From the calendar, 2025.

Thursday, November 20

Forefeast of Entry

Wine & oilWine and oil are allowed. No meat, dairy, eggs or fish.

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. Epistle1 Thessalonians 5:1–8
2. GospelLuke 16:1–9

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Epistle.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–8

1 min read

1But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

2For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

3For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

4But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

5You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

6Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

8But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

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Gospel.

Luke 16:1–9

1 min read

1He also said to His disciples: 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

2So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'

3'Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.

4I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'

5'So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

6And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

7Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

8So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

9'And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

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In remembrance.

Ven. Gregory DecapolitesRead the life

He was born in Irenopolis, one of the “Ten Cities” of Asia Minor. Though his parents wanted him to marry, he entered monastic life as a young man, and struggled for many years, living in reclusion under the guidance of a wise spiritual father. One day, while in prayer, he was carried away to Paradise and experienced the blessedness that the redeemed will know at the general Resurrection. The vision seemed to him only to last for an hour, but he learned from his disciple that he had been in ecstasy for four days.

Aware that the Enemy can appear as an angel of light, and that we should be suspicious of seeming revelations, he sought the counsel of his Abbot, who reassured him, and told him to give thanks to God by continuing in his ascetic labors.

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Our Holy Father Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople (447)Read the life

He was a disciple and scribe of St John Chrysostom. About the year 426 he was ordained Bishop of Cyzicus, but was unable to take up his see because another had been unlawfully elected in his place, so he remained in Constantinople. Around 428, Nestorius was made Patriarch of Constantinople, and almost immediately began teaching his blasphemous doctrine that the holy Virgin could not be called Theotokos, “God-bearer,” but only Christotokos, “Christ-bearer.” Proclus resisted this teaching forcefully, once giving a sermon in the presence of the heretical Patriarch, defending the Orthodox teaching concerning the Theotokos. Proclus was elevated to the throne of Patriarch of Constantinople in 434, after Nestorius had been deposed and the Orthodox teaching clearly proclaimed in an Ecumenical Council.

Read the full life

Further.

The Library

The Fathers, the services and the lives of the saints.

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What this is.

The Scripture the Orthodox Church reads each day, the saints it remembers, and a study aid that answers from Scripture and the Fathers and shows its sources.

Divine Liturgy. The Church's main service, at which Holy Communion is given. Its Epistle and Gospel are what most people mean by the day's readings.

Matins. The morning service of praise. On Sundays and feasts it has a Gospel of its own.

Vespers. The evening service. The Church's day begins at sunset, so a feast's Vespers is served the evening before.

Hours. Short services of psalms and prayer at set times of the day: the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours.

Tone. The hymns of the week are sung in one of eight tones, or melodies, which follow each other week by week.

New Calendar. Fixed feasts are kept on the civil date, as in the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese. Churches on the Old Calendar keep them 13 days later. Pascha is the same for both.