Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Holy and Great Tuesday

Epistle

There is no Epistle Reading this day because of Holy Week.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§§ 90-93]. At that time:

22 ¹⁵The Pharisees took counsel against Jesus how they might ensnare Him in a word. ¹⁶And they sent forth to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, and there is a care to Thee for no one; for Thou lookest not on the person of men. ¹⁷“Tell us then, what thinkest Thou? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Cæsar, or not?” ¹⁸But Jesus knew their wickedness, and said, “Why are ye trying to tempt Me, ye hypocrites? ¹⁹“Show Me the coin of the tribute.” And they brought a denarius to Him. ²⁰And He saith to them, “Whose is this image and the inscription?” ²¹They say to Him, “Cæsar’s.” Then He saith to them, “Render therefore the things of Cæsar to Cæsar, and the things of God to God.” ²²And after they heard these words, they marvelled, and they left Him and went away.

²³On that day Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and questioned Him, ²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If anyone should die, not having children, his brother, as next of kin, shall marry his wife, and shall raise up seed to his brother [Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5].’ ²⁵“Now there were with us seven brothers; and the first died after he married, and not having left offspring, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶“In like manner also the second, and the third, until the seventh. ²⁷“And last of all the woman died also. ²⁸“Therefore, in the resurrection, of which of the seven shall she be wife? For they all had her.” ²⁹And Jesus answered and said to them, “Ye are led astray, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ³¹“But concerning the resurrection of the dead, ye read, did ye not, that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ³²“‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob [cf. Ex. 3:6]’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³And after the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

³⁴But after the Pharisees heard that He silenced the Sadducees, they were gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a doctor of the law, questioned Him, putting Him to the test and saying, ³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” ³⁷And Jesus said to him, “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [cf. Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 30:6].’ ³⁸“This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹“And the second is like it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself [Lev. 19:18].’ ⁴⁰“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” ⁴¹But while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus questioned them, ⁴²saying, “What think ye concerning the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They say to Him, “David’s.” ⁴³He saith to them, “How then doth David in spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, ⁴⁴“‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit Thou on My right, until I should place Thine enemies as a footstool of Thy feet [Ps. 109(110):1]”’? ⁴⁵“If David then calleth Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” ⁴⁶And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day to question Him any more.

23 ¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, ²saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. ³“All things therefore whatsoever they tell you to keep, be keeping and doing, but according to their works do not be doing; for they say, and do not. ⁴“For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on the shoulders of men; but they are not willing to move them with their own fingers. ⁵“And they do all their works to be seen by men. For they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments; ⁶“and they love the chief place at the suppers, and the chief seats in the synagogues, ⁷“and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, rabbi.’ ⁸“But ye, do not be called ‘rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ; and ye are all brethren. ⁹“And do not begin to call anyone Father upon the earth, for One is your Father, the One in the heavens. ¹⁰“Neither be ye called guides; for One is your Guide, the Christ. ¹¹“But the greater of you shall be your servant. ¹²“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted. ¹³“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour the houses of widows, and for a pretense are offering long prayers; on this account ye shall receive greater condemnation. ¹⁴“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut the kingdom of the heavens before men; for ye do not enter, neither do ye permit to enter those who are trying to enter. ¹⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever he should become one, ye make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves. ¹⁶“Woe to you, blind guides, who are saying, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is bound.’ ¹⁷“Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ¹⁸“And, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, he is bound.’ ¹⁹“Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? ²⁰“Therefore the one who sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it. ²¹“And the one who sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it and by the One Who dwelleth in it. ²²“And the one who sweareth by the heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by the One Who sitteth upon it. ²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and ye leave the weightier matters of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave aside those others. ²⁴“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel! ²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but within they are full of plunder and incontinence. ²⁶“Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the dish, that the outside of them might become clean also. ²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like tombs which have been whitewashed, which on the one hand appear beautiful outwardly, but on the other hand they are full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness within. ²⁸“Thus ye also on the one hand appear righteous to men outwardly, but on the other hand ye are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness within. ²⁹“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the sepulchers of the righteous, ³⁰“and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹“Therefore ye bear witness against yourselves that ye are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³²“Fill ye up also the measure of your fathers. ³³“Serpents, offspring of vipers! How shall ye flee from the judgment of Gehenna? ³⁴“On this account, behold, I send forth to you prophets, and wise ones, and scribes: and some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵“that upon you should come all the righteous blood which is being poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶“Verily I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. ³⁷“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that killeth the prophets and stoneth those who have been sent forth to her! How often would I have gathered together thy children, in the way a hen gathereth together her chicks under her wings, and ye would not. ³⁸“Behold, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹“For I say to you, in no wise shall ye see Me henceforth, until ye shall say, ‘Blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord [Ps. 117(118):25(26)].’”

