Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 269].

4 ¹Brethren, we beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and to please God, in order that ye may abound more and more; ²for ye know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³For this is the will of God, your sanctification: for you to be abstaining from fornication, ⁴for each of you to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor— ⁵not in the passion of lust, even as also the nations which know not God— ⁶in order not to overstep and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger concerning all these things, even as we also told you before and bore witness. ⁷For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. ⁸The one therefore who refuseth, refuseth not man, but God, Who also gave His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning brotherly love, ye have no need for me to write to you, for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another; ¹⁰for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, to abound more and more, ¹¹and endeavor earnestly to be quiet, and to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we commanded you, ¹²in order that ye may walk in a manner becoming toward those outside, and that ye may have need of nothing.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 78]. At that time:

15 ¹All the tax collectors and the sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were murmuring, saying, “This One receiveth sinners and eateth with them.” ³And He spoke this parable to them, saying, ⁴“What man among you, having a hundred sheep and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he should find it? ⁵“And having found it, he layeth it upon his own shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶“And after he cometh to the house, he calleth together his friends and the neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep which hath been lost.’ ⁷“I say to you that thus there shall be more joy in the heavens over one sinner who repenteth than over ninety-nine righteous ones who have no need of repentance. ⁸“Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she should lose one drachma, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she should find it? ⁹“And having found it, she calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I found the drachma which I lost.’ ¹⁰“Thus, I say to you, joy ariseth in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repenteth.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Platon of Ankyra and Romanos the deacon of Cæsarea.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 292]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹Be thou empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; ²and the things which thou heardest from me in the midst of many witnesses, commit thou these things to faithful men who shall be competent also to teach others. ³Thou therefore suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. ⁴No one serving as a soldier is entangled with the affairs of life, in order that he might please the one who enlisted him. ⁵And if anyone also contend as an athlete in the games, he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully. ⁶The farmer who laboreth must be first to partake of the fruits. ⁷Be considering what I say; O may the Lord give thee understanding in all things! ⁸Be remembering Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, Who hath been raised from the dead, according to my Gospel, ⁹in which I suffer hardship even to bonds as a malefactor, but the word of God hath not been bound. ¹⁰On this account I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might also attain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

December 1st – Civil Calendar
November 18th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Plato (Platon).

From the town of Ankyra in Galatia, he was born and brought up a Christian. Even in his youth, he showed great perfection in every virtue. Plato did not conceal his faith in Christ the Lord, but preached it openly, denouncing idolaters for their bowing down to dead creatures in place of the living Creator. For this, he was brought before the governor, Agrippinos, for trial, and was harshly tortured by him. When the governor began to urge him to escape death and save his life by worshipping idols, Plato replied: ‘There are two deaths: the temporal and the eternal; and there are two lives: the one transitory and the other without end.’ Then Agrippinos put him to harsher torture. Among other tortures, he commanded that red-hot cannon balls be placed on his naked body, and that his flesh be cut into strips. ‘Torture me more harshly,’ cried the martyr to the torturers, ‘that your inhumanity and my endurance may be the more clearly seen.’ When the torturer spoke to the martyr about the philosopher Plato, saying that he was a pagan philosopher, he replied: ‘I am not like Plato, nor he like me, except in our names. I learn and teach the wisdom that is of Christ, while he teaches the wisdom that is folly before God.’ After that, Plato was thrown into prison, where he spent eighteen days without bread or water. When the warders marveled that Plato could live without food for so long, he said to them: ‘You are satiated by food, but I by holy prayer; you rejoice in wine, but I in Christ the true Vine.’ He was finally beheaded with the sword in about 266, and received a wreath of eternal glory.

2. The Holy Martyrs Romanos and Barulas.

Holy Romanos was a deacon of the Church in Caesarea, and at one time preached the Gospel in Antioch. When there was an idolatrous feast, and the governor of Antioch, Asclepiades, was going into a pagan temple to offer sacrifice, Romanos stood in front of him and said: ‘You sin, O governor, when you go to the idols. They are not gods, for Christ is the only true God.’ The furious governor put Romanos to torture, and he was flogged and flayed without mercy. At that moment, he saw a child called Barulas, and said to Asclepiades: ‘This little child has more understanding than you, old man, for he knows the true God, and you do not.’ The governor began to question Barulas about his faith, and he confessed his faith in Christ the Lord as the one, true God, and his unbelief in the false idols. Then Asclepiades commanded that little Barulas be beheaded with the sword, and Romanos be strangled in the prison, which came to pass in the year 303. Thus both these martyrs inherited the kingdom of Christ.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matt. 5:39), commanded the Lord. This is the briefest and dearest teaching on humility. Wicked demons fear no one so greatly as the man filled with the Lord’s commandments. There was a rich nobleman in Alexandria who had a young daughter into whom an evil spirit entered, and the girl went out of her mind. Someone told the despairing father that no one would be able to heal his daughter but monks, solitaries, who lived in the desert and came to Alexandria from time to time to sell the baskets that they had woven: but that none of them would go into the house of a rich nobleman in case he was asked why he was there. It would be best for him to buy their baskets and invite them to his house to be paid; then, when they went to the house, he could ask them to pray to God for all its occupants, and especially that God would help and heal the mad girl. The father did this: he went to the bazaar on the agreed day, and found one of St. Makarios’ disciples selling baskets. He quickly bought the baskets and asked the monk to go to his house for payment. When the monk entered the house, the mad girl suddenly leapt in front of him and struck him a blow on the cheek. The monk silently presented the other cheek. At this, the evil spirit cried out with a great shout and left the girl, and she became calm and rational. When the monk returned to the desert, he told the elders what had happened, and they all glorified God, Who gives such great power to those who fulfill His commandments.

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.