Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

The Saturday of the Fourth Week of the Great Fast

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 313]. Beloved:

6 ⁹We have been persuaded of the better things concerning you, even those things which hold on to salvation, though we speak thus. ¹⁰For God is not unjust, to be forgetful of your work and the labor of love which ye yourselves showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. ¹¹And we desire each of you to show the same earnestness to the full assurance of the hope until the end, ¹²in order that ye might not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and long-suffering inherit the promises.

Another Reading for Saturday of the Fourth Week of the Great Fast in Commemoration of the Departed

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 163]. Brethren:

15 ⁴⁷The first man is of earth, earthy; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸As is the earthy, such are they also who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also who are heavenly. ⁴⁹And even as we bore the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. ⁵⁰Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery: On the one hand we shall not all fall asleep, but on the other hand we shall all be changed— ⁵²in a moment, in a wink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For it is needful for this corruptible to put on itself incorruption and this mortal to put on itself immortality. ⁵⁴But whenever this corruption should put on itself incorruption, and this mortal should put on itself immortality, then the word which hath been written shall come to pass: “Death is swallowed up in victory [cf. Is. 25:8]. ⁵⁵“O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory [cf. Hos. 13:14]?” ⁵⁶Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 31]. At that time:

7 ³¹Jesus, having departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, came to the Sea of Galilee, in the midst of the borders of Decapolis. ³²And they bring to Him a deaf man having an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him that He might lay His hand on him. ³³And He took him away, aside from the crowd, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spit and touched his tongue. ³⁴And having looked up to the heaven, He sighed, and saith to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be thou opened.” ³⁵And straightway his ears were opened, and the band of his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak rightly. ³⁶And He Himself gave them express orders that they should tell no one; but as much as He was giving them express orders, much more abundantly were they proclaiming it. ³⁷And beyond all measure they were astonished, saying, “He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.”

Commemoration of the Departed

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 of our venerable Father Hilarion the New, Abbot of Pelekete.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 10th – Civil Calendar
March 28th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Evstratius of the Kiev Caves.

He was very wealthy, but moved by the love of Christ, he gave away all his goods for His sake, entered the Monastery of the Caves and became a monk. When the Polovtsians conquered Kiev in 1097, they looted the monastery, slew many Christians and monks and gave Evstratius and other of the faithful as slaves to a certain Jew in the town of Khorsun. This Jew mocked the Christian Faith and tried to compel the Christians to convert to the Jewish faith. Seeing that they had no other alternative, they all decided to starve to death rather than deny the true Faith. Evstratius encouraged the Christians in this decision. They all perished from hunger, some after three days, some after four and some after seven days. Evstratius, accustomed to fasting, remained the only one alive, and survived fourteen days without food. Infuriated that he had lost the money he had paid for the slaves, the Jew took his revenge by having Evstratius nailed to a cross. But Evstratius gave thanks to God from the cross and predicted an imminent and vicious death for the Jew. Possessed by a furious anger, the Jew stabbed him with a spear. And thus the holy man of God gave his soul to his Savior. They cast his body into the sea, but it rose to the surface and many were the great miracles performed over it. Soon after this, the Byzantine emperor commanded that the Jews in Khorsun be punished for their wickedness towards the Christians, and the torturer of the Christians was hanged on a tree and received the wages of Judas.

2. Our Holy Father Hilarion the New, the Confessor.

He was abbot of the monastery of Pelekete near the Hellespont, and was irradiated like the sun with the spirit of God. He healed sicknesses among the people and drove out evil spirits. In the reign of Leo the Isaurian, the Iconoclast persecution began and this man of God suffered during it. He was exiled with his forty monks to a place near Ephesus, died there in prison in 754 and entered into the kingdom of Christ.

3. Our Holy Father Hesychios of Jerusalem.

A priest and a profound theologian, he was a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian and a contemporary of St. Efthymios the Great. He entered peacefully into rest in about 451.

4. The Holy Martyr Boyan.

A prince of Bulgaria, he was the son of Krutogan and grandson of Grubosh. He confessed the Christian Faith while his brother, Milomir, remained a heathen. He was slain for the true Faith at the command of his brother in 827.

5. The Miraculous Experience of Taxiotis, a Soldier of Carthage.

He spent his entire life in grievous sins, but finally repented, left his military service and adopted a way of life pleasing to God. Once when he had gone with his wife to their property close to the city, he fell into adultery with the wife of his workman, and immediately after this a snake bit him and he died. He lay dead for six hours, and after that he arose, and on the fourth day, broke his silence and related how he had seen the torments of hell for sinning and how he was about to be punished for his adultery. He had fallen into the dark dwelling of the demons, but was then led out by an angel who vouched for him, and had returned to the body to repent of his last sin. He lived in penitence for forty days, going from church to church and striking his head against the doors and thresholds. Weeping incessantly, he spoke of the terrible torments in which sinners lived in that world, and implored people not to sin and to repent of sins already committed. On the fortieth day he went with joy to the kingdom of the merciful God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Speaking of a handsome young man of twenty, George by name, who, having beauty and youth and living in the midst of the vanity of this world, knew the way of salvation and devoted himself to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom, St. Simeon the New Theologian concludes with these words: ‘Do you understand how youth does not hinder, nor age help, a man’s understanding and his fear of God?’ How did youth hinder John the Apostle in coming to faith in Christ the Lord, and how did age help the Jewish elders when they were blind in their minds, and in their blindness, condemned the Son of God to death? In no way. Their youth in no way hinders the young people of our own day from giving their faith and love to Christ, Who created them from love. And their age in no way helps the elders of our day if their hearts are closed to Christ by evil. A young or an old body is nothing other than the new or old clothing of the soul. The one or the other garment is able to cover a healthy or a sick soul. But our goal is a soul that is healthy and clean.

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.