May 20, 2030

Events of the day

• Apparition of the Cross in the sky over Jerusalem (351); Martyr Acacius

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

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

  Composite reading — Wisdom of Solomon 4, 6, 7, 2

• Matins Gospel

  John 10:9–16

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  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

  Acts 10:1–16

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  ¹Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,

  ²a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.

  ³At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him, and saying to him, “Cornelius!”

  ⁴He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God.

  ⁵Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter.

  ⁶He is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the seaside.

  ⁷When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually.

  ⁸Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

  ⁹Now on the next day as they were on their journey, and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about noon.

  ¹⁰He became hungry and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance.

  ¹¹He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth,

  ¹²in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky.

  ¹³A voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!”

  ¹⁴But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

  ¹⁵A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.”

  ¹⁶This was done three times, and immediately the vessel was received up into heaven.

• Epistle · St Alexis

  Galatians 1:11–19

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  ¹¹But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.

  ¹²For I didn’t receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

  ¹³For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it.

  ¹⁴I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

  ¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace

  ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,

  ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.

  ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.

  ¹⁹But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

• Gospel

  John 6:56–69

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  ⁵⁶He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.

  ⁵⁷As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

  ⁵⁸This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

  ⁵⁹He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

  ⁶⁰Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”

  ⁶¹But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble?

  ⁶²Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

  ⁶³It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

  ⁶⁴But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him.

  ⁶⁵He said, “For this cause I have said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”

  ⁶⁶At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

  ⁶⁷Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”

  ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

  ⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

• Gospel · St Alexis

  John 10:1–9

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  ¹“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

  ²But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

  ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

  ⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

  ⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

  ⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

  ⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.

  ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

  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.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Morning prayer of St Macarius the Great