Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Monday of the Renewal Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 2]. In those days:

1 ¹²The apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount which is called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, being a sabbath’s day journey. ¹³And when they entered, they went up into the upper chamber where they were staying, both Peter and Iakovos, and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, Iakovos the son of Alphæos and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of Iakovos. ¹⁴These all were persevering with one accord in prayer and in entreaty, with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.

¹⁵And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples—there was a multitude of persons in the same place, about a hundred and twenty—and said, ¹⁶“Men, brethren, it was needful for this Scripture to have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; ¹⁷“for he was numbered with us and obtained as his portion the lot of this ministry.... ²¹“It is needful, therefore, of those men who were in company with us during all the time in which the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, ²²“beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which He was taken up from us, for one of these to become a witness of His resurrection with us.” ²³And they set forth two: Joseph called Barsavas, who was surnamed Justos, and Matthias. ²⁴And they prayed and said, “Thou, Lord, O Knower of the hearts of all, show which one of these two Thou didst choose for Thyself, ²⁵“to receive the lot of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas transgressed, to go to his own place.” ²⁶And they gave their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was reckoned along with the eleven apostles.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 2].

1 ¹⁸No one hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, that One declareth Him.

¹⁹And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent forth priests and Levites from Jerusalem that they should ask him, “Who art thou?” ²⁰He not only confessed and denied not, but also confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹And they questioned him, “What then? Art thou Elias?” And he saith, “I am not.” “Art thou the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²²Then they said to him, “Who art thou, that we might give an answer to those who sent us? What sayest thou about thyself?” ²³He said, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord [Is. 40:3],’ even as the Prophet Esaias said.” ²⁴And they who had been sent forth were from the Pharisees. ²⁵And they asked him, and said to him, “Why baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, saying, “I baptize in water, but there standeth One in your midst Whom ye know not. ²⁷“He it is, the One Who cometh after me, Who hath come to be before me, of Whom I am not worthy that I should loose the thong of His sandal.” ²⁸These things took place in Bethabara across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our holy Father George, monk of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnesus, and our holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 3rd of April).

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 17th – Civil Calendar
April 4th – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Joseph the Hymnographer.

He was born in Sicily of devout and virtuous parents, Plotinus and Agatha. After the death of his parents, he moved to Thessalonica, where he became a monk. As a monk, he was an example to all in fasting, restraint, ceaseless supplication, psalmody, vigils and toil. The Bishop of Thessalonica ordained him hieromonk. The famous Gregory of Decapolis, visiting Thessalonica, loved Joseph with heart and soul for his rare character, and took him back with him to his monastery in Constantinople. When the flame of iconoclasm sprang up again under Leo the Armenian, Joseph was sent to Rome to call the pope and the Roman Church to battle for the true Faith. But pirates captured him on the way and took him to Crete, where he was kept in prison for six years by the heretics. Joseph rejoiced that he was made worthy to suffer for Christ, and thanked God constantly, regarding the iron chains with which he was bound as golden ornaments. In the sixth year, around Nativity, the wicked emperor was murdered at the morning service in church. At the same moment, St. Nicholas appeared to Joseph in the prison and said to him: ‘Get up and follow me.’ Joseph felt himself lifted up in the air, and found himself all at once in Constantinople. His arrival was a source of rejoicing to all the Orthodox faithful. He composed canons and hymns for many of the saints. He had the gift of insight, because of which Patriarch Photius made him spiritual father and confessor to his priests, recommending him as ‘a man of God, an angel in the flesh, a father of fathers’. In great old age he gave his soul into the hands of the God he had served so faithfully in work and song. He died peacefully on the eve of Holy Thursday in 883.

2. The Holy Martyr Pherbutha, her widowed sister and their slave.

In the reign of the Persian King Sapor, a bishop, St. Simeon, was executed. His sister, Pherbutha, was taken to court for the queen’s pleasure. Pherbutha was unusually beautiful, and she therefore had many suitors, including pagan priests and soothsayers. Pherbutha refused them all, thus bringing down great wrath upon her head. When, just at that time, the queen fell ill, all the priests informed the king that the queen had been poisoned by Pherbutha, and as a means of healing, proposed that Pherbutha, her sister and their slave, as Christians, be sawn to pieces, that three parts of their bodies be placed on one side and three on the other, and that the queen be taken through between them. The king agreed to this bloody suggestion of the soothsayers,’ and Pherbutha, her sister and their slave-girl suffered in this way for Christ in 343, thereby meriting an unfading wreath in the deathless kingdom of their Lord.

3. Our Holy Father Zosimas.

A monk of the Jordan community in the reign of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger, he found St. Mary of Egypt, gave her Communion and buried her. He entered into rest in the Lord, at the age of 100, in the 6th century.

4. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Niketas.

He was a Slav from Albania. As a monk of the Holy Mountain, he went to Serres, where he disputed with the mullahs about the Faith. Being unable to overcome him by reason, the Turks put him to torture, under which St. Niketas died and gave his soul to God in 1808.

FOR CONSIDERATION

He who glorifies God, him God glorifies. This is demonstrated clearly and abundantly in the lives of the saints. St. Joseph the Hymnographer indeed glorified God in his labors, his sufferings and his compositions. And God glorified him both in life and in death. During his lifetime, St. Nicholas appeared to him in prison and set him free. And when St. Joseph was wondering whether to compose a Canon to St. Bartholomew or not, this apostle appeared to him, clad in white garments, and told him that it was pleasing to God that he compose that canon. When Joseph died, a citizen of Constantinople learned of the glory with which God glorifies those who are pleasing to Him. This man had come to the church of St. Theodore the Phanariot to beg the saint to reveal to him where a runaway servant of his was hiding (for St. Theodore was famed among the people as a saint who revealed where something lost or stolen was to be found, and had therefore acquired the title ‘the Phanariot,’ or ‘the Revealer’). This man prayed for three days and nights, and having received no reply of any sort from the saint, prepared to leave. At that moment, St. Theodore appeared to him in a vision and said: ‘What are you angry about? Joseph the Hymnographer’s soul has parted from his body, and we have been with him during this time; and when he entered into rest tonight, all of us, whom he had glorified in song, carried his soul to heaven and brought him before the face of God. So, I’m late in coming to you.’

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.