Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 106]. Brethren:

11 ¹³I speak to you, the nations. Inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of the nations, I glorify my ministry, ¹⁴if by any means I might provoke to jealousy my flesh and might save some of them. ¹⁵For if the casting away of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be if not life from the dead? ¹⁶Now if the firstfruits be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, ¹⁸cease boasting against the branches. But if thou boast against them, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then, “The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰Well; by unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Cease being high-minded, but be afraid. ²¹For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest perchance He should not spare thee either. ²²Behold then the kindness and severity of God: upon those that fell, severity; but upon thee, kindness, if thou continue in the kindness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. ²³And they also, if they continue not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild according to nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the deposition of the precious robe of our all-holy Lady in the Church of Vlachernae.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 320]. Brethren:

9 ¹The first tabernacle also used to have both ordinances of worship and the sanctuary of this world. ²For a tabernacle was furnished: the first in which were both the lampstand and the table, and the laying forth of the loaves, which is called Holy; ³and after the second veil, a tabernacle which is called Holy of Holies, ⁴which hath a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant which hath been covered all around from every side with gold, in which was the golden jar having the manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; ⁵and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, concerning which now is not the time to speak severally. ⁶Now after these things were thus furnished, the priests, on the one hand, enter into the first tabernacle, performing worship services; ⁷on the other hand, into the second, the high priest entereth alone once for all every year, not without blood, which he offereth on behalf of himself and the faults of ignorance of the people.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 4].

1 ³⁹In those days Mariam rose up and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; ⁴⁰and she entered into the house of Zacharias, and greeted Elisabeth. ⁴¹And it came to pass, as Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²And she cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. ⁴³“And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴“For behold, as the sound of thy salutation came into mine ears, the babe in my womb leaped in exultant joy. ⁴⁵“And happy is she who believed, for there shall be a fulfillment of those things which were spoken to her from the Lord.” ⁴⁶And Mariam saith:

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, ⁴⁷“and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior,

⁴⁸“for He looked upon the low estate of His slave. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

⁴⁹“For the mighty One did great things to me, and holy is His name.”... ⁵⁶And Mariam stayed with her about three months, and returned to her own house.

for Sl. usage, see [Lk. 10:38-42, 11:27, 28].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

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

1. The Deposition of the Vesture of the Most Holy Mother of God in the Vlachernai Church in Constantinople.

In the time of the Emperor Leo the Great (457-474) and the Empress Verina and Patriarch Gennadios, two Constantinopolitan nobles, Galbios and Candidos, were travelling in the Holy Land to venerate the holy places there. In Nazareth, they stayed in the house of a Jewish girl who had the vesture of the Mother of God kept in a secret place. Many of the sick and wretched had received healing through prayer and the touching of this vesture. Galbios and Candidos took this holy relic to Constantinople and informed the emperor and the patriarch of its existence. It was the cause of great rejoicing in the imperial city. The vesture was ceremonially placed in the Vlachernai church (a church built by the Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria on the shore of a bay, and named ‘Vlachernai’ after a General Vlacheran from Sketis, who was killed there), and this commemorative feast was instituted.

2. St. Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

A contemporary of Efthymios, Theodosios, Gerasimos, Simeon the Stylite and other great lights of the Church, he took part in two ecumenical councils—the third in Ephesus and the fourth in Chalcedon, striving with great power and zeal against the blasphemous heretics—at Ephesus against Nestorius, who spoke of the Mother of God as Mother of Christ, denying that Christ is God and Man in one Person, and at Chalcedon against Eftyches and Dioscoros, who taught that Christ has only one nature, divine but not human. After the victory of Orthodoxy at both these councils, Juvenal returned to his see in Jerusalem. But, though the heresies were condemned, the heretics were not subdued. By the plots and violence of one Theodosios, a friend of Dioscoros, Juvenal was driven from his episcopal throne and Theodosios installed in his place. The Empress Evdokia-Athenaïs, widow of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger, first gave her assistance to this heretic while she was staying in Jerusalem. The hesitant and meddlesome empress went at length to St. Simeon the Stylite, to ask him where the truth lay. This saint of God denounced the heretical teaching and instructed the empress to keep to Orthodox teaching as upheld by the councils. The empress obeyed him, repented and herself condemned the false Patriarch Theodosios. Marcian and Pulcheria were at that time on the throne in Constantinople. A letter was sent from the emperor to the governor, instructing him to exile Theodosios and re-instate Juvenal, which the governor did without delay. Juvenal governed the Church in Jerusalem as its hierarch for thirty-eight years and went to the Lord in great old age, in 458, to receive at His hands the reward for the manifold sufferings he had endured for the truth’s sake.

3. St. Photius (Fotii), Metropolitan of Moscow.

A Greek by birth, he governed the Russian Church wisely for twenty years, entering into rest in 1430. A week before his death, an angel of God appeared to him and revealed to him the precise time of his departure from this world.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Every contrivance that men grasp at as an invention of their own minds is in fact a revelation of God’s providence; and every invented contrivance has two designations: a physical and a spiritual. A clock is a marvelous invention, and exists not only to indicate to us the time of day or night but also to keep us mindful of death. The latter is its spiritual role. When the large hand has passed through the seconds and minutes, then the small hand arrives at the required hour, and the clock ticks on. So will the clock of our life tick away as it counts the days, months and years. Therefore, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk counsels every Christian to consider:

1. How the time of our life is passing.

2. How it is impossible to recall time.

3. How the past and the future are not within our control, but only the time through which we are living.

4. How the end of our life is unknown.

5. How we must be ready for death at every moment.

6. How, because of that, we must ever be in a state of repentance.

7. How we must at every moment be in that state of repentance and spiritual readiness that we would wish to be in at the moment of death.

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.