Friday, May 22
Orthodox Daily Devotional
Scripture Reading
JOHN 9: Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?”9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?”He said, “I do not know.”
Orthodox Wisdom
For the devil, in his envy of the human race, assumed the guise of a serpent and spoke to the woman, and from the woman he instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil, who they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord. For man [humankind], having his place between [God], who created, and [the devil], who was fallen, should have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver. Therefore “he was a murderer from the beginning.” Look at the kind of murder he did. The devil is called a murderer not as armed with a sword or steel. He came to humanity, sowed his evil suggestions and killed him. Do not think then that you are not a murderer when you persuade your brother to evil. If you persuade your brother to evil, you kill him. And to let you know that you kill him, listen to the psalm: “The sons of men [humankind], whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”
St Augustine
New Calendar Saints & Lectionary Scriptures