Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Twenty-First Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians [§ 252]. Brethren:

For Gk. usage, see Col. 1:24-29, 2:1; for Sl. usage, see Col. 1:24-29.

1 ²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings on behalf of you, and fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of the Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the Church, ²⁵of which I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now is made manifest to His saints, ²⁷to whom God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory, ²⁸Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; ²⁹for which I also labor, struggling according to the energy of Him Who Himself energizeth in me in power.

2 ¹For I wish you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 57]. At that time:

11 ¹⁴Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was mute. And it came to pass, after the demon went out, the mute spoke; and the crowds were marvelling. ¹⁵But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, He casteth out the demons.” ¹⁶And others, putting Him to the test, kept on seeking from Him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom having been divided against itself is being brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. ¹⁸“And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom be made to stand, because ye say by Beelzebul I am casting out the demons? ¹⁹“And if I by Beelzebul cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? On this account, they shall be your judges. ²⁰“But if I cast out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God is come upon you. ²¹“Whenever the strong one who hath been armed is guarding his own court, his possessions are in peace; ²²“but when the One Who is stronger than he cometh against him and prevaileth over him, He taketh away his full armor in which he had trusted, and divideth his spoils. ²³“The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who gathereth not with Me scattereth.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy and venerable Martyr Anastasia the Roman, and our venerable Father Abramios the Recluse, and his niece St. Mary of Mesopotamia.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

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.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 11th – Civil Calendar
October 29th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Mother, the Martyr Anastasia the Roman.

She was born in Rome of well-born parents and left an orphan at the age of three. As an orphan, she was taken into a women’s monastery near Rome, where the abbess was one Sophia, a nun of a high level of perfection. After seventeen years, Anastasia was known in the whole neighborhood, to the Christians as a great ascetic and to the pagans as a rare beauty. The pagan administrator of the city, Probus, heard of her and sent soldiers to bring her to him. The good Abbess Sophia counseled Anastasia for two hours on how to keep the Faith, how to resist flattering delusion and how to endure torture. Anastasia said to her: ‘My heart is ready to suffer for Christ; my soul is ready to die for my beloved Jesus.’ Brought before the governor, Anastasia openly proclaimed her faith in Christ the Lord, and when the governor tried to dissuade her from the Faith, first with promises and then with threats, the holy maiden said to him: ‘I am ready to die for my Lord, not once but—oh, if it were only possible!—a thousand times.’ When they stripped her naked, to humiliate her, she cried to the judge: ‘Whip me and cut at me and beat me; my naked body will be hidden by wounds, and my shame will be covered by my blood!’ She was whipped and beaten and cut about. She twice felt a great thirst and asked for water, and a Christian, Cyril, gave her a drink, for which he was blessed by the martyr and beheaded by the pagans. Then her breasts and tongue were cut off, and an angel of God appeared to her and upheld her. She was finally beheaded with the sword outside the city. Blessed Sophia found her body and buried it, and Anastasia was crowned with the wreath of martyrdom under the Emperor Decius (249-251).

2. Our Holy Father Abramios (Abraham) the Recluse and his niece Maria.

Under pressure from his parents, Abramios married, but on the very day of his wedding, he left his bride, his parents, his home and all that he had and went off into solitude to live in strict asceticism. He lived thus for fifty years, only leaving his cell twice in the whole of that time. Once it was at the command of the local bishop, to convert a pagan village to the Christian Faith, and the other was to save his dissolute niece Maria. He entered peacefully into rest in 360, at the age of seventy.

3. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Timothy of Esphigmenou.

From the village of Paraora, in the province of Kessana in Thrace, he was married and had two daughters. His wife was seized by the Turks and converted to Islam, and in order to save her from the harem, he also pretended to become a Turk. Saving his wife, he gave her to a women’s monastery and went off to the Holy Mountain, first to the Lavra and then to Esphigmenou. He desired martyrdom for Christ, like Agathangelos of Esphigmenou, and was beheaded in Jedrene on October 29th, 1820. His body was thrown into a river, but his clothing was taken back to Esphigmenou by the elder Germanos, his spiritual father.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved’ (Matt. 10:22), said the Lord. Faith is the one light that can truly illumine endurance, as endurance for its own sake becomes an unbearable darkness. Faith is a star shining in this darkness; faith softens the sharpness of suffering and bears on its wings all the weight of endurance. St. Abramios offers us a beautiful example of perseverance in endurance. The devil simulated to him various sorts of temptation and terror, plunging him into a tedium that almost got him to the point of leaving the place in which he had settled and moving elsewhere, but Abramios did not want to move and become like an evil demon; he remained in his own place and overcame the devil. The bishop of that area sent Abramios to a pagan village to try to bring it to the Christian Faith. After long resistance, Abramios set off, saying: ‘Let God’s will be done; I’m going under obedience.’ He first built a church in the village and then pulled down the idols before the eyes of the villagers. They thrashed him, and beat him black and blue, leaving him almost dead, and then drove him out of their village, but he prayed to God for them with tears, that God would open the eyes of their hearts to know the truth of Christ. Thus the pagans beat and mocked him without remission for three years, but he prayed constantly to God for them and was not angered against them, ‘enduring in his faith like a firm rock’. Only after three whole years did his toil and tears, his beseeching and faith have their reward, for suddenly the villagers were awakened and went in a group to Abramios. Bowing down before him, they begged him to instruct them in the Christian Faith.

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.