Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Seventh Sunday of Pascha, or the Sunday of the Holy Fathers

Mode Plagal Two — Tenth Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 44]. In those days:

20 ¹⁶Paul decided to sail by Ephesus, so that to spend time in Asia might not happen to him; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to himself the presbyters of the church. ¹⁸And when they came to him, he said to them,... ²⁸“Be taking heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit set you for Himself as bishops, to shepherd the Church of the Lord and God, which He preserved for Himself through His own blood. ²⁹“For I know this, that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock, ³⁰“and among your own selves men shall rise up, speaking things which have been perverted, to draw away the disciples after themselves. ³¹“Wherefore keep on watching, remembering that for three years I ceased not admonishing each one night and day with tears. ³²“And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build up and to give you an inheritance among all those who have been sanctified. ³³“I desired of no one silver or gold or clothing; ³⁴“but ye yourselves know that these hands ministered to my needs, and those who were with me. ³⁵“I showed you by example all things, that so toiling it is needful to help those who are weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ³⁶And having said these things, he kneeled down and prayed with them all.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 56]. At that time:

17 ¹Jesus lifted up His eyes to the heaven, and said, “Father, the hour hath come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son might glorify Thee, ²“even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, in order that all whom Thou hast given Him, He should give to them life eternal. ³“And this is the eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou didst send forth. ⁴“I glorified Thee on the earth. I finished the work which Thou hast given Me that I should do. ⁵“And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world came to be. ⁶“I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me, and they have kept Thy word. ⁷“Now they have come to know that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee. ⁸“For the words which Thou hast given Me, I have given them; and they received them, and know truly that I came forth from Thee; and they believed that Thou didst send Me forth. ⁹“I make request concerning them. I do not make request concerning the world, but concerning these whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine; ¹⁰“and all My things are Thine, and Thy things are Mine, and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹“And I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep in Thy name those whom Thou hast given Me, in order that they may be one, even as We. ¹²“When I was with them in the world, I was keeping them in Thy name. Those whom Thou hast given Me I guarded, and none of them perished, except the son of the perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³“And now I come to Thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in them.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Hermeas at Comana.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 13th – Civil Calendar
May 31st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Hermas.

One of the Seventy, he is mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (16:14). A Greek by birth, he spent a long time in Rome. He was bishop in Philippoupolis, and finished his life a martyr. He compiled the very instructive book ‘The Shepherd’ through revelations from the angels of God. Hermas was a rich man, but fell into extreme poverty through his own sins and those of his sons. A man appeared to him, clad in white and with a staff in his hand, and told him that he was the angel of repentance, sent to him before the end of his life. The angel gave him twelve commandments:

1. To believe in God.

2. To live in simplicity and innocence.

3. To love truth and flee from falsehood.

4. To guard his thoughts in chastity.

5. To learn patience and magnanimity of soul.

6. To know that a good and an evil spirit attend every man.

7. To fear God, but not the devil

8. To perform every good deed and to restrain himself from every evil one.

9. To pray to God in faith from the depths of his heart, so that his prayer might be heard.

10. To preserve himself from melancholy, the daughter of doubt, and from anger.

11. To try true and false prophecies.

12. To preserve himself from every evil desire.

2. The Holy Martyr Hermias.

He was a soldier in the imperial army till old age, when he suffered for another Emperor: Christ. The wicked judge tried in vain to make him renounce the Christian Faith and offer sacrifice to idols, then he ordered that Hermias’ teeth be broken with a stone and the skin stripped from his face with a knife. After that, he was thrown into a flaming furnace, but he remained unharmed, protected by the grace of God. He was then made to drink the strongest poison, which was given to him by a magician on the judge’s orders, but the poison did him no harm at all. When the magician saw this, he was so amazed that he confessed Christ himself, and was immediately slain with the sword. They then poked out both of Hermias’ eyes, and he said mildly to the judge: ‘Take the eyes of flesh which used to gaze upon the vanity of the world; I have other eyes in my heart with which I clearly see the true light.’ He was then hung upside down by the feet, and those who were torturing him became blind and staggered around him. St. Hermias called them to himself, laid his hands upon them and restored their sight by his prayers. Seeing all this, the judge became as furious as a lion, and drawing out his sword, cut off the head of the man of God. Christians came and took Hermias’ body in secret, and gave it burial. His relics gave healing to all the sick and wretched. St. Hermias suffered in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, in the year 160.

3. The Holy Martyr Philosophos.

This martyr of Christ’s was born near Alexandria. During a persecution of Christians, Philosophos refused to renounce Christ the Lord before the pagan princes and judges, and they therefore inflicted terrible tortures on him. After he had been tortured in various ways, they finally placed him on a soft bed, bound hand and foot, and put a harlot in with him to entice him into sin. When Philosophos felt passion awakening in himself through the touch of the woman’s hands, he took the tongue between his teeth, bit it through and spat it out in the harlot’s face. His passion was extinguished, and the harlot was so aghast that she fled from him at once. He was afterwards beheaded with the sword, in about 252, whilst still young in years, and entered into the kingdom of eternal youth. (In the Greek Prologue, St. Philosophos is commemorated on May 1st.).

FOR CONSIDERATION

This life is a spiritual battle: to conquer or be conquered. If we conquer, we shall enjoy the fruits of victory through all eternity; but if we are conquered, we shall suffer the horrors of defeat through all eternity. This life is a duel between man and everything that sets itself against God. God is the almighty Ally of every man who whole-heartedly calls upon Him for aid. Saint John of Kronstadt says: ‘This life is neither a joke nor a plaything, although men may turn it into either. They fritter away the time given to us to prepare for eternity, disporting themselves with empty words. They go about visiting, sitting and gossiping, playing this or that game. They get together in the theaters and amuse themselves there. Life is, for them, amusement. But woe to those who do nothing but amuse themselves!’

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.