February 21, 2021

Events of the day

• Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Lenten Triodion begins

  Commemoration

  First Sunday of preparation for Great Lent; the following week is fast-free.

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

• 4th Matins Gospel

  Luke 24:1–12

  Show the text

  ¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

  ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

  ³They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.

  ⁴While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

  ⁵Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

  ⁶He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,

  ⁷saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

  ⁸They remembered his words,

  ⁹returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

  ¹⁰Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

  ¹¹These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them.

  ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

• Epistle

  2 Timothy 3:10–15

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  ¹⁰But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

  ¹¹persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all.

  ¹²Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

  ¹³But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

  ¹⁴But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

  ¹⁵From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

• Gospel

  Luke 18:10–14

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  ¹⁰“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.

  ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

  ¹²I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

  ¹³But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

  ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, New Calendar (OCA practice). Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed)