Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Sixth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 121].

16 ¹⁷Brethren, I beseech you to look out for those who cause the divisions and the stumbling blocks contrary to the teaching which ye learned, and turn away from them. ¹⁸For such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by smooth speech and fine speaking, they deceive the hearts of the simple. ¹⁹For your obedience reached to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But on the one hand, I wish you to be wise indeed in regard to the good, and on the other hand, pure in regard to the evil. ²⁰And the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet quickly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

²¹Timothy my fellow worker, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, greet you. ²²I, Tertius, who wrote down the epistle, greet you in the Lord. ²³Gaios, my host and host of the whole church, greeteth you. Erastos, the administrator of the city, greeteth you, and Quartus the brother.

²⁴The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 51]. At that time:

13 ¹⁰The disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Why speakest Thou to them in parables?” ¹¹And He answered and said to them, “Because it hath been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it hath not been given. ¹²“For whosoever hath, to him it shall be given, and he shall be made to abound; but whosoever hath not, even what he hath shall be taken from him. ¹³“On account of this I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, nor do they understand. ¹⁴“And in them is being fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, ‘In hearing ye shall hear, and in no wise shall understand; and seeing ye shall see, and in no wise shall perceive [Is. 6:9]. ¹⁵“‘For the heart of this people was made fat; and with their ears they heard heavily; and their eyes they closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart and be converted; and I shall heal them [cf. Is. 6:10].’ ¹⁶“But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. ¹⁷“For verily I say to you that many prophets and righteous ones desired to see what ye see, and saw not, and to hear what ye hear, and heard not. ¹⁸“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower: ¹⁹“When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, the evil one cometh and seizeth that which hath been sown in his heart. This is the one who was sown by the wayside. ²⁰“But the one who was sown upon the rocky places, this is the one who heareth the word and straightway with joy receiveth it, ²¹“but hath no root in himself, but is temporary. And after affliction or persecution ariseth on account of the word, straightway he is made to stumble. ²²“And the one who was sown among the thorns, this is the one who heareth the word, and the care of this age and the deceit of wealth together choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. ²³“But the one who was sown on the good ground, this is the one who heareth and understandeth the word, who truly beareth fruit and produceth: some indeed a hundred, but some sixty, and some thirty.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Synaxis of the holy Archangel Gabriel, and our venerable Father Stephen of the Monastery of St. Savvas.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 305]. Brethren:

2 ²If the word spoken by angels was confirmed, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, ³how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which received a beginning to be spoken of by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard, ⁴God also bearing them witness with both signs and wonders, and various works of power, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to His will?

⁵For not to angels did He subject the coming inhabited world about which we speak; ⁶but one bore witness somewhere, saying, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him [Ps. 8:4]? ⁷“Thou didst make Him for a short time less than the angels; Thou didst crown Him with glory and honor [Ps. 8:5], ⁸“Thou didst subject all things under His feet [Ps. 8:6].” For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing not subject to Him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. ⁹But we see Jesus, Who for a short time was made less than the angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for everyone. ¹⁰For it was becoming to Him, because of Whom are all things and by means of Whom are all things, bringing many sons to glory, to have perfected the originator of their salvation through sufferings.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 51]. The Lord said to His disciples:

10 ¹⁶“The one who heareth you heareth Me, and the one who rejecteth you rejecteth Me, and the one who rejecteth Me rejecteth the One Who sent Me forth.”

¹⁷And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are being made subject to us in Thy name.” ¹⁸And He said to them, “I was beholding Satan as lightning having fallen out of the heaven. ¹⁹“Behold, I give you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy; and nothing in anywise shall injure you. ²⁰“However cease rejoicing in this, that the spirits are being made subject to you; but be rejoicing that your names were written in the heavens.” ²¹In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, “I give thanks to Thee, O Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, and didst reveal them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing before Thee.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 26h – Civil Calendar
July 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Archangel Gabriel.

