May 21, 2031

Events of the day

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

  Polyeleos rank

• Leave-taking of the feast: Pascha. The Bright Resurrection of Christ
• Forefeast: Ascension of the Lord

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

  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

  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 18:22–28

  Show the text

  ²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.

  ²³Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

  ²⁴Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

  ²⁵This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

  ²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

  ²⁷When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;

  ²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

• Epistle · Saints

  Acts 26:1–5, 12–20

  Show the text

  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 12:36–47

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  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.

  ³⁷But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn’t believe in him,

  ³⁸that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, “Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

  ³⁹For this cause they couldn’t believe, for Isaiah said again,

  ⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.”

  ⁴¹Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.

  ⁴²Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,

  ⁴³for they loved men’s praise more than God’s praise.

  ⁴⁴Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

  ⁴⁵He who sees me sees him who sent me.

  ⁴⁶I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.

  ⁴⁷If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn’t believe, I don’t judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

• Gospel · Saints

  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.

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 Trisagion