August 15, 2025

Events of the day

• Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos

  Twelve Great Feast

  The falling asleep of the Mother of God and her translation to heaven. Ends the two-week Dormition Fast.

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

A great feast on Wednesday or Friday: 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

  Genesis 28:10–17

• Vespers

  Ezekiel 43:27–44:4

• Vespers

  Proverbs 9:1–11

• Matins Gospel

  Luke 1:39–49, 56

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  ³⁹Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah,

  ⁴⁰and entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

  ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

  ⁴²She called out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

  ⁴³Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

  ⁴⁴For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy!

  ⁴⁵Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!”

  ⁴⁶Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.

  ⁴⁷My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

  ⁴⁸for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

  ⁴⁹For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.

  ⁵⁶Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her house.

• Epistle · Dormition

  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

  2 Corinthians 1:12–20

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  ¹²For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

  ¹³For we write no other things to you than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end,

  ¹⁴as also you acknowledged us in part, that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

  ¹⁵In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit,

  ¹⁶and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea.

  ¹⁷When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?”

  ¹⁸But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.”

  ¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not “Yes and no,” but in him is “Yes.”

  ²⁰For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.

• Gospel · Dormition

  Luke 10:38–42, 11:27–28

• Gospel

  Matthew 22:23–33

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  ²³On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,

  ²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’

  ²⁵Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.

  ²⁶In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.

  ²⁷After them all, the woman died.

  ²⁸In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

  ²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

  ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.

  ³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,

  ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

  ³³When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Troparion of the Dormition