Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 87]. Brethren:

4 ¹³The promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴For if the heirs be of the law, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, ¹⁵for the law worketh out wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there transgression. ¹⁶On this account it is of faith, in order that it be according to grace, to the end that the promise be made sure to all the seed, not to that of the law only, but to that also of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷(even as it hath been written: “I have made thee a father of many nations [Gen. 17:5]”) before Him Whom he believed—God, Who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things not existing as existing; ¹⁸who against hope believed upon hope, in order for him to become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, “So shall thy seed be [Gen. 15:5].” ¹⁹And not becoming weak in faith, he considered not his own body, already dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰And in regard to the promise of God he was not made to doubt by unbelief, but was empowered in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹and was fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to do. ²²And wherefore it was reckoned to him for righteousness. ²³Now it was not written on account of him only, that it was reckoned to him, ²⁴but on account of us also, to whom it is about to be reckoned, to those who believe on Him Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵Who was delivered up for our offenses, and was raised for our justification.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 23]. The Lord said:

7 ²¹“Not everyone who saith to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one who doeth the will of My Father in the heavens. ²²“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Thy name, and cast out demons in Thy name, and did many works of power in Thy name, did we not?’ ²³“And then will I profess to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, ye who work lawlessness.’”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him, and our venerable Father Dionysios, Abbot and Wonder-worker of Glushetsk in Vologda.

Epistle

For the Martyr:

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 125]. Brethren:

1 ¹⁸The word, that of the Cross, on the one hand, to those who are perishing is foolishness, but on the other hand, to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it hath been written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will set at nought the comprehension of the intelligent [cf. Is. 29:14].” ²⁰Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world knew not God through its wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. ²²For indeed, Jews ask for a sign, and Greeks seek wisdom; ²³but we proclaim Christ Who hath been crucified, to Jews, on the one hand, a stumbling block, and to Greeks, on the other hand, foolishness, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom.

For the venerable Father:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 213]. Brethren:

5 ²²The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴But they who are of the Christ crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be walking by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

6 ¹Brethren, even if a man should be overtaken in some transgression, ye, the spiritual ones, be restoring such a one in the spirit of meekness, looking out for thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Keep on bearing one another’s burdens, and thus fill up the law of the Christ.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 52]. The Lord said to His disciples:

15 ¹⁷“These things I command you, that ye be loving one another.

¹⁸“If the world hate you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hath hated you. ¹⁹“If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world—but I chose you for Myself out of the world—therefore the world hateth you. ²⁰“Keep on remembering the word which I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they know not the One Who sent Me. ²²“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no pretext for their sin. ²³“The one who hateth Me hateth My Father also. ²⁴“If I did not do the works among them which no other one hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵“But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled which hath been written in their law: ‘They hated Me without a cause [cf. Ps. 34(35):22, 68(69):5(4)].’ ²⁶“But whenever the Paraclete should come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth Who proceedeth from the Father, that One shall bear witness concerning Me. ²⁷“And ye also are bearing witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.

16 ¹“These things I have spoken to you, in order that ye should not be made to stumble. ²“They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea moreover, there cometh an hour that everyone who killeth you should think that he offereth God a service.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

June 14th – Civil Calendar
June 1st – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher.

He was born of Greek parents in the Samaritan town of Shechem (formerly called Nablus), about a hundred and five years after Christ. He sought wisdom and philosophy with his whole heart, first with the Stoics, then with the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally with the Platonists. Although Platonic philosophy did not content him, it held him the longest, until he found something higher to attract him. By God’s providence, he encountered a remarkable old man who began to undermine his Platonic philosophy, reminding him that a man cannot fully know the truth about God till God reveals it to him, and telling him that God had revealed the truth about Himself in the books of holy Scripture. Justin began to read the Scriptures, and became an utterly convinced Christian, but he would not be baptized or call himself a Christian until he had convinced himself of the falseness of the accusations that pagans found to bring against Christians. Going to Rome for a philosophical gathering, he quickly gained much respect there, and many followers. He witnessed the martyrdom of St. Ptolemy and St. Lucian, and seeing the tortures of these innocent Christians, wrote an Apologia for Christians and Christian teaching and gave it to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. The emperor read it carefully and ordered that the persecution of Christians cease. Justin took a copy of the emperor’s decree and went off to Asia, where he saved many persecuted Christians by its aid. After that, he returned again to Rome. When a persecution arose under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, he wrote a second Apologia and addressed it to the emperor. Some disreputable philosopher, Crescens, a Cynic, denounced him as a Christian because Justin was getting the better of him in every dispute, and Justin was thrown into prison. Desiring his death, and fearing that judgement would not be given against him, Crescens took the opportunity to administer poison to him in the prison. Thus this great defender of the Christian Faith finished his earthly course and went to the blessedness of eternity, in the year 166.

2. The Holy Martyrs Justin, Chariton, Evelpistus, Hierax, Peon, Liverianus and Justus.

These all suffered in Rome in the time of Marcus Aurelius and the Eparch Rusticus. When Rusticus asked: ‘Do you think that, if you die for Christ, you will receive a reward in heaven?’ Justin replied: ‘We do not think it; we know!’ They were all then beheaded, in 163, and went to the kingdom of Christ our God.

3. Our Holy Father Agapitus of the Kiev Caves.

A natural doctor, he was a disciple of St. Anthony of Kiev. He healed people by prayer and the prescribing of cabbage, which they made into a sort of bread. Prince Vladimir Monomachus was healed in this way, and this made Agapitus famed on all sides. The prince’s doctor, an Armenian, hearing of this, began to spread slander about him. When Agapitus became ill, the Armenian came, and looking at him, said that he would die in three days and that, if he did not do so, then he, the Armenian, would become a monk. Agapitus told him that it had been revealed to him by God that he would die, not in three days but in three months. And so it came to pass. After Agapitus’ death, the Armenian went to the abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and asked him to make him a monk. He explained that Agapitus had appeared to him from the other world and reminded him of his promise. And so the one-time envier became a humble monk, by the providence of God Whose care it is that all men be saved. St. Agapitus entered into rest in about 1095.

FOR CONSIDERATION

There is a passage in the ‘Antiquities of the Jews’ by Flavius Josephus, a distinguished Jewish historian who lived at the end of the first century, which refutes the slander and malice that has at times been directed against Christ the Lord by the Jews. He writes: ‘At that time there lived one Jesus, a wise man, who was scarcely able to be called a man because of the marvellous works that he performed. He was a teacher of men, who received the truth with joy, and drew many followers to himself, both Jews and Greeks. He was the Christ. After that, when Pilate, at the deposition of the most eminent of our race, condemned him to death by crucifixion, those who had loved him did not forsake him. He showed himself to them alive after three days, as had been divinely prophesied concerning this and many other of his works. And the Christian sect, called after him, remains to this day.’ Thus wrote a man who did not believe in Christ—a writer free of bias and evil intent.

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.