Daily Orthodox - November 30th, 2024
Today is Saturday of the 23rd Week after Pentecost.
Fasting Obligations
- OCA, GOARCH, Antioch: Fish, wine, and oil permitted.
Today, we commemorate...
1. The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-called
Andrew, the son of Jonah and brother of Peter, was born in Bethsaida and was a fisherman by trade. At first he was a disciple of St. John the Baptist, but when St. John pointed to the Lord Jesus, saying, Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:36), Andrew left his first teacher and followed Christ. Then, Andrew brought his brother Peter to the Lord. Following the descent of the Holy Spirit, it fell by lot to the first apostle of Christ, St. Andrew, to preach the Gospel in Byzantium and Thrace, then in the lands along the Danube and in Russia around the Black Sea, and finally in Epirus, Greece and the Peloponnese, where he suffered. In Byzantium, he appointed St. Stachys as its first bishop; in Kiev, he planted a Cross on a high place and prophesied a bright Christian future for the Russian people; throughout Thrace, Epirus, Greece and the Peloponnese, he converted multitudes of people to the Faith and ordained bishops and priests for them. In the city of Patras, he performed many miracles in the name of Christ, and won many over to the Lord. Among the new faithful were the brother and wife of the Proconsul Aegeates. Angered at this, Aegeates subjected St. Andrew to torture and then crucified him. While the apostle of Christ was still alive on the cross, he gave beneficial instructions to the Christians who had gathered around. The people wanted to take him down from the cross but he refused to let them. Then the apostle prayed to God and an extraordinary light encompassed him. This brilliant illumination lasted for half an hour, and when it disappeared, the apostle gave up his holy soul to God. Thus, the First-called Apostle, the first of the Twelve Great Apostles to know the Lord and follow Him, finished his earthly course. St. Andrew suffered for the Lord in the year 62. His relics were taken to Constantinople; his head was later taken to Rome, and one hand was taken to Moscow.
2. Saint Frumentius the Enlightener of Abyssinia (370)
In the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, a learned man from Tyre by the name of Meropius traveled to India. He took with him two young Christians, the brothers Edesius and Frumentius. On the journey, their boat was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Abyssinia, and the wild Abyssinians killed everyone on the boat except these two brothers. They lived in Abyssinia for several years, and managed to enter into service in the imperial court of the Abyssinian king. Frumentius began to preach the Christian Faith, initially very cautiously, and was convinced that this land would be fruitful for such preaching. The two brothers then took ship: Edesius to Tyre, to his parents, and Frumentius to Alexandria, to Patriarch Athanasius the Great. Frumentius explained the situation in Abyssinia to the Patriarch, and sought pastors for those newly converted to the Faith. St. Athanasius consecrated Frumentius to the episcopacy. St. Frumentius returned to Abyssinia where, by his zeal and his miracles, he converted all of Abyssinia to the Christian Faith in his own lifetime. This great shepherd of the flock of Christ, the enlightener of Abyssinia, reposed peacefully in the year 370 and went to live in the Kingdom of his Lord.
3. Sts. Peter I (5th c.) and Samuel I (5th-6th c.), catholicoses of Georgia
4. St. Vakhtang Gorgasali, king of Georgia (502)
5. St. Tudwal, bishop in Wales and Brittany (6th c.)
6. St. Andrew (Saguna), metropolitan of Transylvania (1873)
7. St. Elias, schemamonk of Valaam and Verkhoturye (1900)
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).
Reflection
Reflections are added when it includes additional stories from the life of a saint commemorated today.
St. John Chrysostom says: "All is given to the Apostles." That is, all gifts, all power, all the fullness of grace which God gives to the faithful. We see this in the life of the great apostle, St. Andrew the First-called: He was an apostle, evangelist, prophet, pastor and teacher (Ephesians 4:11). As an evangelist, he carried the good news of the Gospel to the four corners of the earth; as a prophet, he prophesied the baptism of the Russian people and the greatness of Kiev as a city and a Christian center; as a pastor, he established and organized many churches; as a teacher, he tirelessly taught people right up to and during his crucifixion, where he taught from the cross until his last breath. In addition to this, he was a martyr, which is also according to the gift of the Holy Spirit, and is not given to everyone. And so we see in this apostle, as in the others, the fullness of the grace of the Spirit of God. And every great work that a follower of Christ performs must be ascribed to that grace. St. Frumentius testifies this to us. When he returned from Alexandria to Abyssinia as a consecrated bishop, he began to perform the greatest miracles, thus converting great masses of people to the Faith. Then the amazed king asked him: "So many years have you lived among us and never have we seen you perform such miracles. How is it that you do so now?" To this, the Blessed Frumentius replied to the emperor: "This is not my work, but the work of the grace of the priesthood." The saint then explained to the king how he had forsaken parents and marriage and the whole world for the sake of Christ, and how he had—by the laying on of hands by St. Athanasius—received the grace of the priesthood: miracle-working grace.
Daily Scriptures
Slavic and Greek
- Epistle (Slavic: 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.
- Gospel (Slavic: for the Apostle): John 1:35-51
<35> Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. <36> And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" <37> The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. <38> Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), "where are You staying?" <39> He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). <40> One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. <41> He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ). <42> And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone). <43> The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." <44> Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. <45> Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." <46> And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." <47> Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" <48> Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." <49> Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" <50> Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." <51> And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Slavic
- Epistle (Day): 2 Corinthians 8:1-5
<1> Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: <2> that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. <3> For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, <4> imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. <5> And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
- Gospel (Day): Luke 12:32-40
<32> "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. <33> Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. <34> For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. <35> "Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; <36> and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. <37> Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. <38> And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. <39> But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. <40> Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."