From the calendar, 2026.

Sunday, April 12

Holy Pascha

Fast-free

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. EpistleActs 1:1–8
2. GospelJohn 1:1–17

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Epistle.

Acts 1:1–8

1 min read

1The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

3to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

4And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me;

5for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'

6Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'

7And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'

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Gospel.

John 1:1–17

2 min read

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2He was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.

8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

11He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

15John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, 'This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' '

16And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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great feast · feast.

The Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

In remembrance.

Beginning of the Pentecostarion

St Basil the Confessor, Bishop of PariumRead the life

In the dark days of iconoclasm, this holy bishop refused to sign the imperial order condemning the veneration of icons, and for this was cruelly persecuted in many ways by the heretics for the remainder of his life; all the while he remained ‘firm as a diamond in his Orthodoxy.’ (Prologue)

St Isaac the Syrian, abbot of Spoleto, Italy (ca. 550)Read the life

This is not the famed Isaac of Syria (commemorated Jan 28) who wrote the Ascetical Homilies, but a monk who settled in Spoleto and was famed for his holy, solitary life, his miracles, and his discernment. The people of Spoleto sought to honor him with money and other gifts, but he refused everything and withdrew to a cell in the forest. Soon a large monastery grew up there as others joined him in his life of prayer.

Once, two nearly naked men came begging clothing from Isaac. He told a monk to go to a hollow tree some distance away, and to bring back what he found there. The monk returned with some clothing, and gave it to the beggars. They were shamed to find that it was their own clothing, which they had hidden in the tree.

Read the full life

Our Holy Mother Athanasia (860)Read the life

“Born on the island of Aegina of rich and eminent parents, she gave her goods to the poor and went off to a monastery, where she heaped greater and greater asceticism on herself. She took food only once a day, and that only bread and water, and in the Great Fast only once every two days. Only at Christmas and Easter did she taste flesh and oil. Although she was abbess of the monastery, she was the servant of all the other sisters and was ashamed that any should wait on her. She was made worthy of the great gift of wonderworking, both during her lifetime and after her death.” (Prologue)

Further.

The Library

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

Study

Ask a question about a passage. Answers cite their sources.

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.