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Daily Orthodox - November 16th, 2024

Today is Saturday of the 21st Week after Pentecost.

Fasting Obligations

  • OCA, GOARCH, Antioch: Fish, wine, and oil permitted.

Today, we commemorate...

1. The Holy Apostle Matthew the Evangelist

Matthew, son of Alphaeus, was a tax collector when the Lord saw him in Capernaum and said: Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him (Matthew 9:9). After that, Matthew prepared a reception for the Lord in his home and thus provided the occasion for the Lord to express several great truths about His coming to earth. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Matthew preached the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes and Ethiopians. In Ethiopia he appointed his follower Plato as bishop, and withdrew to prayerful solitude on a mountain, where the Lord appeared to him. Matthew baptized the wife and the son of the prince of Ethiopia, at which the prince became greatly enraged and dispatched a guard to bring Matthew to him for trial. The soldiers returned to the prince saying that they had heard Matthew's voice, but could not see him with their eyes. The prince then sent a second guard. When this guard approached the apostle, he shone with a heavenly light so powerful that the soldiers could not look at him; filled with fear, they threw down their weapons and returned. The prince then went himself. Matthew radiated such light that the prince was instantly blinded. However, the holy apostle had a compassionate heart; he prayed to God, and the prince was given back his sight. Unfortunately, he saw only with physical eyes and not spiritual eyes. He arrested Matthew and subjected him to cruel tortures. Twice, a large fire was lighted on his chest, but the power of God preserved him alive and unharmed. Then the apostle prayed to God and gave up his spirit. The prince commanded that the martyr's body be placed in a lead coffin and thrown into the sea. The saint appeared to Bishop Plato and told him where the coffin bearing his body could be found. The bishop retrieved the coffin with Matthew's body from the sea. Witnessing this new miracle, the prince was baptized and received the name Matthew. After that, the prince left all the vanity of the world and became a presbyter and served the Church in a God-pleasing way. When Plato died, the Apostle Matthew appeared to the presbyter Matthew and counseled him to accept the episcopacy. He accepted the bishopric and, for many years, was a good shepherd until the Lord called him to His Immortal Kingdom. St. Matthew the Apostle wrote his Gospel in the Aramaic language. It was soon after translated into Greek and the Greek text has come down to us, while the Aramaic text has been lost. It is said of this evangelist that he never ate meat, but only vegetables and fruit.

2. The Venerable Sergius of Malopinega

Sergius was a Russian parish priest who lived a God-pleasing life and served for sixty-two years in the province of Vologda. He peacefully entered into rest in the Lord on November 16, 1585, at the age of ninety-two.

3. St. Fulvianus, prince of Ethiopia, (in baptism Matthew) (1st c.)
4. St. Eucherius of Lyons (449)
5. St. Otmar, abbot and monastic founder, in Switzerland (759)
6. St. Lubuinus, missionary to Friesland (Neth.) (773)
7. New Hieromartyr Panteleimon, abbot, of Optina Monastery (1937)
8. New Hieromartyr Philoumenus, abbot, of the monastery at Jacob's Well (Nablus) (1979)

For more information on today's saints or commemorations not provided, see https://www.oca.org/saints/lives (Slavic) and/or https://www.goarch.org/chapel (Greek).

Daily Scriptures

Slavic
  • Epistle (for the Apostle): 1 Corinthians 4:9-16

<9> For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. <10> We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! <11> To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. <12> And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; <13> being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. <14> I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. <15> For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. <16> Therefore I urge you, imitate me.

  • Epistle (Day): 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

<12> Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— <13> unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. <14> But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. <15> But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. <16> Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. <17> Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. <18> But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

  • Gospel (for the Apostle): Matthew 9:9-13

<9> As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. <10> Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. <11> And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" <12> When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. <13> But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

  • Gospel (Day): Luke 9:57-62

<57> Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." <58> And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." <59> Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." <60> Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." <61> And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." <62> But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Greek
  • Epistle: Romans 10:11-11:2

<11> For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." <12> For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. <13> For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." <14> How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? <15> And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" <16> But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" <17> So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. <18> But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world." <19> But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation." <20> But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me." <21> But to Israel he says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people." <1> I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. <2> God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,

  • Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13

<9> As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. <10> Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. <11> And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" <12> When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. <13> But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

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