Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Eighth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 144]. Brethren:

10 ⁵With most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. ⁶Now these things became types for us, in order that we not be desirers of bad things, even as they also desired. ⁷Cease becoming idolaters, even as some of them; as it hath been written: “They sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play [Ex. 32:6].” ⁸Cease committing fornication, even as some of them fornicated, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. ⁹Let us cease tempting the Christ, even as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by the serpents. ¹⁰Cease murmuring, even as some of them also murmured, and had themselves destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹Now all these things were happening to them as types, and they were written for our admonition, to whom the ends of the ages came. ¹²Therefore the one who thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he should fall.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 66]. The Lord said to His disciples:

16 ⁶“Be taking heed and be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, “It is because we did not take bread.” ⁸But Jesus, having known it, said to them, “Why reason ye among yourselves, O ye of little faith, because ye did not take bread? ⁹“Do ye not yet perceive, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up? ¹⁰“Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large provision baskets ye took up? ¹¹“How is it that ye do not perceive that it was not concerning bread that I said to you to be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?” ¹²Then they comprehended that He said not to be on guard against the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Proclos and Hilarion, and our venerable Father Michael of Maleinos.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

July 25th – Civil Calendar
July 12th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Proklos and Hilarion.

These martyrs were born in Kallippi in Asia, Proklos being Hilarion’s uncle. They suffered in the time of Trajan. The judge asked Proklos: ‘Of what race are you?’ Proklos replied: ‘I am of the race of Christ, and my hope is in my God.’ When the judge threatened him with torture, he said: ‘When you are afraid to transgress the emperor’s commands and risk falling into temporal punishment, how much more do we Christians fear to transgress against God’s commands and fall into eternal torment!’ While Proklos was being tortured, Hilarion came up to the judge and said: ‘I too am a Christian!’ After many tortures, the two of them were condemned to death, Proklos being crucified and Hilarion beheaded with the sword. They both entered into the joy of their Lord.

2. Our Holy Father Michael Maleinos.

He was a wealthy man of noble birth. Scorning worldly goods in his youth, he withdrew to Mount Kyminas in Bithynia, where he lived in asceticism, purifying his heart by fasting and prayer. He later had many disciples, of whom the best-known is St. Athanasius the Athonite. He died peacefully in the middle of the tenth century.

3. St. Veronica.

This is the woman with the issue of blood, whom the Lord healed (Matt. 9:20). In gratitude to the Lord, her healer, Veronica caused a statue of the Lord Jesus to be made, before which she prayed to God. By tradition, this statue was preserved up to the time of Julian the Apostate, when it was altered to become a statue of Zeus. This is one of the very rare occasions that a statue has been used in the Eastern Church. St. Veronica remained faithful to Christ till death, and entered peacefully into rest.

4. The Holy Martyrs Theodore and John.

Father and son, they settled after their Baptism in the pagan city of Kiev. The infuriated pagans pulled their house down about their ears, and the two of them perished for the sake of Christ. Their relics are preserved in St. Anthony’s caves. The barren and women who miscarry pray especially to them.

FOR CONSIDERATION

The fabric of righteousness is finer than silk, but is enduring and indestructible and embraces both worlds, while the fabric of unrighteousness and violence is thick and easily rent. In the time of the Kievan Prince Vladimir, there lived in Kiev only one Christian family, Theodore and his son John. When there was a wicked, idolatrous festival, the pagans of Kiev, urged on by demons, plotted to offer John, Theodore’s son, as a sacrifice to the idols. When some of them went to Theodore to demand his son in the name of their ‘gods,’ he said to them: ‘If your gods are alive, let them come themselves and take my son!’ The furious pagans rushed to Theodore’s house, destroyed it and left the bodies of the godly Theodore and his son John in the ruins. Thus far did the fabric of unrighteousness extend. But the fabric of righteousness went further: Prince Vladimir was baptized soon after this, and also baptized the nation, and on the very spot where the house and grave of Theodore and John had been, the church of the most holy Mother of God was built.

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.