May 20, 2033

Events of the day

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

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ
• Afterfeast: Mid-Pentecost

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday from Thomas Sunday to Pentecost: fish is allowed.

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

  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

  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

  Acts 10:44–11:10

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  ⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.

  ⁴⁵They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles.

  ⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in other languages and magnifying God. Then Peter answered,

  ⁴⁷“Can anyone forbid these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just like us.”

  ⁴⁸He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.

  ¹Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

  ²When Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision contended with him,

  ³saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!”

  ⁴But Peter began, and explained to them in order, saying,

  ⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision: a certain container descending, like it was a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners. It came as far as me.

  ⁶When I had looked intently at it, I considered, and saw the four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky.

  ⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter, kill and eat!’

  ⁸But I said, ‘Not so, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth.’

  ⁹But a voice answered me the second time out of heaven, ‘What God has cleansed, don’t you call unclean.’

  ¹⁰This was done three times, and all were drawn up again 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 8:21–30

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  ²¹Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”

  ²²The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

  ²³He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

  ²⁴I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

  ²⁵They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

  ²⁶I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

  ²⁷They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.

  ²⁸Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.

  ²⁹He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

  ³⁰As he spoke these things, many believed in him.

• Gospel · St Alexis

  John 10:1–9

  Show the text

  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: Short penitential prayers