Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 86]. Brethren:

4 ⁴To him who worketh, the reward is reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt. ⁵But to him who worketh not, but believeth on Him Who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness, ⁶even as David also declareth the pronounced blessing of the man to whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works: ⁷“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered [Ps. 31(32):1]. ⁸“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord in no wise shall reckon sin [Ps. 31(32):2].” ⁹Doth this pronounced blessing then come upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. ¹⁰How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. ¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while in uncircumcision, in order for him to be the father of all those who believe while in uncircumcision, so that righteousness be reckoned to them also, ¹²and the father of circumcision to those not of the circumcision only, but to those who walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while in uncircumcision.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 22]. The Lord said:

7 ¹⁵“Be on guard against the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but within they are rapacious wolves. ¹⁶“From their fruits ye shall fully know them. They do not gather a bunch of grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, do they? ¹⁷“Thus, every good tree produceth good fruits, but the rotten tree produceth bad fruits. ¹⁸“A good tree is not able to produce bad fruits, nor is a rotten tree able to produce good fruits. ¹⁹“Every tree which produceth not good fruit is cut off and cast into the fire. ²⁰“Then surely by their fruits ye shall fully know them.

²¹“Not everyone who saith to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one who doeth the will of My Father in the heavens.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Tychon the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Amathus in Cyprus.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 29th – Civil Calendar
June 16th – Church Calendar

1. St. Tikhon, Bishop of Amathus.

A wonder-worker, Tikhon was chosen unanimously as bishop on the death of blessed Mnemonius, and consecrated by the renowned Epiphanios for the diocese of Amathus. The purity of his life and his zealous adherence to Orthodoxy recommended him for this rank. There were still pagans in Cyprus at that time, and Tikhon undertook with apostolic zeal to turn the unbelievers into believers, and he had great success in this. After lengthy toil in the Lord’s vineyard, he entered into the eternity of the blessed in about 425. He is named a wonder-worker because of the many miracles that he performed during his lifetime. His father was a baker, and whenever his father left him alone in the shop, he would distribute the bread to the poor without payment. His father reproached him once for doing this, so he prayed to God and their storehouse became so full of grain that they could open the door only with difficulty. Another time he planted a dry slip from a vine and the vine grew green and bore fruit in its season.

2. The Holy Martyrs Tigrios and Eftropios.

They were both priests with St. John Chrysostom. When evil men drove St. John from Constantinople, the cathedral was set on fire, the flames from it rising high and falling upon the houses of those who were persecuting this light of the Church. The people saw the finger of God at work in this event, but St. John’s enemies blamed his followers for the fire. Many of them suffered because of this, including the priest Tigrios and the reader Eftropios. The civil governor, an unbaptized Greek called Optatios, started a particularly venomous hunt for the followers of St. John. Tigrios had been the slave of a rich man in his youth and had been castrated. Set free from slavery, he had devoted himself entirely to the service of the Church and shone in that service like a ray of light. Optatios gave this ‘meek, humble, merciful and hospitable’ man over to vicious torture and then sent him into exile, to Mesopotamia, where he died while still in captivity. Eftropios, chaste and pure from his earliest youth, without vice or guile, was flogged with bull-whips and staves and finally hanged. When Christians took his body for burial, a melodious angelic chanting was heard in the sky above them.

FOR CONSIDERATION

In enumerating the miracles of the Christian Faith, we must not forget those innumerable and great miracles, the changes of heart and character in people truly converted to the Faith. How many senseless evildoers has the Faith tamed! How many bloodthirsty robbers has it turned into innocent lambs! How many debauched men into men of chaste life! How many persecutors has it made into defenders! How many self-seeking and avaricious men has it made compassionate! How many cowards has it turned onto the path of self-sacrifice! Metropolitan Philaret wrote thus about the Russian Prince Vladimir: ‘A lover of all the passions, he could not have loved them more, yet the pagan Vladimir found Christianity and became a model of pure and chaste married life. He put away from himself all the women and the concubines, and lived with Anna, a faithful and devout woman. A malicious, vengeful and bloodthirsty fratricide while a pagan, he became, as a Christian, the most compassionate friend of the deprived and unfortunate. They had free access to him, and he distributed both food and money to them with a generous hand. And he even went further than that: he said that the sick were in no state to come to the palace, so he ordered that meat and fish, bread, yeast and honey be taken round the streets. The words of the Gospel: “Blessed are the merciful”, penetrated into the very depths of his heart and became a principle of life for him.’

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.