May 20, 2020

Events of the day

• Apparition of the Cross in the sky over Jerusalem (351); Martyr Acacius

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ
• Leave-taking of the feast: Mid-Pentecost

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday from Thomas Sunday to Pentecost: fish is allowed.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: allowed
• Oil: allowed
• Wine: allowed

Food rules are reference church information. Agree your personal measure of fasting with a priest; consult a doctor if you are ill.

Readings of the day

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Proverbs 10, 3, 8

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Proverbs 10; Wisdom of Solomon 6, 7, 8, 9

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Wisdom of Solomon 4, 6, 7, 2

• Matins Gospel

  John 10:9–16

  Show the text

  ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

  ¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

  ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

  ¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

  ¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.

  ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

  ¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

  ¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

• Epistle

  Acts 13:13–24

  Show the text

  ¹³Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem.

  ¹⁴But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.

  ¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.”

  ¹⁶Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

  ¹⁷The God of this people chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they stayed as aliens in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, he led them out of it.

  ¹⁸For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

  ¹⁹When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years.

  ²⁰After these things, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

  ²¹Afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

  ²²When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

  ²³From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise,

  ²⁴before his coming, when John had first preached the baptism of repentance to Israel.

• Epistle · St Alexis

  Galatians 1:11–19

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  ¹¹But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.

  ¹²For I didn’t receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

  ¹³For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it.

  ¹⁴I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

  ¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace

  ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,

  ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.

  ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.

  ¹⁹But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

• Gospel

  John 6:5–14

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  ⁵Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”

  ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

  ⁷Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may receive a little.”

  ⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

  ⁹“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?”

  ¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

  ¹¹Jesus took the loaves; and having given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down; likewise also of the fish as much as they desired.

  ¹²When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.”

  ¹³So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

  ¹⁴When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world.”

• Gospel · St Alexis

  John 10:1–9

  Show the text

  ¹“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

  ²But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

  ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

  ⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

  ⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

  ⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

  ⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.

  ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

  ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, Julian calendar. Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Trisagion