In the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§§ 102-104]. The Lord said to His disciples:

24 ³⁶“Concerning that day and hour, no one knoweth, not even the angels of the heavens, except My Father only. ³⁷“But even as the days of Noah were, so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸“For even as in the days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark— ³⁹“and they knew not until the flood came and took all away—so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰“Then two shall be in the field: the one is taken and the one is left. ⁴¹“Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one is taken and one is left. ⁴²“Be watching then, for ye know not in what hour your Lord cometh. ⁴³“But know ye this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and not let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴“On this account, ye also keep on becoming ready, for in what hour ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. ⁴⁵“Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom his lord appointeth over his household, to give them food in due season? ⁴⁶“Happy is that slave whom his lord, after he cometh, shall find so doing. ⁴⁷“Verily I say to you, that he shall appoint him over all his possessions. ⁴⁸“But if that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My lord taketh time to come,’ ⁴⁹“and should himself begin to strike his fellow slaves, and to eat and to drink with the drunken, ⁵⁰“the lord of that slave shall come in a day in which he expecteth not, and in an hour in which he knoweth not, ⁵¹“and will cut him in twain, and will place his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be there the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.”

25 ¹“Then shall the kingdom of the heavens be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. ²“And five of them were prudent, and five were foolish. ³“Those who were foolish took lamps for themselves and took no oil with them; ⁴“but the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵“But while the bridegroom tarried, they all dozed and went on sleeping. ⁶“But in the middle of the night, there came to pass a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!’ ⁷“Then all those virgins were wakened and trimmed their lamps. ⁸“And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹“But the prudent answered, saying, ‘Peradventure there might not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰“But while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and they who were ready went in with him to the wedding festivities; and the door was shut. ¹¹“And afterwards the remaining virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹²“But he answered and said, ‘Verily, I say to you, I know ye not.’ ¹³“Be watching then, for ye know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh.

¹⁴“For the kingdom of the heavens is even as a man going abroad, who called his own slaves and delivered up to them his property. ¹⁵“And to one, indeed, he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own strength; and straightway he went abroad. ¹⁶“And the one who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷“And in like manner, the one who received two, he also gained another two. ¹⁸“But the one who received the one went away and dug in the earth, and hid the money of his lord. ¹⁹“And after a long time the lord of those slaves cometh, and settleth accounts with them. ²⁰“And the one who received the five talents came forward and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, thou didst deliver up to me five talents; behold, I gained another five talents above them.’ ²¹“And his lord said to him, ‘Well done, O good and faithful slave! Over a little thou wast faithful, I will appoint thee over much; enter into the joy of thy lord.’ ²²“And also the one who received two talents said, ‘Lord, thou didst deliver up to me two talents; behold, I gained another two talents above them.’ ²³“And his lord said to him, ‘Well done, O good and faithful slave! Over a few things thou wast faithful, I will appoint thee over much; enter into the joy of thy lord.’ ²⁴“And also the one who received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Lord, I have come to know that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering together from where thou didst not winnow. ²⁵“‘And I was afraid and went away and hid thy talent in the earth; behold, thou hast thine own.’ ²⁶“And his lord answered and said to him, ‘O evil and reluctant slave! Thou knewest that I reap where I did not sow, and gather together from where I did not winnow! ²⁷“‘Then it was needful for thee to have put my money to the bankers, and I should have received for myself mine own with interest. ²⁸“‘Take away then the talent from him, and give it to him who hath the ten talents. ²⁹“‘For to everyone who hath, it shall be given, and he shall be in abundance; but from the one who hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him. ³⁰“‘And cast ye out the unprofitable slave into the darkness, the outer one. There shall be there the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.’

³¹“But whenever the Son of Man should come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. ³²“And before Him shall be gathered all the nations; and He shall separate them from one another, even as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the young kids. ³³“And indeed He shall set the sheep on His right, but the young kids on the left. ³⁴“Then shall the King say to those on His right, ‘Come, ye who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom which hath been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵“‘For I hungered and ye gave Me to eat; I thirsted and ye gave Me to drink; I was a stranger and ye brought Me in; ³⁶“‘naked and ye clothed Me; I was sick and ye visited Me; I was in prison and ye came to Me.’ ³⁷“Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungering and fed Thee, or thirsting and gave Thee to drink? ³⁸“‘And when did we see Thee a stranger and brought Thee in? Or naked and we clothed Thee? ³⁹“‘And when did we see Thee sick, or in prison, and came to Thee?’ ⁴⁰“And the King shall answer and say to them, ‘Verily I say to you, insofar as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it to Me.’ ⁴¹“Then shall He say also to those on the left, ‘Go from Me, ye who have been cursed, into the fire, the everlasting one, which hath been prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴²“‘For I hungered and ye did not give Me anything to eat; I thirsted and ye did not give Me anything to drink; ⁴³“‘I was a stranger and ye did not bring Me in, naked and ye did not clothe Me, sick, and in prison, and ye did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴“Then shall they also answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungering, or thirsting, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and we did not minister to Thee?’ ⁴⁵“Then shall He answer them, saying, ‘Verily I say to you, insofar as ye did it not to one of the least of these, neither did ye do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”

26 ¹And it came to pass, when Jesus finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples, ²“Ye know that after two days the passover taketh place, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up to be crucified.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostles Aristarchos, Pudens, and Trophimos of the Seventy (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 15th of April), and our holy father among the saints, Martin, Pope of Rome (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 13th of April), and his fellow bishops, and the holy Martyrs Anthony, John, and Efstathios, slain for the Faith in Vilmius, Lithuania.

