From the calendar, 2028.
Wednesday, August 16
Image of Christ Not Made by Hands
Wine & oilWine and oil are allowed. No meat, dairy, eggs or fish.
Epistle.
2 Corinthians 3:4–11
1 min read
4And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
Epistle.
Colossians 1:12–18
1 min read
12giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Gospel.
Matthew 23:29–39
1 min read
29'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
30and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31'Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.
33Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
34Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38See! Your house is left to you desolate;
39for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' '
Gospel.
Luke 9:51–56, 10:22–24
1 min read
51Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
52and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.
53But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
54And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?'
55But He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
56For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.' And they went to another village.
10:22All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.'
23Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see;
24for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.'
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.