Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Movable Calendar (Paschalion)

Thursday of the Fifth 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 our venerable Father Titus the Wonder-worker.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 15th – Civil Calendar
April 2nd – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Titus the Wonder-worker.

He conceived a love for Christ from his earliest years, and despised the vanities of the world. For His sake, he left the world, went off to a monastery and received the angelic habit. With not a backward glance, he gave himself to the sober and narrow way of monasticism. Through great patience, he attained the two basic virtues of humility and obedience, and in these virtues he exceeded ‘not only the brethren, but all men’. He preserved his purity of soul and body right from his youth. In the time of the iconoclast heresy, he was seen to be a steadfast pillar of the Church of God. For his great humility and purity, he was endowed by God with the gift of wonder-working, both in his lifetime and after his death. And when he went to the Lord, he left a large number of disciples behind him. He entered peacefully into rest in the 9th century.

2. The Holy Martyrs Amphianos and Aidesios.

These two young men were brothers from the town of Patara, of eminent but pagan parents. While studying secular learning in Beirut, they were enlightened by the Spirit of God, and understanding the falseness of paganism, came to perceive the truth of Christianity. When they returned home, they could no longer live with their pagan parents and kinsmen, but fled in secret to Caesarea in Palestine, to a priest, Pamphylus, known for his purity and spiritual learning. With Pamphylus, they were instructed in the law of God day and night and practised Christian asceticism. Of Amphianos it is said that he had a twenty-year-old body but the understanding and greatness of soul of a centenarian. When a persecution arose under Maximian, many Christians fled from the town and hid, while others voluntarily and joyfully gave themselves into the torturers’ hands to be able to suffer for the name of the One Who first suffered for them. Amphianos was among these last. He came fearlessly into the pagan temple, where the governor, Urban, was offering sacrifice to idols, and seizing the hand with which the prince was making the offering, cried out to him to leave the service of, and sacrifice to, dead idols and to come to the knowledge of the true God. Some of those who heard his words and saw Amphianos’ great courage, repented and embraced the Christian Faith. But the enraged prince put him to torture. Among other tortures, his legs were wrapped in cotton which was then ignited. Then, while he was still alive, they threw him into the sea with a stone round his neck. The sea became stormy, and cast the martyr’s body ashore in the town.

Aidesios was first sent to a copper mine in Palestine, and then taken to Egypt. In Alexandria, he was filled with holy zeal against Hierokles, the governor, who had been buying Christian nuns, virgins and pious women and giving them to the most shameless prostitutes for ridicule. Aidesios, filled with holy zeal, smote the dishonorable prince. For this he was tortured and drowned in the sea like his brother, Amphianos. As two innocent lambs were they slain for Christ in about 306, and went to the glorious courts of the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘It is better to be ignorant but draw near to God in love than to be very learned and at the same time an enemy of God.’ These are the words of St. Irenaeus, the hieromartyr of Lyons. The truth of these words has been confirmed through the ages and is confirmed in our own day. Only one thing needs to be added to this: that those who love God are not ignoramuses, because they know God well enough to love Him. Of all human knowledge, this is the first and highest. And it must also be added that the enemies of God cannot be very learned—although they may think they are—because their knowledge is inevitably chaotic, having no head or order. For the head and order of all knowledge is God. Some of the saints—like Paul the Simple—did not know how to read or write, but by the strength of their spirit and their divine love, surpassed the whole world. He who draws near to God in love is incapable of evil-doing. But learning without love for God is inspired by the spirit of wickedness and strife. St. Efthymios the Great taught: ‘Have love, for as salt is to food, so is love to every virtue.’ Every virtue that is not salted and warmed with divine love is tasteless and cold.

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.