner had he done so than he began to repent bitterly. He returned to the Christian Faith and became a monk on the Holy Mountain. After several years spent in strict fasting and prayer, he made up his mind to die for Christ. With the blessing of his spiritual father, he went to Constantinople, where he somehow succeeded in gaining access to the grand vizier. He began to make the sign of the Cross in front of him, to praise Christ and to denounce Mohammed. After long-drawn-out torture, he was condemned to death and was slain on March 22nd, 1814, on Palm Sunday. Many miraculous healings of the sick were wrought through his relics. His precious head is in the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on the Holy Mountain. Thus this twenty-year-old youth first died to Christ and then died for Christ.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Even in His agony on the Cross, the Lord Jesus did not condemn sinners, but held up before His Father forgiveness for their sins, saying: ‘they know not what they do!’ Let us judge no man, that we be not condemned. For no one is certain that he will not, before his death, commit that very sin for which he has condemned his brother. St. Anastasios of Sinai teaches: ‘If you see someone sinning, do not condemn him, for you do not know how he will finish his life. That thief crucified with Christ was a murderer, and Judas was an apostle of Christ’s, but the thief entered Paradise and Judas went to perdition. If you see someone sin, you do not know his good works. For many sin in public and repent in private, and we see their sin but do not know of their repentance. Therefore, my brethren, let us condemn no man, that we be not condemned.’

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.