This great archangel of God is commemorated on March 26th. On this day his appearances and marvels through the whole history of the salvation of mankind are commemorated. It is reckoned that this observance was first instituted on the Holy Mountain in 982, during the patriarchate of Nicholas Chrysoverges (979-91), and was occasioned by the Archangel’s appearing in a cell near Karyes, where, with his finger, he wrote the hymn to the Mother of God: ‘Axion Estin’ (It Is Verily Worthy). As a result of this occurrence, the cell was named, and is called to this day, ‘Axion Estin’. Linked with this, other appearances of the Archangel Gabriel are commemorated, such as his appearing to Moses when he revealed to this great man, chosen by God, how the world was created and all the rest that Moses later wrote down in the Book of Genesis; his appearing to Daniel and the imparting of the mystery of the kingdoms to come and the coming of the Savior; his appearing to St. Anna and the promise of a daughter, the most blessed and pure Virgin Mary; his appearing to the holy Virgin while she was living in the Temple in Jerusalem; his appearing to Zacharias the high priest and the news of the birth of John the Forerunner, and the punishing of the same with dumbness because he did not believe the angel’s words; his appearing once again to the holy Virgin in Nazareth, and the annunciation of the conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ; his appearing to righteous Joseph, to the shepherds near Bethlehem, to the Lord Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane when he strengthened the Lord, as Man, before His Passion: his appearing to the myrrh-bearing women, and his other appearances.

2. St. Julian, Bishop of Cenomanis (Le Mans).

Some think that he is none other than that Simon the Leper whom the Lord healed. The Apostle Peter made him bishop and sent him to pagan Gaul, where St. Julian endured great privation, but succeeded in bringing many of the people to the Christian Faith. When the prince, Defenson, was baptized, many of his subjects embraced the true Faith. By the grace of God, Julian worked many miracles: healing the sick, driving out demons and raising the dead. He departed this life peacefully, and at the time of his death, appeared to Prince Defenson in full daylight, while the latter was at lunch.

3. The Holy Martyr Golinduc.

A Persian, she married a Persian noble and lived three years in wedlock. She then had a vision of an angel, who revealed the other world to her: the torment of sinners and unbelievers and the joy of the righteous. She left her husband and received Baptism, being given the name Maria. As a result of her husband’s persecution, she was condemned to lifelong imprisonment and spent eighteen years in prison, being steadfast in the Faith. She was then thrown into a pit, but was saved by God; then before a venomous snake, but the snake did not harm her. When some wicked youths were sent to her to defile her, God made her invisible to their eyes. Amazed at her sufferings, many Persians were converted to the Christian Faith. She visited Jerusalem, where she denounced the Severian heresy which taught that Christ’s divinity suffered, and therefore recited the Trisagion in this form: ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, Who was crucified for us, have mercy on us.’ Preaching the true Faith up to the end of her life, she died peacefully near the town of Nisibis in 587.

4. Our Holy Father Stephen of St. Sava’s.

Nephew to St. John Damascene, he lived in asceticism in the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified, and is therefore known as ‘of St. Sava’s’. He was a great imitator of the life of St. Sava and a resplendent star among the monks of Palestine. He entered into rest in the Lord in 794, at the age of sixty-nine.

5. Our Holy Mother Sarah the Egyptian.

She embraced asceticism as a young girl, and thus spent sixty years on the bank of the Nile not far from Alexandria. By her example, she drew many women to the monastic life. She entered into rest in the Lord in 370.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A man adorns simple clothing, but magnificent clothing adorns a man. Simple clothing attracts attention to the man, but magnificent clothing attracts attention only to itself. A passion for magnificent clothing simply dries up and consumes a man’s soul. This is the reason why the Church has always stood against magnificence in dress and urged simplicity. Among the innumerable horde of Christian saints, there is not one commemorated who was helped to sanctity by the magnificence of his apparel. Many great and wise kings, Christian and pagan alike, have loved simplicity of dress. Thus, it is said of the Emperor Augustus Octavius, during whose reign the Lord Jesus was born, that he wore one single garment, woven by his wife, his sister or his daughter. Of the Emperor Charles V it is said that he wore such simple clothing that ordinary citizens, his subjects, were better-dressed. The famous Greek general, Philopomenes, was once invited to lunch by some man, into whose house he had never previously been. Philopomenes arrived rather early. His host had not yet arrived, and his hostess, not knowing him personally and seeing this man in such simple garb, thought that he must be one of Philopomenes’ servants whom he had sent ahead to warn the household of his coming with his host. She therefore set him to chop wood. Philopomenes obeyed willingly, and began to chop the wood. When his host arrived and saw his honored guest thus employed, he was horrified, and asked him: ‘Who ventured to give such a task to Philopomenes?’ The general replied quietly: ‘My clothes.’

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.