February 18, 2024

Events of the day

• Martyr Agatha

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Meeting of the Lord in the Temple

Fasting

No fast

No fast today.

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

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• 4th Matins Gospel

  Luke 24:1–12

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  ¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

  ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

  ³They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.

  ⁴While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

  ⁵Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

  ⁶He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,

  ⁷saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

  ⁸They remembered his words,

  ⁹returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

  ¹⁰Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

  ¹¹These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them.

  ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

• Epistle

  1 Timothy 4:9–15

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  ⁹This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance.

  ¹⁰For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

  ¹¹Command and teach these things.

  ¹²Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.

  ¹³Until I come, pay attention to reading, to exhortation, and to teaching.

  ¹⁴Don’t neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the elders.

  ¹⁵Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all.

• Epistle · St Theodosius

  Hebrews 13:17–21

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  ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

  ¹⁸Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

  ¹⁹I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

  ²⁰Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

  ²¹make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

• Gospel

  Luke 19:1–10

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  ¹He entered and was passing through Jericho.

  ²There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

  ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn’t because of the crowd, because he was short.

  ⁴He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.

  ⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

  ⁶He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.

  ⁷When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”

  ⁸Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

  ⁹Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.

  ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

• Gospel · St Theodosius

  Luke 6:17–23

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  ¹⁷He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;

  ¹⁸as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed.

  ¹⁹All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.

  ²⁰He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, God’s Kingdom is yours.

  ²¹Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

  ²²Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

  ²³Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed)