From the calendar, 2028.

Saturday, November 4

Ven. Joannicus the Great

Fast-free

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. Epistle2 Corinthians 5:1–10
2. GospelLuke 9:1–6

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Epistle.

2 Corinthians 5:1–10

1 min read

1For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

3if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

4For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

5Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

7For we walk by faith, not by sight.

8We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

9Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

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Gospel.

Luke 9:1–6

1 min read

1Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.

2He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

3And He said to them, 'Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.

4'Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.

5And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.'

6So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

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In remembrance.

Ven. Joannicus the GreatRead the life

He was born in Bithynia of peasant stock. He worked as a swineherd, then became an officer in the Imperial army, where he served with such distinction in the war against the Bulgars that the Emperor Constantine VI wanted to take him into his personal service. “But the sight of massacres and horrors of war had brought home to him the vanity of this life. He asked leave of the Emperor to retire from the service, in order to wage unseen warfare in the ranks of the angelic army” (Synaxarion). In the coming years he traveled widely, sometimes living as a hermit, sometimes living in monasteries, more than once founding a monastic community. Wherever he went he lived in stillness, solitude and strict asceticism. He was famed for his spiritual counsel, his prophecies, his many miracles of healing ailments bodily and spiritual, and for his friendship with animals.

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Further.

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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.