Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

The Saturday of the Second Week of the Great Fast

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 309].

3 ¹²Brethren, be taking heed, lest ever there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in apostatizing from the living God; ¹³but be exhorting one another every day, as long as it is being called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened by the deceit of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ, if indeed we should hold fast the first principle of our subsistence firm even to the end, ¹⁵while it is being said, “Today, if ye will hear His voice, do not go on hardening your hearts as in the provocation [Ps. 94(95):8(7, 8)].” ¹⁶For who, having heard, did provoke? But was it not all those who came out of Egypt by Moses?

Another Reading for Saturday of the Second Week of the Great Fast in Commemoration of the Departed

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians [§ 270].

4 ¹³Brethren, we do not wish you to be ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not be grieving, even as the rest who have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and is risen, so also those who fell asleep through Jesus will God bring with Him. ¹⁵For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we the living, the ones remaining over until the coming of the Lord, in no wise shall precede those who fell asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. ¹⁷Then we the living, the ones remaining over, shall be carried off together with them in clouds to a meeting of the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 6]. At that time:

1 ³⁵Jesus, having risen up very early at night, went out and departed into a desolate place, and was praying there. ³⁶And Simon and those with him followed hard after Him. ³⁷And having found Him, they say to Him, “All are seeking Thee.” ³⁸And He saith to them, “Let us be going into the neighboring village-towns, in order that I might preach there also; for it was for this I have come forth.” ³⁹And He was preaching in their synagogues in all Galilee, and casting out the demons.

⁴⁰And a leper cometh to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If Thou art willing, Thou art able to cleanse me.” ⁴¹And Jesus, having been moved with compassion, stretched forth His hand and touched him, and saith to him, “I am willing; be thou cleansed.” ⁴²And after He spoke, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. ⁴³And having sternly admonished him, forthwith He sent him away, ⁴⁴also saying to him, “See that thou say nothing to anyone; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”

Commemoration of the Departed

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 16]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

5 ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, that the one who heareth My word and believeth the One Who sent Me hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed over out of death into life. ²⁵“Verily, verily, I say to you, that an hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live. ²⁶“For even as the Father hath life in Himself, so He also gave to the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷“and He also gave to Him authority to execute judgment. That He is Son of Man, ²⁸“cease marvelling at this; for an hour is coming in which all those in the graves shall hear His voice, ²⁹“and shall go forth—they who did good things to a resurrection of life, but they who practised bad things to a resurrection of condemnation. ³⁰“I am not able to do anything of Myself. Even as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me, the Father.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Procopios, Confessor of Decapolis.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 12th – Civil Calendar: Non-Leap Year
March 11th – Civil Calendar: Leap Year
February 27th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Prokopios of Decapolis.

This saint came from Decapolis by the Sea of Galilee. In youth, he gave himself to the monastic life and passed through all those prescribed labors that purify the heart and uplift the soul to God. When a persecution on the part of the wicked Emperor Leo the Isaurian broke out over icons, Prokopios stood up and defended icons, showing that their veneration is not idolatry, for Christians know that to prostrate themselves before icons is not to prostrate before dead matter, but before the living saints depicted on the icons. Prokopios was bestially tortured, imprisoned, beaten and flogged with iron flails. When the wicked emperor was murdered, being already a lost soul, the icons were returned to the churches and Prokopios returned to his monastery, where he spent his remaining days in peace. In old age, he entered into God’s kingdom, where he beheld with joy the living angels and saints whose images were on the honored icons on earth. He departed this life peacefully in the 9th century.

2. Our Holy Father Thalelaios (Thaleleus), a Syrian hermit.

He was at first in the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified, but then settled in a pagan graveyard, famed for the appearing of evil spirits and bogies. To conquer his terror by faith in God, Thalelaios settled in that graveyard and lived there for many years, enduring much from the fallen spirits both day and night. By his great faith and love towards God, he was endowed by Him with the gift of working wonders, and did much good for the sick and suffering. He died in about 460.

3. Our Holy Father Titus of the Kiev Caves.

Titus was a priest and had a sincere love for a deacon, Evagrius, as brother for brother. But, though such was their love at first, it later became a mutual malice and hatred, sown by the devil. They hated each other so much that, when one of them used the censer in church, the other turned and went outside. Titus tried many times to make peace with his adversary, but in vain. Titus became ill, and all thought that he was dying. He begged that Evagrius be brought to him, that they might forgive each other. Evagrius was brought by force to Titus’ bedside, but he fled away, saying that he would not forgive Titus, either in this world or the next. As he said this, he fell to the ground and breathed his last. But Titus rose from his bed healed, and revealed how the demons had flown around him until he forgave Evagrius, and when he had done so, the demons had fled and attacked Evagrius, with angels of God surrounding himself. He died in 1190.

4. Our Holy Father Stephen.

He was first an official at the court of the Emperor Maurice, but then left his courtly service, and urged by the love of Christ, built an almshouse for the elderly in Constantinople. He died peacefully in 614.

5. The Holy Martyr Julian the Gout-Sufferer.

Because of his gout, he was unable either to stand or to walk. He was brought to trial in Alexandria on a stretcher for his faith in Christ and burned alive on a pyre, along with his pupil Chronyon, in the time of the Emperor Decius.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Whenever we are outside the grace of God, we are outside ourselves, and compared with our grace-endowed nature, we are in no better state than a madman compared with a healthy man. Only a grace-endowed man is a natural man; that is, a man of genuine nature, in whom the grace of God rules and reigns. St. Simeon the New Theologian says: ‘A lamp, even if it is filled with oil and has a wick, remains completely dark if it is not lit. So the soul, with regard to its adornment with all the virtues; if it has not the light and grace of the Holy Spirit, it is quenched and dark’ (Homily 59). As the great apostle says, ‘by the grace of God, I am what I am’ (I Cor. 15:10). To be without grace means to be estranged from God, and thus estranged from the reality of our own being. Our being, our personality, strengthens its reality and receives its fullness only in closeness to God. Thus sinners are those who are sick, lost in insubstantial shadows, without reality and without understanding.

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.