Daily Devotional

Monday, May 17, 2027 (NS), May 4, 2027 (OS)

No Fasting.

Monday of the Third Week

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Tarsus.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 17]. In those days:

6 ⁸Stephen, full of faith and of power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹But there rose up some of those from the synagogue which is called that of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. ¹⁰And they were not able to stand against the wisdom and the spirit by which he was speaking. ¹¹Then they suborned men, who said, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹²And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes. And having set upon him, they seized him, and brought him to the sanhedrin. ¹³And they set up false witnesses, saying, “This man ceaseth not speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; ¹⁴“for we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazaræan shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵And having looked intently upon him, all those sitting in the sanhedrin saw his face as though it were a face of an angel.

7 ¹Then the high priest said, “Are then these things so?” ²And he began saying, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, ³“and said to him, ‘Get thee out from thy land and from thy kindred, and come here into a land which I shall show thee [cf. Gen. 12:1].’ ⁴“Then after he went out from the land of the Chaldæans, he dwelt in Haran. And from that place, after his father died, He removed him into this land in which ye now dwell. ⁵“And He did not give him an inheritance in it, not even the breadth of a footstep. And yet He promised to give it to him for a possession, and his seed after him, though he had no child.... ⁴⁷“But Solomon built Him a house. ⁴⁸“But the Most High dwelleth not in temples made by hand, even as the prophet saith, ⁴⁹“‘The heaven is a throne to Me, and the earth a footstool of My feet; what manner of house will ye build Me,’ saith the Lord, ‘or what is the place of My rest [cf. Is. 66:1]? ⁵⁰“‘My hand did make all these things, did it not [cf. Is. 66:2]?’ ⁵¹“O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and in the ears, ye always fall in a direction contrary to the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, also do ye. ⁵²“Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they slew those who announced beforehand about the coming of the righteous One, of Whom now ye have become betrayers and murderers, ⁵³“ye who received the law by the disposition of angels, and guarded it not.” ⁵⁴And when they heard these things their hearts were sawn asunder, and they were gnashing their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into the heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right of God; ⁵⁶and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens having been opened and the Son of Man standing on the right of God.” ⁵⁷And they cried out with a loud voice, and they held their ears together, and rushed upon him with one accord. ⁵⁸And they cast him outside of the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses themselves laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man who was called Saul. ⁵⁹And they kept on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰And having knelt down, he cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not make this sin stand against them.” And having said this, he fell asleep.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 13]. At that time:

4 ⁴⁶There was a certain king’s officer whose son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷After this one heard that Jesus had come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went off to Him, and was entreating Him that He would come down and heal His son, for he was about to die. ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Unless ye see signs and wonders, in no wise will ye believe.” ⁴⁹The king’s officer saith to Him, “Sir, come down before my little child die.” ⁵⁰Jesus saith to him, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.” And the man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and started on his way. ⁵¹But already, as he was going down, his slaves met him and brought tidings, saying, “Thy child liveth.” ⁵²Then he learned from them the hour in which he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Thy son liveth.” And he himself believed, and his whole house. ⁵⁴Again, this second sign Jesus did, having come out of Judæa into Galilee.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Tarsus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 17th – Civil Calendar
May 4th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Pelagia of Tarsus.

Born in the town of Tarsus of pagan but noble and wealthy parents, she heard about Christ and the salvation of the soul from Christians, became inflamed with love for the Savior and was a Christian in her soul. There was at that time a terrible persecution of Christians. It happened that the Emperor Diocletian himself stopped in Tarsus and that, during the time of his stay in the town, his son, the heir, fell deeply in love with Pelagia and wanted to make her his wife. Pelagia replied through her mother—a wicked woman—that she was already promised to her betrothed husband, Christ the Lord. Fleeing from the foul heir and her wicked mother, Pelagia sought and found Bishop Linus, a man renowned for his holiness. He instructed her in the Faith and baptized her. Then Pelagia gave away her luxurious clothing and great wealth, returned home and confessed to her mother that she was already baptized. Hearing of this, the emperor’s son, losing all hope of getting this holy maiden as his wife, ran himself through with a sword and died. Then the wicked mother denounced her daughter to the emperor and she was taken for trial. The emperor marveled at the girl’s beauty, and forgetting his son, burned with an impure passion for her. But when Pelagia remained unfaltering in her faith, the emperor condemned her to be burned in a metal ox heated by fire. She entered the ox with prayers of thanksgiving to God on her lips, and received a crown of martyrdom. She suffered with honor in 287. Diocletian bid that her remains be cast out of the city for wild beasts to devour, but God preserved her relics intact. Bishop Linus took her relics and buried them honorably. In the time of the Emperor Constantine Kopronymos (741-775), a beautiful church was built on that site in honor of this holy virgin and martyr Pelagia, who was sacrificed for Christ to reign eternally with Him.

2. The Hieromartyr Silvanos, Bishop of Gaza.

He was at first in military service, but later, urged by the strength of his faith, he transferred to spiritual service. Accused of bringing many pagans to Christianity, he was at first brutally tortured then beheaded with forty other soldiers in 311, and thus became a citizen of heaven.

3. Our Holy Father Nikephoros the Hesychast.

He was at first a Roman Catholic, but then became Orthodox. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain as a monk, with the wise Theoleptos. He was a teacher of St. Gregory Palamas and wrote a work on mental prayer. He went peacefully to the Lord in the 14th century. He taught: ‘Gather your mind and compel it to enter into your heart and remain there. When your mind is firmly in your heart, it must not remain empty, but must incessantly make the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And it must never fall silent. Through this the whole string of the virtues: love, joy, peace and the others, will make their abode in you, by which, then, every request of yours to God will be fulfilled.’

FOR CONSIDERATION

A young man, inexperienced in the spiritual struggle, makes a show to everyone of his good works with self-congratulation. But a soldier experienced in skirmishes with the passions and with demons belittles each work of his and intensifies his prayer for the help of God. Abba Matoes said: ‘The closer a man is to God, the more clearly he knows himself a sinner.’ And, again, he said: ‘When I was young, I thought that I might be able to do some good thing; but now that I am old, I see that I have not done a single good work.’ Did not the Lord say: ‘None is good, but the one God’? If, then, the one God alone is good and the fount of all good, how can a good work be done that is not of God? And how can anyone who performs a good work attribute it to himself and not to God? And, if this is so, by what can a dead man be praised? By nothing but God and the goodness of God.

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.