April 20, 2025

Events of the day

• Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

  Pascha

  The Feast of Feasts: the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the foundation of Christian faith and hope.

• St George, Bishop of Mitylene

  Commemoration

Fasting

No fast

Bright Week is fast-free.

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 · St Tikhon

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers · St Tikhon

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• Vespers · St Tikhon

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Epistle

  Acts 1:1–8

  Show the text

  ¹The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,

  ²until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

  ³To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.

  ⁴Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.

  ⁵For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

  ⁶Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

  ⁷He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.

  ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

• Epistle · St Tikhon

  Hebrews 7:26–8:2

  Show the text

  ²⁶For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

  ²⁷who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

  ²⁸For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

  ¹Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

  ²a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

• Gospel

  John 1:1–17

  Show the text

  ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

  ²The same was in the beginning with God.

  ³All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

  ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

  ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

  ⁶There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

  ⁷The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.

  ⁸He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.

  ⁹The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.

  ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.

  ¹¹He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.

  ¹²But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:

  ¹³who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

  ¹⁴The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

  ¹⁵John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’ ”

  ¹⁶From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.

  ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

• Gospel · St Tikhon

  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.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Paschal Troparion