Epistle

For the Martyrs:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].

6 ¹⁰Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; ¹²because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. ¹³For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; ¹⁶on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Gospel

For the Martyrs:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 36]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ¹⁶“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Become therefore wise as the serpents and guileless as the doves. ¹⁷“But continue being on guard against men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸“And also ye shall be brought before governors and kings on account of Me, for a testimony to them and to the nations. ¹⁹“But whenever they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what ye should speak; for it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak. ²⁰“For ye are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father Who is speaking in you. ²¹“Now a brother shall deliver up a brother to death, and a father a child; and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death. ²²“And ye shall be hated by all for My name’s sake; but the one who endureth to the end, this one shall be saved.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 27th – Civil Calendar
April 14th – Church Calendar

1. St. Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome.

Martin became Pope on July 5th, 649, at the time of a furious quarrel between the Orthodox and the Monothelite heretics. Constans the Second, Herakleios’ grandson, was on the throne at the time, and Paul was Patriarch of Constantinople. To restore peace in the Church, the emperor himself wrote a dogmatic decree, the Typos, which leaned heavily towards heresy. Pope Martin summoned a council of 105 bishops, at which the emperor’s statement was condemned. At the same time, the pope wrote a letter to Patriarch Paul, begging him to uphold the purity of the Orthodox Faith and to counsel the emperor to reject the theories of the heretics. This letter infuriated both the patriarch and the emperor. The emperor sent one of his generals, Olympius, to take the pope to Constantinople in bonds. The general did not dare to bind the pope with his own hands, but instructed one of his soldiers to kill him with the sword in church. But, when the soldier entered the church with his sword concealed, he was instantly blinded. So, by the providence of God, Martin escaped death. At that time, the Saracens fell upon Sicily, and Olympius went off there, where he died. Then, by the intrigues of the heretic Patriarch Paul, the emperor sent a second general, Theodore, to bind and take the pope on the charge that he, the pope, was in collusion with the Saracens and that he did not reverence the most holy Mother of God. When the general arrived in Rome and read the accusation against the pope, he replied that it was libel; that he had no contact of any sort with the Saracens, the opponents of Christianity, ‘and whoever does not confess the most holy Mother of God and do her reverence, let him be damned in this age and in that which is to come’. But this did not affect the general’s decision. The pope was bound and taken to Constantinople, where he lay long in prison in great sickness, tortured by both anxiety and hunger, until he was finally sentenced to exile in Cherson, where he lived for two years before his death. He gave his soul into the hands of the Lord, for Whom he had suffered so greatly, in 655. The evil patriarch, Paul, died two years before him, and when the emperor visited him on his deathbed, he smote his head against the wall, confessing with tears that he had greatly sinned against Pope Martin and asking the emperor to set Martin free.

2. The Holy Martyrs Anthony, John and Eustace.

These three were all at first pagans and fire-worshippers. They were slaves at the court of the Lithuanian Prince Olgard in Vilna. Their former names were Krugletz, Kumetz and Neghilo. All three were baptized by a priest called Nestor. The three of them were hanged, one behind the other, from the same oak tree in 1347. Christians cut down this oak and built a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in which they laid the precious relics of these martyrs, making the Holy Table from the stump of the tree. Their relics are preserved in Vilna.

3. The Holy Martyr Ardalion the Actor.

The holy martyr Ardalion lived at the time of Maximian, 298 A.D. By profession he was an actor or a mimic, imitating the sorrows and woes of others. On one occasion he decided to imitate the resistance that Christians display when being martyred by the tyrants. So his friends staged an act where Ardalion was suspended from a height and supposedly mutilated because he would not sacrifice to the idols. The audience was so moved by his performance that they interrupted and gave him a standing ovation. Then Ardalion exclaimed in a great voice, telling the audience to stop their applause, and announced that he was a Christian in reality. The governor of that territory advised him to change his mind, but our martyr would not listen to him, and stayed firm in the Faith. He was cast into a bonfire which was lit on that spot, and thus he met his end and received the laurel of martyrdom.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘A monk must love God as a son and fear Him as a slave,’ says Evagrius. In fact, this is so of every Christian, even if he is not a monk. It is a great art to unite love for God to fear of Him. Many other of the holy fathers also, when they speak of the love of God, speak at the same time of fear of Him—and vice versa. St. John Chrysostom, in his homily ‘On Perfect Love,’ speaks at the same time of punishment and the torments of hell. Why? Because the greatest love towards God of which man is capable can be turned into pride if it is not accompanied by a sense of fear—and great fear without love leads to despair.

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.