August 1, 2025

Events of the day

• Finding of the relics of St Seraphim of Sarov

  Polyeleos rank

• St Macrina, sister of St Basil the Great

  Commemoration

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday: fast without meat, dairy or eggs. Whether fish is allowed depends on the day's feast — check the church calendar.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: not specified
• 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

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Matins Gospel

  Matthew 11:27–30

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  ²⁷All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

  ²⁸“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

  ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

  ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

• Epistle

  1 Corinthians 11:8–22

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  ⁸For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

  ⁹for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man.

  ¹⁰For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

  ¹¹Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

  ¹²For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

  ¹³Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

  ¹⁴Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

  ¹⁵But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

  ¹⁶But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.

  ¹⁷But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

  ¹⁸For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

  ¹⁹For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

  ²⁰When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.

  ²¹For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

  ²²What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

• Epistle · St Seraphim

  Galatians 5:22–6:2

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  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

  ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

  ²⁴Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

  ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

  ²⁶Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

  ¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

  ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

• Gospel

  Matthew 17:10–18

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  ¹⁰His disciples asked him, saying, “Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

  ¹¹Jesus answered them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and will restore all things,

  ¹²but I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn’t recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted to. Even so the Son of Man will also suffer by them.”

  ¹³Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptizer.

  ¹⁴When they came to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, and saying,

  ¹⁵“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water.

  ¹⁶So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

  ¹⁷Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

  ¹⁸Jesus rebuked him, the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.

• Gospel · St Seraphim

  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

• St Seraphim of Sarov
• Prayer of the day: Short penitential prayers