Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Thirty-Fifth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First General Epistle of Saint John [§ 74]. Beloved:

4 ²⁰If anyone should say, “I love God,” and be hating his brother, he is a liar; for the one not loving his brother whom he hath seen, how is he able to love God Whom he hath not seen? ²¹And this commandment have we from Him, that the one loving God, be loving his brother also.

5 ¹Everyone who believeth that Jesus is the Christ hath been born of God; and everyone who loveth Him Who begat loveth also him who hath been begotten of Him. ²In this we know that we love the children of God, whenever we love God and keep His commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we be keeping His commandments. And His commandments are not heavy. ⁴For everything that hath been born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory, the victory having overcome the world—our faith. ⁵Who is the one overcoming the world, if not the one believing that Jesus is the Son of God? ⁶This is the One Who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the water only, but in the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the One Who beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three bearing witness in the heaven: the Father, the Logos, and the Holy Spirit; and these Three are One. ⁸And there are three bearing witness in the earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are for the one. ⁹If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God which He hath testified concerning His Son. ¹⁰The one believing in the Son of God hath the witness in himself; the one not believing God hath made Him a liar, because he hath not believed in the testimony which God hath testified concerning His Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²The one having the Son hath the life; the one not having the Son of God hath not the life.

¹³I am writing these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and in order that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God. ¹⁴And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we be asking anything for ourselves according to His will, He heareth us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we may be asking for ourselves, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. ¹⁶If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give life to him, for those that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death; not concerning that do I say one should make request. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death. ¹⁸We know that everyone who hath been born of God sinneth not, but the one who was born of God keepeth himself, and the evil one doth not take hold of him. ¹⁹We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. ²⁰But we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, in order that we may know Him Who is true; and we are in the true One, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and Life Eternal.

²¹Little children, guard yourselves from the idols. Amen.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 66]. At that time:

15 ¹The chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole sanhedrin, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate. ²And Pilate questioned Him, “Thou art the King of the Jews?” And He answered and said to him, “Thou sayest.” ³And the chief priests were accusing Him of many things, but He answered nothing. ⁴And Pilate was questioning Him again, saying, “Answerest Thou nothing? Behold how many things they bear witness against Thee.” ⁵But Jesus answered nothing any more, so that Pilate marvelled. ⁶Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whomsoever they were asking for themselves. ⁷And there was one called Barabbas, who had been bound with fellow insurrectionists who had committed murder in the sedition. ⁸And the crowd, having cried out, began to ask him to do even as he always used to do for them. ⁹But Pilate answered them, saying, “Do ye wish that I release to you the King of the Jews?” ¹⁰For he was perceiving that the chief priests had delivered Him up by reason of envy. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, in order that he should rather release Barabbas to them. ¹²And Pilate answered and said again to them, “What do ye wish then that I should do to Him Whom ye call King of the Jews?” ¹³And they cried out again, “Crucify Him.” ¹⁴But Pilate was saying to them, “Why, what evil did He do?” And they cried out more exceedingly, “Crucify Him.” ¹⁵And Pilate, willing to do that which was satisfactory to the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered up Jesus, after he scourged Him, in order that He might be crucified.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord, and our venerable Father Isidore of Pelusium.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].

6 ¹⁰Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; ¹²because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. ¹³For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; ¹⁶on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Gospel

No reading given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 17th – Civil Calendar
February 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Isidore of Pelusium.

He was an Egyptian, the son of eminent parents and a kinsman of the Patriarchs of Alexandria Theophilus and Kyril. Completing his secular studies, he renounced his riches and worldly standing and gave himself wholly to the spiritual life for the love of Christ. He was a great and ardent interpreter and defender of the Orthodox Faith. The historian Nikephoros states that St. Isidore wrote more than 10,000 letters to various people in which he reprimanded one, advised another, consoled a third, instructed a fourth. ‘It is more important to be proficient in good works than in golden-tongued preaching,’ he writes in one letter. In another, he says: ‘If a man wishes his virtues to appear great, let him regard them as small and then they will be truly shown to be great.’ The first and fundamental rule for Isidore was: first do and then teach, after the example of the Lord Jesus. At a time when St. John Chrysostom was undergoing persecution and the whole world was divided into two camps, one for and one against this great pillar of Orthodoxy, St. Isidore stood on the side of Chrysostom. He wrote to Patriarch Theophilus, saying what a great light St. Chrysostom was in the Church and begging that the hatred of him should cease. He lived long and labored greatly, glorifying Christ the Lord in his life and his writings, and entered into the kingdom of Christ in about 450.

2. Our Holy Father Nicholas the Confessor.

This saint was from the island of Crete. He went to Constantinople to visit his kinsman Theodore, abbot of the Studite monastery, and remained there to become a monk. As a monk, Nicholas followed all the ascetic practices that are prescribed for the soul’s salvation. During a persecution of the Church on the part of Leo the Armenian, Theodore and Nicholas were harshly tortured, humiliated, beaten with bull-whips and finally thrown into prison, where they spent three years. After the death of St. Theodore, Nicholas became abbot of the Studium. Even during his lifetime, God blessed him with the power to work miracles. He healed Evdokia the wife of the Emperor Basil, and Helen the wife of the patrician Manuel. To Theophilus Melisenus, a distinguished nobleman who had lost several children, he prophesied, in blessing his newborn daughter, that she would live and be fruitful, a prophecy that was later fulfilled to the joy of her parents. On the very day of his death, he called the monks together and asked them what they lacked. ‘Wheat,’ they replied. Then the dying man said: ‘He Who sustained Israel in the wilderness will send you abundant wheat in three days.’ And indeed, a boat full of grain, sent by the Emperor Basil, arrived below the monastery on the third day. Nicholas entered into the heavenly kingdom on February 4th, 868, at the age of 75.

3. The Holy New-Martyr Joseph.

He was born in Aleppo. When the Turks pressured him to embrace Islam, Joseph not only refused, but began to denounce the falsehood of Islam and to extol the Christian Faith. For this he was tortured and beheaded in 1686.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Isidore of Pelusium interprets certain words from holy Scripture: ‘Of two grinding grain, the one shall be taken and the other left’ (Matt. 24:41), to mean that many will give themselves to the spiritual life, but with very different dispositions; one sincerely and steadily, another slackly and conceitedly. The first will be taken into the kingdom of God, and the second left. What is the meaning of the Lord’s prayer about the Cup? Why did the Lord beg that the cup of suffering should pass from Him (Matt. 26:42)? It means that no one should seek danger, but that, when it comes, a Christian must accept and endure it courageously.

On the five foolish virgins (Matt. 25), St. Isidore says: ‘They all kept their virginity, but had no other virtues, such as that of compassion. Virginity by itself is not sufficient for entry into the kingdom of God. Virginity is of no use if the virgin is filled with pride and self seeking.’

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.