May 20, 2031

Events of the day

• Apparition of the Cross in the sky over Jerusalem (351); Martyr Acacius

  Commemoration

• Afterfeast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

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

• 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

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  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 17:19–28

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  ¹⁹They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?

  ²⁰For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”

  ²¹Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

  ²²Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

  ²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.

  ²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.

  ²⁵He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

  ²⁶He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

  ²⁷that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

  ²⁸‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

• Epistle · St Alexis

  Galatians 1:11–19

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  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 12:19–36

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  ¹⁹The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him.”

  ²⁰Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast.

  ²¹These, therefore, came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

  ²²Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew came with Philip, and they told Jesus.

  ²³Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

  ²⁴Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

  ²⁵He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

  ²⁶If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

  ²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.

  ²⁸Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came out of the sky, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

  ²⁹Therefore the multitude who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

  ³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes.

  ³¹Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.

  ³²And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

  ³³But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.

  ³⁴The multitude answered him, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever. How do you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up?’ Who is this Son of Man?”

  ³⁵Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.

  ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them.

• Gospel · St Alexis

  John 10:1–9

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  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.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer