April 25, 2025

Events of the day

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• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

Fasting

No fast

Bright Week is fast-free.

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 · St Mark

  James 1:1–12

• Vespers · St Mark

  James 1:13–27

• Vespers · St Mark

  James 2:1–13

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  ¹My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.

  ²For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,

  ³and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”

  ⁴haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

  ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

  ⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

  ⁷Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

  ⁸However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.

  ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

  ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

  ¹¹For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

  ¹²So speak and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.

  ¹³For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

• Matins Gospel · St Mark

  Luke 10:1–15

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  ¹Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come.

  ²Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.

  ³Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

  ⁴Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.

  ⁵Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’

  ⁶If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

  ⁷Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Don’t go from house to house.

  ⁸Into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you.

  ⁹Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, ‘God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’

  ¹⁰But into whatever city you enter, and they don’t receive you, go out into its streets and say,

  ¹¹‘Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’

  ¹²I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

  ¹³“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

  ¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

  ¹⁵You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

• Epistle

  Acts 3:1–8

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  ¹Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

  ²A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.

  ³Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy.

  ⁴Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.”

  ⁵He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them.

  ⁶But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

  ⁷He took him by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.

  ⁸Leaping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.

• 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 · St Mark

  1 Peter 5:6–14

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  ⁶Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,

  ⁷casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.

  ⁸Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

  ⁹Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.

  ¹⁰But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

  ¹¹To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

  ¹²Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

  ¹³She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you. So does Mark, my son.

  ¹⁴Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

• Gospel

  John 2:12–22

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  ¹²After this, he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

  ¹³The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

  ¹⁴He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting.

  ¹⁵He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables.

  ¹⁶To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!”

  ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will eat me up.”

  ¹⁸The Jews therefore answered him, “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?”

  ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

  ²⁰The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?”

  ²¹But he spoke of the temple of his body.

  ²²When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

• Gospel · Theotokos

  Luke 10:38–42, 11:27–28

• Gospel · St Mark

  Mark 6:7–13

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  ⁷He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

  ⁸He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse,

  ⁹but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics.

  ¹⁰He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there.

  ¹¹Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

  ¹²They went out and preached that people should repent.

  ¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick, and healed them.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Paschal Troparion