May 7, 2031

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

  Composite reading — Proverbs 10, 3, 8

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Proverbs 10; Wisdom of Solomon 6, 7, 8, 9

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Wisdom of Solomon 4, 6, 7, 2

• Matins Gospel

  John 10:9–16

  Show the text

  ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

  ¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

  ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

  ¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

  ¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.

  ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

  ¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

  ¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

• Epistle

  Acts 14:6–18

  Show the text

  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 Alexis

  Galatians 1:11–19

  Show the text

  ¹¹But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.

  ¹²For I didn’t receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

  ¹³For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it.

  ¹⁴I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

  ¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace

  ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,

  ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.

  ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.

  ¹⁹But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

• Gospel

  John 7:14–30

  Show the text

  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 Alexis

  John 10:1–9

  Show the text

  ¹“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

  ²But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

  ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

  ⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

  ⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

  ⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

  ⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.

  ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

  ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

• Epistle · Blessing of Waters

  Hebrews 2:11–18

  Show the text

  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