Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

The Thursday of the Ascension

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 1].

1 ¹The first account indeed I made for myself concerning all which, O Theophilos, Jesus began both to do and teach, ²until the day in which He was taken up, after He gave command to the apostles whom He chose for Himself through the Holy Spirit, ³to whom also He presented Himself alive after He had suffered by many proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁴And being assembled together with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “ye heard of Me; ⁵“for John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days after these.” ⁶Indeed therefore, after they came together, they kept on questioning, saying, “Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷And He said to them, “It is not yours to know times or seasons which the Father Himself put in His own authority. ⁸“But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth.” ⁹And having said these things, while they looked, He was taken up; and from before their eyes, a cloud took Him up from under. ¹⁰And while they were gazing intently into the heaven as He went, then behold, two men stood by them in white raiment, ¹¹who also said, “Men, Galilæans, why do ye stand looking into the heaven? This Jesus, the One Who was taken up from you into the heaven, so shall He come in the manner ye beheld Him going into the heaven.” ¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount which is called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, being a sabbath’s day journey.

Gospel

In the Orthros

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel According to Saint Mark. [§ 71]. At that time:

16 ⁹After Jesus rose early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰She went and brought tidings to those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping. ¹¹And they, having heard that He liveth and was seen by her, disbelieved. ¹²And after these things He was made manifest in a different form to two of them as they were walking and went into the country. ¹³And they went and brought tidings to the rest; neither did they believe them. ¹⁴Afterwards He was made manifest to the eleven themselves as they reclined at table; and He reproached their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not those who saw Him after He was raised. ¹⁵And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶“The one who believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but the one who believeth not shall be condemned. ¹⁷“And these signs shall accompany those who believe: In My name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak in new tongues; ¹⁸“they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink anything deadly, in no wise shall it harm them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall be well.”

¹⁹Then indeed, after speaking to them, the Lord was taken up into the heaven, and sat on the right of God. ²⁰And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the accompanying signs. Amen.

In the Liturgy

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 114]. At that time:

24 ³⁶After Jesus rose from the dead, He stood in the midst of His disciples, and saith to them, “Peace be to you.” ³⁷But they were terrified and affrighted, and kept on thinking that they saw a spirit. ³⁸And He said to them, “Why are ye troubled? And why do reasonings come up in your hearts? ³⁹“Behold My hands and My feet, that I am He. Touch Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, even as ye see Me having.” ⁴⁰And having said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹And while they yet disbelieved from the joy, and wondered, He said to them, “Have ye anything to eat here?” ⁴²And they gave Him a portion of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. ⁴³And He took these and ate in their presence. ⁴⁴And He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that it is needful for all the things to be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵Then He thoroughly opened their mind to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it hath been written, and thus it was needful for the Christ to have suffered, and to have risen from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷“and repentance and forgiveness of sins to have been preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸“And ye are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹“And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but sojourn in the city of Jerusalem, until ye are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰And He led them out as far as to Bethany. And having lifted up His hands, He blessed them. ⁵¹And it came to pass, as He was blessing them, He stood apart from them and was carried up into the heaven. ⁵²And they made obeisance to Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³And they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our fathers among the saints, Epiphanios, Bishop of Cyprus, and Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ 318]. Brethren:

7 ²⁶Such a High Priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, Who hath been separated from the sinners and hath become higher than the heavens, ²⁷Who hath no need daily, even as the high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people; for this He did once for all after He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appointeth men high priests who have weakness; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, appointeth the Son, Who hath been perfected forever.

8 ¹Now in reference to the things being spoken of, the chief point is: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, ²a Liturgist of the holies and of the tabernacle, the true one, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

5 ¹⁴“Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. ¹⁵“Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. ¹⁶“Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

¹⁷“Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place. ¹⁹“Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 25th – Civil Calendar
May 12th – Church Calendar

1. St. Epiphanios, Bishop of Cyprus.

He was born a Jew, but seeing the power of the Christian Faith, was baptized together with his sister, Kallithrope. He became a monk at the age of twenty-six, in the monastery of St. Hilarion. He later founded a monastery of his own, and became famed throughout Palestine and Egypt for his asceticism, his spiritual wisdom and the wonders he worked. Fleeing the praise of men, he went off to Egypt. On the way, he met Paphnutios the Great, who prophesied that he would be a hierarch on the island of Cyprus. And indeed, many years later, by God’s providence, Epiphanios came to Cyprus, where he was unexpectedly chosen as bishop. He became bishop of the town of Salamis at the age of fifty, and governed the Church of God for thirty-six years. In all, he lived nearly ninety years on this earth, and entered into rest from this life to live eternally in the kingdom of Christ. Before his death, he was invited to Constantinople by the Emperor Arkadios and his wife, Evdoxia, for the council of bishops which was forced, at the desire of the emperor and empress, to condemn St. John Chrysostom. Arriving in Constantinople, he came to the emperor’s court, where the emperor and empress talked with him at great length, endeavoring to make him declare against Chrysostom. The citizens and St. Chrysostom heard that Epiphanios had agreed with the emperor against him. Chrysostom therefore wrote him a letter: ‘My brother Epiphanios, I hear that you have advised the emperor that I should be banished: know that you will never again see your episcopal throne.’ To this, Epiphanios wrote in return: ‘John, my suffering brother, withstand insults, but know that you will not reach the place to which you are exiled.’ And these two prophecies of the two saints soon came about. Refusing to agree with the emperor on the exile of Chrysostom, Epiphanios took ship and set off for Cyprus, but died on the voyage. The emperor sent St. Chrysostom into exile in Armenia, but the saint died on the road. Saint Epiphanios entered into rest in the year 403. Of his many writings the best-known is his ‘Medicine Chest,’ in Greek, in which he explains and refutes eighty heresies.

2. St. Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople.

He was the son of the head of the imperial senate, who was killed by the Emperor Constantine Pogonatos. This same wicked emperor castrated the senator’s son, this Germanos, and drove him by force into a monastery. As a monk, Germanos shone like a star by his life of good works. Because of this, he was chosen first as Bishop of Kyzikos (Cyzicus) and then, when Anastasios II became emperor in 715, as Patriarch of Constantinople. As patriarch, he baptized the infamous Kopronymos who, at the time of his Baptism, fouled the water with filth, and the patriarch prophesied that, when he became emperor, he would bring some foul heresy into the Church. And this came to pass. When Kopronymos became emperor, he restored the iconoclast heresy. Leo III the Isaurian, Kopronymos’ father, began the persecution of icons, and when Patriarch Germanos opposed him, the furious Leo cried: ‘I am emperor and priest!’ then deposed Germanos from his throne and sent him into exile to a monastery, where the saint spent ten further years until God called him to Himself in the kingdom of heaven, in 740.

3. The Holy Martyr Pancratius.

He came from Phrygia to Rome, where, as a boy of fourteen, he was martyred for Christ in 304. This saint is much revered in the West. There is a church in Rome dedicated to his name, and his holy relics are preserved there.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Clement of Alexandria quotes a horrible barbaric custom. When they took their enemies captive, he says, they bound them each back-to-back with a dead man, and left the two together thus until the living and the dead rotted together. We might say: ‘Thank God that this barbaric custom has ceased.’ In fact it has not ceased, but holds sway today with undiminished strength. Everyone who binds his living soul to a dead body, a body deadened by passions, is just as barbaric as those who bound a living man to a corpse and left them to rot.

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.