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Orthodox Study

Wednesday, March 31

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

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

Epistle.

Hebrews 7:26–8:2

1 min read

26For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

27who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

28For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

8:1Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

2a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

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Gospel.

John 10:9–16

1 min read

9I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

12But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

13The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

14I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

15As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

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Matins Gospel.

John 10:1–9

1 min read

1Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

3To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

5Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.'

6Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

7Then Jesus said to them again, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

8All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

9I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

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Vespers Old Testament.

Genesis 7:6–9

1 min read

6Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.

7Then Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, entered the ark because of the flood waters.

8Also the clean and unclean birds, the clean and unclean cattle, and everything that creeps on the earth,

9entered with Noah into the ark, two by two, male and female, as God commanded him.

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Vespers Old Testament.

Proverbs of Solomon 9:12–18 (LXX) (Proverbs)

1 min read

12My son, if you become wise in yourself, you shall also be wise toward your neighbor; But if you prove to be evil, you alone will go through troubles.

13He who supports himself with lies will shepherd winds And chase flying birds;

14For he abandoned the ways of his own vineyard And strayed from paths of his own farming;

15And he will pass through a waterless desert, A land assigned to drought, And he gathers barrenness with his hands.

16A woman in need of a morsel is without discernment and overbold; She has no sense of shame.

17She sits upon the doors of her own house, Upon a seat openly in the streets,

18Calling to those who pass by And who go straight along their paths,

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Hours Old Testament.

Isaiah 10:12–20

2 min read

12But it shall come to pass, when the Lord has completed all He will do on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He will go against the arrogant heart of the king of the Assyrians and the glory of his haughty looks.

13For he said, 'I shall act in my strength and by the wisdom of my understanding. I also shall remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength. I shall shake their inhabited cities.

14I shall overtake with my hand all the inhabited world as a nest, and take them as eggs that have been left. There is no one who can escape or oppose me.'

15Shall the ax glorify itself without him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself without him who saws with it? It is likewise if one should lift a rod or a piece of wood.

16But it shall not be so, for the Lord of hosts will send dishonor against your honor; and He will kindle a burning fire against your glory.

17So the Light of Israel will be as a fire, and He will sanctify him with burning fire; and it will devour the wood like grass on that day.

18The mountains, the hills, and the forests will be consumed, and devour both soul and body, and he who flees will be like one fleeing from a burning flame.

19Then the remnant will be few in number, and a child shall write them.

20It shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and those of Jacob who were saved will never again obey those who wronged them; but they will trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

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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.

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In the margin · source text