August 7, 2020

Events of the day

• Dormition of Righteous Anna, mother of the Theotokos

  Polyeleos rank

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

• Epistle

  1 Corinthians 14:26–40

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  ²⁶What is it then, brothers? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has another language, or has an interpretation. Let all things be done to build each other up.

  ²⁷If any man speaks in another language, let it be two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let one interpret.

  ²⁸But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the assembly, and let him speak to himself, and to God.

  ²⁹Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others discern.

  ³⁰But if a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first keep silent.

  ³¹For you all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted.

  ³²The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,

  ³³for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.

  ³⁴Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says,

  ³⁵if they desire to learn anything. “Let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.”

  ³⁶What!? Was it from you that the word of God went out? Or did it come to you alone?

  ³⁷If any man thinks himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.

  ³⁸But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

  ³⁹Therefore, brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking with other languages.

  ⁴⁰Let all things be done decently and in order.

• Epistle · St Anna

  Galatians 4:22–31

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  ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman.

  ²³However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise.

  ²⁴These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.

  ²⁵For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.

  ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

  ²⁷For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you who don’t travail. For the desolate have more children than her who has a husband.”

  ²⁸Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

  ²⁹But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

  ³⁰However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”

  ³¹So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.

• Gospel

  Matthew 21:12–14, 17–20

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  ¹²Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.

  ¹³He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

  ¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

  ¹⁷He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and camped there.

  ¹⁸Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.

  ¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

  ²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?”

• Gospel · St Anna

  Luke 8:16–21

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  ¹⁶“No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a container, or puts it under a bed; but puts it on a stand, that those who enter in may see the light.

  ¹⁷For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed; nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

  ¹⁸Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”

  ¹⁹His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd.

  ²⁰Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you.”

  ²¹But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.”

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, Julian calendar. Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Short penitential prayers