September 21, 2025

Events of the day

• Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos

  Twelve Great Feast

  The birth of the Virgin Mary to the righteous Joachim and Anna; the first of the Twelve Great Feasts in the church year.

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

  Genesis 28:10–17

• Vespers

  Ezekiel 43:27–44:4

• Vespers

  Proverbs 9:1–11

• Matins Gospel

  Luke 1:39–49, 56

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  ³⁹Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah,

  ⁴⁰and entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

  ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

  ⁴²She called out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

  ⁴³Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

  ⁴⁴For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy!

  ⁴⁵Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!”

  ⁴⁶Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.

  ⁴⁷My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

  ⁴⁸for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

  ⁴⁹For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.

  ⁵⁶Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her house.

• Epistle · Sunday before Elevation

  Galatians 6:11–18

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  ¹¹See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand.

  ¹²As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

  ¹³For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.

  ¹⁴But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

  ¹⁵For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

  ¹⁶As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel.

  ¹⁷From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body.

  ¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

• Epistle · Theotokos

  Philippians 2:5–11

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  ⁵Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

  ⁶who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

  ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

  ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.

  ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name,

  ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

  ¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• Epistle

  2 Corinthians 4:6–15

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  ⁶seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

  ⁷But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

  ⁸We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;

  ⁹pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;

  ¹⁰always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

  ¹¹For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.

  ¹²So then death works in us, but life in you.

  ¹³But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak;

  ¹⁴knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

  ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

• Gospel · Sunday before Elevation

  John 3:13–17

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  ¹³No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

  ¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

  ¹⁵that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

  ¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

  ¹⁷For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

• Gospel · Theotokos

  Luke 10:38–42, 11:27–28

• Gospel

  Matthew 22:35–46

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  ³⁵One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.

  ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”

  ³⁷Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

  ³⁸This is the first and great commandment.

  ³⁹A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

  ⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

  ⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

  ⁴²saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.”

  ⁴³He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,

  ⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’

  ⁴⁵“If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

  ⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.

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