From the calendar 2025

Tuesday, September 9

Righteous Joachim and Anna

Appointed readings

2 passages

Epistle

2 Corinthians 12:20–13:2

20For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults;

21lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced.

1This will be the third time I am coming to you. 'By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.'

2I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare

Gospel

Mark 4:24–34

Open Reader ↗

24Then He said to them, 'Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.

25For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.'

26And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,

27and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

28For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

29But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.'

30Then He said, 'To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it?

31It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth;

32but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.'

33And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.

34But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.

The rhythm of the day

Fasting: Fast-free
Weekly tone: Tone 4

In remembrance

The saints commemorated this day

Righteous Joachim and AnnaRead the life

St Joachim was of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David. St Anna was of the tribe of Levi, the daughter of a priest named Matthan. Matthan’s three daughters were Mary, Zoia and Anna. Mary became the mother of Salome the Myrrhbearer; Zoia bore Elizabeth, mother of St John the Baptist; and Anna married Joachim in Nazareth. Joachim and Anna, to their great sorrow, were barren for fifty years. They lived prayerfully and kept only a third of their income for themselves, giving a third to the poor and a third to the Temple. Once when they had come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice at the Temple, Joachim was publicly scorned by the High Priest Issachar for his childlessness. Joachim and Anna, greatly grieved, prayed fervently that God would grant them the miracle that he had wrought for Abraham and Sarah, and give them a child in their old age.

Read the full life

Ven. Joseph of Volotsk

Commemoration of the Third Ecumenical Council (431)Read the life

The Council, called by the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, met in Ephesus. The two hundred fathers gathered there condemned the teaching of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who would not call the holy Virgin Mary Theotokos (God-bearer) but only Christotokos (Christ-bearer). The holy fathers of the Council clearly affirmed that the Virgin Mary is, and is to be called, Mother of God. They also confirmed the teaching of the first two Councils and decreed that the Nicene Creed may not be altered (as it later was by the Western church).

Holy Martyr Severian of Sebaste (320)Read the life

He was a prominent citizen of Sebaste during the reign of Licinius. When the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9) were in prison, he encouraged and comforted them. For this, and for his Christian example which had converted many pagans in the region, the Provincial Governor Lysias ordered his arrest. But before the soldiers could find him, he presented himself before the Governor and openly proclaimed his faith. For this he was subjected to many days of horrible tortures, during which he constantly exhorted the believers who followed him to stand firm in their confession of Christ. After astonishing endurance of his torments, he gave up his spirit to God.

Read the full life

Our Holy Father Ciaran of Clonmacnoise (549)Read the life

Born to the family of a cartwright in Ireland, he entered monastic life when he was very young at the Monastery of Clonard, where he became a disciple of St Finnian (December 12). He became one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’, all of them disciples of St Finnian. Ciaran founded the great monastery of Clonmacnoise (pronounced clon-mac-neesh) on the Shannon River, which became one of Ireland’s great monasteries. Once, during a great famine, He distributed all of the monastery’s food to the people, entrusting his monks’ survival, and his own, to providence. Saint Ciaran reposed in peace, aged only thirty-three, in 549.