Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fourteenth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 198].

1 ¹Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, Who raised Him from the dead), ²and all the brethren with me, to the churches of Galatia: ³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.... ²⁰Now the things which I write to you, behold, before the face of God, I lie not. ²¹Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judæa which are in Christ. But they were hearing only that “the one who once persecuted us now preacheth the faith as good tidings which once he used to ravage.” ²³And they were glorifying God in me.

2 ¹Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. ²And I went up according to revelation, and I laid before them the Gospel which I proclaim among the nations, but privately to those who were of repute, lest in any way I should be running, or ran, in vain. ³But not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ⁴Now on this account false brethren were introduced privily—who came in secretly to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus—in order that they might bring us into bondage to themselves; ⁵to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 19]. At that time:

5 ¹Jesus came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gergesenes. ²And after He came forth out of the ship, straightway there met Him out of the sepulchers a man with an unclean spirit, ³who had his dwelling among the sepulchers; and no one was able to bind him, not even with chains, ⁴because he often had been bound, and the chains had been torn asunder by him, and the fetters had been broken in pieces, and no one was able to tame him. ⁵And throughout the night and day, he was in the mountains and in the sepulchers, crying out and cutting himself to pieces with stones. ⁶But after he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and made obeisance to Him. ⁷And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What is it to me and to Thee, Jesus, Son of God the Most High? I adjure Thee by God, do not begin to torment me.” ⁸For He was saying to him, “Come forth, thou spirit, the unclean one, out of the man!” ⁹And He was questioning him, “What is thy name?” And he answered, saying, “Legion is my name, because we are many.” ¹⁰And he was beseeching Him much that He would not send them away outside the country. ¹¹Now there was there toward the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. ¹²And all the demons besought Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we might enter into them.” ¹³And straightway Jesus gave them leave. And the spirits, the unclean ones, went out and entered into the swine (now they were about two thousand); and the herd rushed down the cliff into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. ¹⁴And they who fed the swine fled, and brought back tidings to the city and to the country. And they went out to see what it was that had taken place. ¹⁵And they came to Jesus, and beheld the one who had been possessed by demons and had the legion, sitting and clothed and of sound mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶And they who saw related to them how it happened to the one who had been possessed by demons, and concerning the swine. ¹⁷And they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders. ¹⁸And while He embarked into the ship, the one who had been possessed by demons was beseeching Him that he might be with Him. ¹⁹And Jesus did not allow him, but saith to him, “Go to thy house and to thine own, and bring tidings to them how much the Lord did for thee, and pitied thee.” ²⁰And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis how much Jesus did for him; and all were marvelling.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Nativity, and the Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

September 23rd – Civil Calendar
September 10th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora.

They were three sisters from some place in Asian Bithynia. Brought up in a Christian spirit, they withdrew from the city into the desert, desiring to lift up their minds to God and free themselves from the illusory world, and thus to live their lives with purity and virginity as true brides of Christ. They gave themselves to fasting, prayer and toil, and God adorned them with the gift of wonder-working. When people began to bring the sick to them for healing, they became known against their will. A certain governor, Fronton, heard of them and brought them to trial. Seeing them, the governor was amazed at their beauty, for, although they were nuns and their bodies were withered, their faces were radiant, illumined by an inner peace and the grace of God. The governor at first flattered them and promised to send them to the emperor, who would give them in marriage to his nobles, but when he realized that his flattery and promises were having no effect on these brides of Christ the Lord, he ordered that Menodora be put to torture and her sisters be thrown into prison. After harsh torture, the governor cried to Menodora, all wounded and covered in blood: ‘Offer sacrifice to the gods!’ To this the holy martyr replied: ‘Don’t you see that I am doing nothing but offering myself in sacrifice to my God?’ When she expired under torture, the governor brought out her two sisters and stood them beside Menodora’s dead body, and pointing to it, urged them to deny Christ. As they remained steadfast, he tortured them to death. At that, a thunderbolt fell from the sky and killed the soulless Fronton and his servants. Christians buried the bodies of these holy martyrs, who suffered some time between 305 and 311, in the time of Galerius, and entered into rest in the kingdom of Christ.

2. St. Pulcheria the Empress.

Daughter of the Emperor Arkadios, she vowed to remain in perpetual virginity, and as an earnest of this vow, had a table of gold and precious stones made for the cathedral. She reigned together with her brother Theodosios the Younger, and was greatly zealous for the Orthodox Faith. It was at her instigation that the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus was summoned, which condemned the Nestorian heresy. She built the famous church of the Mother of God at Vlachernai in Constantinople. After Theodosios’ death, she married Marcian, who was chosen as emperor, and lived with him as a brother. It was she who found the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. She entered into rest in the Lord on September 10th, 453, at the age of fifty-five.

3. Ss. Apollos, Lucius and Clement.

Apostles among the Seventy: Apollos (Acts 18:24-25) was bishop in Smyrna before St. Polycarp. St. Lucius (Rom. 16:21) was bishop in Laodicea and St. Clement was bishop in Sardis.

4. The Three Holy Women of Constantinople.

A noblewoman of Constantinople with her two handmaids, they scorned the vanity of the world and withdrew to solitude, where, after eleven years of asceticism, they entered into rest in the Lord.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The examples of courage and endurance that are given by the Christian martyrs—thousand upon thousand of them—shine with radiant glory through every page of the history of the Christian Church. But, as the examples of voluntary martyrs are given us to marvel at, so also (and no less) are the examples of the Christian ascetics, known and unknown, for asceticism is nothing other than a long-drawn-out martyrdom. Paul, Bishop of Monemvasia, has given to posterity the instructive example of a group of women ascetics. While he was still a layman and a tax-collector, he happened to stay in a monastery. Seeing ravens set about the fruit trees, stealing the fruit and carrying it off, he was curious, and together with the monks, set off after them to see where they were carrying the fruit. Going thus, they came to an impenetrable forest, into the depths of which the ravens disappeared, left their stolen fruit and quickly returned. Exploring, they found a cave, and in it, three nuns. The eldest of them told him of their life: how she had been a Constantinopolitan noblewoman whose husband had died and whom another noble had wanted to take by force as his wife. But she had decided, after her husband’s death, that she would spend the rest of her life in virginity, and had therefore given her goods away to the poor, and with her two handmaids, had fled to this remote spot. They had spent eleven years there in fasting and prayer, seeing no one and seen of no one but God. He, in His providence, had arranged for birds to bring them fruit to eat. They then begged the abbot to bring them holy Communion. When they had received Communion, three days later, all three holy women entered into rest, and the monks buried them.

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.