Orthodox Daily Devotional
While most Orthodox Christians know the importance of daily Bible reading and the additional need to consult the Church Father's to fully understand what is read, the end of the day often arrives with the realization that time hasn't been found for this important spiritual work. This page is designed as a solution to this problem by providing a troporion or kontakion (brief chant highlighting the saint or event of the day), the Gospel reading designated by the Church and a brief commentary from a Church Father on a portion of the reading.
Each listing is normally posted in the evening between 7-9pm Eastern. We use a sercure Wordpress blog format to allow you to sign up to receive the devotion via email. That way it comes to you withouth having to remember to go online to check.
Special notes:
This is an attempt to read the Gospels in sequence during the proper season of the Church year. For this reason the reading in you particular jurisdiction may be different (often a completely different Gospel) due to a saint day or other emphasis. After September is is unrealistic who each jursidiction differs from another so there is not way we can adjust for that. Here are some particulars:
1. The reading follows the quarterly seasonal cycle found in the back of the Orthodox Study Bible which is St. John starting at Pascha, St. Matthew starting with Pentecost, St. Luke starting at the Elevation of the Cross and St. Mark starting the 13th week after the Elevation.
2. Readings for saints and feasts are not included in this devotional schedule in order to maximize reading of the entire text of the Gospels rather than missing days here and there.
3. Saturday and Sunday readings are on a different cycle from weekdays. The sequential reading picks up the next Monday.
4. The readings follow the 'New' Julian calendar that correlate with the civil calendar dates. But, we also list the Liturgical week (i.e. 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, 8th Sunday after Pentecost, etc.) so any Old or New Calendar can read along by the 'week' identifier.
5. Since the Gospel readings follow the liturgical calendar and the 'next day' liturgically starts at sunset, we suggest you read the next day if reading in the evening. That is why the reading is sent out after 6pm.
6. The Orthodox Church has great confusion in that there are two liturgical calendars ('Old and New' Julian with the 'New' corresponding to calendar dates). In September, some patriarchates (i.e. Greek, Russian, etc.) alter daily readings after the Feast of the Holy Cross. So, after this date until Lent, readings dates differ slightly. Also, if certain saints are emphasized the readings completely depart from the normal sequential Gospel reading. So, if the reading for a day is different from what your particular Orthodox jurisdiction has, that is the reason. We have used the listing of the Orthodox Church in America as the closest guide to daily readings.
