August 26, 2024

Events of the day

• Translation of the relics of St Maximus the Confessor; St Tikhon of Zadonsk

  Polyeleos rank

• Leave-taking of the feast: Transfiguration of the Lord

Fasting

Fast day · Dormition Fast

Dormition Fast, Monday, Wednesday and Friday: xerophagy.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: not allowed
• Oil: not allowed
• Wine: not allowed
• Xerophagy

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 — Proverbs 10, 3, 8

• Vespers

  Proverbs 10:31–11:12

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• 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

  1 Corinthians 15:12–19

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  ¹²Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

  ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.

  ¹⁴If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.

  ¹⁵Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.

  ¹⁶For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.

  ¹⁷If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

  ¹⁸Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

  ¹⁹If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

• Epistle · St Tikhon

  Hebrews 7:26–8:2

  Show the text

  ²⁶For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

  ²⁷who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

  ²⁸For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

  ¹Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

  ²a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

• Gospel

  Matthew 21:18–22

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  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?”

  ²¹Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done.

  ²²All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

• Gospel · St Tikhon

  Matthew 5:14–19

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  ¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.

  ¹⁵Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house.

  ¹⁶Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

  ¹⁷“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

  ¹⁸For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.

  ¹⁹Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Morning prayer of St Macarius the Great