Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 267]. Brethren:

2 ²⁰Ye are our glory and joy.

3 ¹Wherefore, when we could no longer bear up, we were well pleased to have been left behind in Athens alone; ²and we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow worker in the Gospel of the Christ, to establish you and comfort you concerning your faith, ³that no one be moved by these afflictions; for ye yourselves know that for this we are appointed. ⁴For indeed, when we were with you, we used to tell you beforehand that “we are about to be afflicted,” even as it also came to pass, and ye know. ⁵For this cause, when we could no longer bear up, I also sent in order to know your faith, lest perchance the one who tempteth did tempt you, and our labor should be in vain. ⁶But now after Timothy came to us from you, he also announced the good tidings to us of your faith and love, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, longing to see us, even as we also to see you; ⁷on this account, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and necessity by reason of your faith. ⁸For now we live, if ye be standing fast in the Lord.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 75]. At that time:

14 ¹²Jesus went into the house of a certain ruler of the Pharisees on the sabbath to eat bread; and He was saying to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever thou makest a midday meal or a supper, do not be calling thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinfolk, nor thy rich neighbors, lest ever they also should invite thee in turn, and it would become a recompense to thee. ¹³“But whenever thou makest a reception, be inviting the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. ¹⁴“And thou shalt be happy, because they have not wherewith to recompense thee; for it shall be recompensed to thee in the resurrection of the just.”

¹⁵And after one of those who reclined at table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Happy is he who shall eat dinner in the kingdom of God.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew.

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

4 ⁹I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. ¹¹Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. ¹²And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; ¹³being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. ¹⁴I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel. ¹⁶Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 30]. At that time:

9 ⁹As Jesus passed by from that place, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the custom-house. And He saith to him, “Follow thou Me.” And he rose up and followed Him. ¹⁰And it came to pass, as He reclined at table in the house, also behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining at table with Jesus and His disciples. ¹¹And after the Pharisees saw Him, they said to His disciples, “Why eateth your Teacher with the tax collectors and sinners?” ¹²And Jesus, having heard it, said to them, “They who are strong have no need of a physician, but they who are ill. ¹³“But go and learn what this is, ‘I wish mercy, and not sacrifice [cf. Hos. 6:6]’: For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

November 29th – Civil Calendar
November 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Apostle Matthew the Evangelist.

Matthew the son of Alphaeus was at first a tax-collector, and it was as such that the Lord saw him in Capernaum and said to him: ‘Follow Me!’ Leaving everything, he followed Him (Matt. 9:9). After that, Matthew prepared a feast in his house, and there provided an opportunity for the Lord to voice some great truths about His coming to earth. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Matthew preached the Gospel among the Parthians and Medes and in Ethiopia, the land of the negroes. In Ethiopia, he consecrated as bishop one Platon, a follower of his, and himself withdrew to prayerful solitude on a mountain, where the Lord appeared to him. Matthew baptized the wife and son of the prince of that land, at which the prince was greatly enraged and sent a guard to bring Matthew before him for trial. The soldiers went off, but returned to the prince, saying that they had heard Matthew’s voice, but had been unable to set eyes on him. The prince then sent a second guard. When this guard drew near to the apostle, he shone with a heavenly radiance so brilliant that the soldiers were unable to look at him, but threw down their weapons in terror and returned home. The prince then went himself. When he approached Matthew, such radiance shone forth from the saint that the prince was blinded on the instant. But the apostle had a kind heart: he prayed to God and the prince’s sight was restored—unfortunately, only on the physical plane, his spiritual eyes remaining closed. He seized St. Matthew and put him to harsh torture, twice lighting a fire on his chest, but the power of God kept him alive and unharmed. Then the apostle prayed to God, and gave his spirit into His hands. The prince commanded that the martyr’s body be put into a leaden coffin and cast into the sea. The saint appeared to Bishop Platon and told him where to find his body in its coffin, and the bishop went and brought them back. Seeing this new marvel, the prince was baptized and received the name Matthew. He then set aside all earthly vanity and became a priest, serving the Church in a manner pleasing to God. When Platon died, the Apostle Matthew appeared to this Matthew and counseled him to accept the episcopate. So he became a bishop, and was a good shepherd for many years, until God took him to His immortal kingdom. St. Matthew the Apostle wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, and it was very soon translated into Greek. It has come down to us in Greek, the Aramaic original being lost. Of this evangelist, it is said that he never ate meat, but fed only on vegetables and fruit.

2. Our Holy Father Sergius of Malopinega.

He was a Russian parish priest. As a priest, he lived a godly life and served for twenty-two years in the Vologda region. He entered peacefully into rest on November 16th, 1585, at the age of ninety-two.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Does the Lord’s commandment about unceasing prayer (Lk. 18:1) apply only to monks, or to all Christians? If it applied only to monks, the apostle would not have written to the Christians in Thessalonica: ‘Pray without ceasing’ (I Thess. 5:17). The apostle, then, reiterates the Lord’s command word for word, and gives it to all Christians without distinction of monk or layman. St. Gregory Palamas lived for some time as a young man in a monastery in Beroea. There lived in those parts a well-known ascetic, the elder Job, who was venerated by all. It happened at one time that St. Gregory, in the elder’s presence, quoted the apostle’s words, asserting that unceasing prayer was a necessity for all Christians, not only for monks. The elder Job replied to these words, saying that the Jesus Prayer is a necessity only for monks, and not for all Christians. Gregory, being a young man, ceded the argument, not wishing to quarrel, and withdrew in silence. When Job had returned to his cell and was standing in prayer, an angel of God appeared to him in great heavenly glory, and said to him: ‘Elder, don’t doubt the truth of Gregory’s words; he spoke truly. So, hold your peace and advise others to do the same.’ Thus, then, both the apostle and the angel underlined the commandment that all Christians must pray to God without ceasing. If not unceasingly in church, then unceasingly in every place and at every time, in the depths of your heart. If God does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire of thanking Him for these good things? If He is constantly thinking of us, why do we not think constantly of Him?

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.