Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 118]. Brethren:

15 ¹⁷I have my boasting in Christ Jesus as to the things pertaining to God. ¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of anything which Christ hath not worked out through me for the obedience of the nations, by word and deed, ¹⁹in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God, so as for me to have set forth fully the Gospel of the Christ from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum. ²⁰And so I am thus exerting myself eagerly to announce the Gospel where Christ was not named, lest I should build upon another’s foundation. ²¹But as it hath been written: “To whom it was not announced concerning Him, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall comprehend [Is. 52:15].”

²²Wherefore also I was hindered many times from coming to you. ²³But now having no more place in these regions, and having an earnest desire to come to you for many years, ²⁴whensoever I go into Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you while passing through, and to be sent forth to that place by you, if first in part I should take my fill of you. ²⁵But now I am going to Jerusalem, ministering to the saints. ²⁶For they of Macedonia and Achaia were well pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. ²⁷For they were well pleased; and they are their debtors. For if the nations participated in their spiritual things, they are indebted also in the fleshly things to minister to them. ²⁸This then having finished, and having sealed this fruit to them, I will go forth by way of you into Spain. ²⁹And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 49]. At that time:

12 ⁴⁶While Jesus yet talked to the crowds, behold, His Mother and His brethren were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. ⁴⁷And one said to Him, “Behold Thy Mother and Thy brethren are standing outside, seeking to speak to Thee.” ⁴⁸But He answered and said to the one who spoke to him, “Who is My mother? And who are My brethren?” ⁴⁹And stretching forth His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold, My mother and My brethren. ⁵⁰“For whosoever shall do the will of My Father Who is in the heavens, the same is My brother and sister and mother.”

13 ¹And in the course of that day, Jesus, having gone out of the house, was sitting by the sea. ²And great crowds were gathered together before Him, so that He stepped into the ship and sat; and the whole crowd was standing on the seashore. ³And He spoke many things to them in parables.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of Hieromartyr Pancratius, Bishop of Taormina.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 22nd – Civil Calendar
July 9th – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Pancratius, Bishop of Taormina.

This holy hierarch was born in Antioch at the time that the Lord Jesus walked as a Man among men on earth. Hearing of Christ’s miracles, Pancratius’ parents desired to see the Lord, the Wonder-worker. They came to Jerusalem, bringing Pancratius, where they saw Jesus, heard His words and witnessed His miracles. There Pancratius met the Apostle Peter. After the Lord’s Ascension, both parents and their son were baptized in Antioch. Pancratius retired to a cave in Pontus, where the Apostle Peter found him, and in consultation with the Apostle Paul, installed him as bishop of Taormina in Sicily. St. Pancratius worked great wonders in that town. He destroyed idols, baptized the unbaptized and instructed the baptized, and governed the Church of God. A pagan general, Aquilinus, hearing that the whole town of Taormina had become Christian, set out with an army to the town to destroy it. Holy Pancratius encouraged the faithful to be fearless, and he himself went out from the city with the clergy, carrying in his hands the unconquerable sign of the precious Cross. When the soldiers drew near to the town, a darkness fell on them and they were seized with great terror. A great confusion arose, so that they fell over one another and were stabbed and cut about by their own swords. Thus that godly man, Pancratius, saved his city and his flock by the power of his prayers before God. He was finally stoned to death by some envious and wicked pagans, and entered into rest in the Lord. His holy relics are preserved in Rome.

2. The Hieromartyr Kyril, Bishop of Gortyna in Crete.

As an old man of eighty-four, he was tortured for Christ during Decius’ reign. Cast into the flames, he was saved by the providence of God. Then the judge pronounced this sentence: ‘Just judgement cannot tolerate that Kyril, having been delivered from fire, remain among the living. I therefore command that he be killed with the sword.’ The elder joyfully laid his head under the sword and was beheaded, to live eternally in the kingdom of Christ.

3. Our Holy Fathers, the Martyrs Patermuthius and Copres.

Both were Egyptians, martyred by the Emperor Julian the Apostate. The first was seventy-five and the second forty-five years old. The emperor succeeded in turning Copres from the Christian Faith to idolatry. The apostate Copres cried: ‘I am Julian’s, not Christ’s!’ When old Patermuthius rebuked him and brought to his mind the thought of eternal torment, Copres was distressed and cried out before the Emperor: ‘I am Christ’s, not Julian’s!’ They were both beheaded. One of the emperor’s soldiers, Alexander, who saw their courage in suffering and himself became a Christian, suffered together with them. They suffered with honor for Christ, and went to Christ in the year 361.

4. Our Holy Fathers Patermuthius and Copres.

Although they have the same names, these two are different from the above. This Patermuthius was at first a robber leader, but after a wondrous vision, he turned to the true Faith. What happened was this: he had climbed onto the roof of a house belonging to a devout woman, with the intention of getting into the house that way and stealing. Sleep fell on him, and he saw in a dream an angel in the form of a young man who commanded him to cease doing evil and repent. He was not only baptized but also became a monk.

Both of them were great wonder-workers. By God’s grace, they healed men of every pain and ill, brought sinners back to the true path and had the gift of prophecy. A sinner lying on his deathbed begged Patermuthius to prolong his life that he might repent. The saint prayed, and then told him that God had given him three years more. The sinner repented, and died exactly three years later. They entered into rest in the Lord in great old age, at the end of the fourth century.

5. St. Theodore, Bishop of Edessa, and others with him.

He became a monk at the age of twenty, and spent thirty-six years as a monk. Then, in the time of the Emperor Michael and Empress Theodora, he was chosen as Bishop of Edessa. He died in 848. Together with him are commemorated his teacher, St. Theodosios the Stylite of Syria, his brother St. John, and St. Aderus, a rich nobleman who left his wife and became a monk.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Many ask themselves why God takes young men, girls and children from this life and does not leave them to grow old, and then take them through death to the other world. It is God’s plan, His dispensation, the holy desire of His providence. But there are some examples, in the enormous experience of the Church, when God sometimes does the former in conformity to the desire and prayers of those pleasing to Him in the other world, or of kinsfolk. St. Aderus (in monasticism, Athanasius) appeared to his wife, whom he had suddenly left with three children when he went off to a monastery where he died. When his wife reached despair from worry about her frail children and from concern about her husband, not knowing where he was, he appeared to her in a dream from the other world, with a radiant face and shining garments, and said to her: ‘Stop crying and railing against me; I will take two of the children to myself; but you, if you wish, stay and grow old for the salvation of your soul.’ At the same time and in the same way he appeared to St. Theodore the Stylite and said to him: ‘In three days’ time, an old nun in a monastery near you will go to the Lord. Put my wife there in her place, that she may live in asceticism as a nun in that cell. Let the youngest child stay with her until it is grown up; he will follow in my footsteps and will inherit the apostolic throne in Jerusalem.’ And, indeed, all came to pass as he had said. The old nun died on the third day, and also Aderus’ two elder children. His wife took over the old nun’s cell with her youngest son, who, when he grew up, became Patriarch of Jerusalem.

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.