August 26, 2025

Events of the day

• Translation of the relics of St Maximus the Confessor; St Tikhon of Zadonsk

  Polyeleos rank

• Leave-taking of the feast: Transfiguration of the Lord

Fasting

Fast day · Dormition Fast

Dormition Fast, Tuesday and Thursday: cooked food without oil.

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

  Proverbs 10:31–11:12

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• 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

  2 Corinthians 5:15–21

  Show the text

  ¹⁵He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

  ¹⁶Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

  ¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

  ¹⁸But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;

  ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

  ²⁰We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

  ²¹For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• 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

  Mark 1:16–22

  Show the text

  ¹⁶Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

  ¹⁷Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”

  ¹⁸Immediately they left their nets, and followed him.

  ¹⁹Going on a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets.

  ²⁰Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.

  ²¹They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught.

  ²²They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.

• Gospel · St Tikhon

  Matthew 5:14–19

  Show the text

  ¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.

  ¹⁵Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house.

  ¹⁶Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

  ¹⁷“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

  ¹⁸For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.

  ¹⁹Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer