March 7, 2027

Events of the day

• Meatfare Sunday (Sunday of the Last Judgment)

  Commemoration

  Last day on which meat is eaten before Great Lent.

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

• 7th Matins Gospel

  John 20:1–10

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  ¹Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.

  ²Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him!”

  ³Therefore Peter and the other disciple went out, and they went toward the tomb.

  ⁴They both ran together. The other disciple outran Peter, and came to the tomb first.

  ⁵Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he didn’t enter in.

  ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying,

  ⁷and the cloth that had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself.

  ⁸So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb also entered in, and he saw and believed.

  ⁹For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

  ¹⁰So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

• Epistle

  1 Corinthians 8:8–9:2

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  ⁸But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

  ⁹But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

  ¹⁰For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

  ¹¹And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

  ¹²Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

  ¹³Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

  ¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

  ²If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

• Gospel

  Matthew 25:31–46

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  ³¹“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

  ³²Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

  ³³He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

  ³⁴Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

  ³⁵for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.

  ³⁶I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’

  ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink?

  ³⁸When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you?

  ³⁹When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’

  ⁴⁰“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

  ⁴¹Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

  ⁴²for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink;

  ⁴³I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

  ⁴⁴“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

  ⁴⁵“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’

  ⁴⁶These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

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)