Sunday<\/p>\n
Matthew 8:5-13 \u00a0The Centurion who asks Jesus to heal is servant.<\/p>\n
Monday
\nParable of the Friend<\/p>\n
Lulke 11:5\u00a0<\/sup>And He said to them, \u201cWhich of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, \u2018Friend, lend me three loaves;<\/span> <\/span> 6\u00a0<\/sup>for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him\u2019;<\/span> <\/span> 7\u00a0<\/sup>and he will answer from within and say, \u2018Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you\u2019?<\/span> <\/span> 8\u00a0<\/sup>I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>9\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cSo I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.<\/span> <\/span> 10\u00a0<\/sup>For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.<\/span> <\/span> 11\u00a0<\/sup>If a son asks for bread<\/span>[d<\/a>]<\/sup> from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks<\/i> for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?<\/span> <\/span> 12\u00a0<\/sup>Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?<\/span> <\/span> 13\u00a0<\/sup>If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your<\/i> heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Explanation Orthodox Study Bible: \u00a0This parable demonstrates God\u2019s faithfulness to those who are in need and who pray with persistence (v. 8). The Fathers interpret midnight as both the time of our death and a time of great temptation. The friend is Christ, who, as our only source of grace, provides everything we need. 11: 9\u2013 13 In Greek, the verbs rendered ask, seek, and knock imply a continuing action and are better translated, \u201ckeep asking,\u201d \u201ckeep seeking,\u201d and \u201ckeep knocking.\u201d God responds when we persistently ask for things that are good. Bread, fish, and an egg are all images of life and symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n Tuesday Luke 12: \u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: \u201cThe ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.<\/span> <\/span> 17\u00a0<\/sup>And he thought within himself, saying, \u2018What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?\u2019<\/span> <\/span> 18\u00a0<\/sup>So he said, \u2018I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.<\/span> <\/span> 19\u00a0<\/sup>And I will say to my soul, \u201cSoul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and<\/i> be merry.\u201d\u2019<\/span> <\/span> 20\u00a0<\/sup>But God said to him, \u2018Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/span>21\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cSo is<\/i> he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Explanation: \u00a0‘Whose will those things be which you have provided?’ \u00a0 is the key to understanding the saving up of material goods. St. John Chrysostom writes that the only barns we need we already have: \u201cthe stomachs of the poor.\u201d St. Basil the Great taught that the bread in our cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in our closet belong to the one who has no shoes; and the money we hoard belongs to the poor. St. Ambrose teaches, \u201cThe things which we cannot take with us are not ours. Only virtue will be our companion when we die.\u201d Even when Joseph stored up grain in Egypt (Gn 41), it was for the benefit of the whole nation. These teachings apply to parishes as well as to each person.<\/p>\n Wednesday<\/p>\n From the Prologue of St. Nikolai:<\/p>\n God hears the prayers of the just. This is clearly seen from the lives of Moses, Elias, and the other Old Testament righteous ones and prophets, as well as from the lives of the apostles and saints. While St. Genevieve lived a life of asceticism as a nun in Paris, it so happened that Attila with his savage Huns surrounded Paris. Fear and terror overcame the entire population, who awaited at any moment the capture of the city by the enemy. Then St. Genevieve called upon the people to fast and pray to God that the calamity might be averted. Many men and women responded to the call of this saint and began to fast and pray to God. Genevieve herself fasted more strictly than all, and prayed most ardently to God. After a short while, the enemy turned away from Paris without any visible reason and departed for another place. That which the sword of many sinners cannot do, the prayer of the righteous person can.<\/p>\n Thursday<\/p>\n Parable of the Builders<\/p>\n Luke 6:\u00a046\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut why do you call Me \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 and not do the things which I say?<\/span> <\/span> 47\u00a0<\/sup>Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:<\/span> <\/span> 48\u00a0<\/sup>He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.<\/span>[h<\/a>]<\/sup> <\/span> 49\u00a0<\/sup>But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell.<\/span>[i<\/a>]<\/sup> And the ruin of that house was great.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Explanation: \u00a0Hearing the gospel alone is not enough, for salvation is based not on hearing alone, nor on faith alone, but also on doing the things spoken by Christ<\/p>\n Friday<\/p>\n New Wineskins<\/p>\n Luke 5:36\u00a0<\/sup>Then He spoke a parable to them: \u201cNo one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one;<\/span>[d<\/a>]<\/sup> otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken<\/i> out of the new does not match the old.<\/span> <\/span> 37\u00a0<\/sup>And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.<\/span> <\/span> 38\u00a0<\/sup>But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.<\/span>[e<\/a>]<\/sup> <\/span> 39\u00a0<\/sup>And no one, having drunk old wine,<\/i> immediately<\/span>[f<\/a>]<\/sup> desires new; for he says, \u2018The old is better.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Explanation: \u00a0The old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, viewed as imperfect and temporary; the new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ. The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.<\/p>\n Saturday<\/p>\n From St. Nikolai:<\/p>\n Fruit, fruit, and only fruit does the Lord seek from every living tree which is called a man. Good fruit is a God-loving heart, and evil fruit is a self-loving heart. Everything<\/p>\n else that a man possesses and enjoys\u2014 position, authority, honor, health, money and knowledge\u2014 are but the leaves on the tree. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matthew 3: 10). Even the non-Christian peoples valued good deeds more than fine words. How much more must it be the rule for the followers of Christ. At a council of the Athenians, at which were present representatives of the Spartans, a certain elderly man moved from bench to bench, seeking a place to sit. The Athenians mocked him and did not relinquish a seat to him. When the old man approached the Spartans, everyone rose to their feet and offered him a seat. Upon seeing this, the Athenians praised the Spartans in eloquent terms. To this the Spartans replied: \u201cThe Athenians know what is good, but they do not do good.\u201d Whoever performs good deeds resembles a tree that brings forth good fruit for its householder. The source of goodness in man is a good, God-loving heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday Matthew 8:5-13 \u00a0The Centurion who asks Jesus to heal is servant. A centurion (a Gentile) commanded 100 men in a Roman legion. Jesus is the Savior of all, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3578,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions\/3578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nParable of the Rich Fool<\/p>\n