May 10, 2023

Events of the day

• Mid-Pentecost

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday: fast without meat, dairy or eggs. Whether fish is allowed depends on the day's feast — check the church calendar.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: not specified
• 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 — Micah 4.2-3, 5; 6.2-5, 8; 5.4, 5

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Isaiah 55.1; 12.3-4; 55.2-13

• Vespers

  Proverbs 9:1–11

• Vespers

  1 John 3:21–4:6

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  ²¹Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God;

  ²²so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.

  ²³This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.

  ²⁴He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.

  ¹Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

  ²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

  ³and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

  ⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

  ⁵They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

  ⁶We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

• Vespers

  1 John 4:11–16

• Vespers

  1 John 4:20–5:5

• Matins Gospel

  John 21:15–25

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  ¹⁵So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

  ¹⁶He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

  ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?” Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, “Do you have affection for me?” He said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

  ¹⁸Most certainly I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you don’t want to go.”

  ¹⁹Now he said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. When he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

  ²⁰Then Peter, turning around, saw a disciple following. This was the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who had also leaned on Jesus’ breast at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”

  ²¹Peter seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

  ²²Jesus said to him, “If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”

  ²³This saying therefore went out among the brothers, that this disciple wouldn’t die. Yet Jesus didn’t say to him that he wouldn’t die, but, “If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you?”

  ²⁴This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and wrote these things. We know that his witness is true.

  ²⁵There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written.

• Epistle

  Acts 14:6–18

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  ⁶they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.

  ⁷There they preached the Good News.

  ⁸At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked.

  ⁹He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole,

  ¹⁰said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked.

  ¹¹When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

  ¹²They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker.

  ¹³The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes.

  ¹⁴But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out,

  ¹⁵“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;

  ¹⁶who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

  ¹⁷Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

  ¹⁸Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.

• Epistle · St Simeon

  1 Corinthians 4:9–16

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  ⁹For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

  ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.

  ¹¹Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.

  ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.

  ¹³Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

  ¹⁴I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

  ¹⁵For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.

  ¹⁶I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

• Gospel

  John 7:14–30

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  ¹⁴But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

  ¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”

  ¹⁶Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

  ¹⁷If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.

  ¹⁸He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

  ¹⁹Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”

  ²⁰The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”

  ²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one work and you all marvel because of it.

  ²²Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.

  ²³If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?

  ²⁴Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

  ²⁵Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?

  ²⁶Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?

  ²⁷However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

  ²⁸Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.

  ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

  ³⁰They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

• Gospel · St Simeon

  Matthew 13:54–58

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  ⁵⁴Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?

  ⁵⁵Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

  ⁵⁶Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?”

  ⁵⁷They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house.”

  ⁵⁸He didn’t do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

• Epistle · Blessing of Waters

  Hebrews 2:11–18

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  ¹¹For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

  ¹²saying, “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the congregation I will sing your praise.”

  ¹³Again, “I will put my trust in him.” Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”

  ¹⁴Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

  ¹⁵and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

  ¹⁶For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham.

  ¹⁷Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

  ¹⁸For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

• Gospel · Blessing of Waters

  John 5:1–4

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Trisagion