May 21, 2030

Events of the day

• Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena

  Polyeleos rank

• 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

  3[1] Kings 8:22–23, 27–30

• Vespers

  Isaiah 61:10–62:5

• Vespers

  Isaiah 60:1–16

• 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 10:21–33

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  ²¹Peter went down to the men, and said, “Behold, I am he whom you seek. Why have you come?”

  ²²They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say.”

  ²³So he called them in and provided a place to stay. On the next day Peter arose and went out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

  ²⁴On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends.

  ²⁵When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him.

  ²⁶But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up! I myself am also a man.”

  ²⁷As he talked with him, he went in and found many gathered together.

  ²⁸He said to them, “You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I shouldn’t call any man unholy or unclean.

  ²⁹Therefore I also came without complaint when I was sent for. I ask therefore, why did you send for me?”

  ³⁰Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

  ³¹and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your gifts to the needy are remembered in the sight of God.

  ³²Send therefore to Joppa, and summon Simon, who is also called Peter. He is staying in the house of a tanner named Simon, by the seaside. When he comes, he will speak to you.’

  ³³Therefore I sent to you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all things that have been commanded you by God.”

• Epistle · Saints

  Acts 26:1–5, 12–20

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  ¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

  ²“I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you today concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,

  ³especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.

  ⁴“Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

  ⁵having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

  ¹²“Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,

  ¹³at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.

  ¹⁴When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

  ¹⁵“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

  ¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;

  ¹⁷delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,

  ¹⁸to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

  ¹⁹“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

  ²⁰but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

• Gospel

  John 7:1–13

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  ¹After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.

  ²Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.

  ³His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.

  ⁴For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”

  ⁵For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

  ⁶Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.

  ⁷The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

  ⁸You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”

  ⁹Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

  ¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

  ¹¹The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”

  ¹²There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”

  ¹³Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.

• Gospel · Saints

  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, New Calendar (OCA practice). Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great
• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer