Thursday, 20 November 2025

Thursday of the 24th week after Pentecost

214 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Forefeast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple

On this day the Orthodox Church keeps the eve, or Forefeast, of the great feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the year, which is celebrated on the morrow. The hymns of the divine office and of the Liturgy on this day are filled with the joy of the Church at the approaching mystery, calling upon the faithful to make ready their souls as a temple for the receiving of the Mother of the King, and rehearsing in expectant tones the events of the third year of the life of the holy Virgin, when, fulfilling the vow of her parents Joachim and Anna, she was led with rejoicing and the lighting of lamps to the temple at Jerusalem and entered into the Holy of Holies, there to dwell in prayer until the time of her betrothal to the righteous Joseph. The Forefeast is the only one of the prefestal days that falls within the Nativity Fast, and it joins together the themes of preparation for the Incarnation and of the consecration of the holy Virgin from her infancy to be the living temple of the Word.

Saint Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia

869

Saint Edmund was born about the year 841 of the royal line of the East Angles and was crowned king of his people on Christmas Day in 855, at the age of fourteen, having been raised in piety and trained in the Scriptures from his infancy. For some fifteen years he ruled his kingdom as a Christian king, defending it from the incursions of the heathen Danes and showing great care for the poor and the churches. In the year 869 the great army of the Danes under Ingvar and Hubba descended upon East Anglia, and after a battle in which his forces were defeated Edmund was taken at Hellesdon, or by other accounts at Hoxne. Refusing the demand of Ingvar that he renounce Christ and rule as a vassal under the heathen, he was bound to a tree, scourged, set at as a target by the archers until he was bristling with arrows like a holy hedgehog, and at last beheaded on 20 November 869. His head, cast into the wood, was miraculously preserved and reunited to his body, which afterwards was enshrined at the place that came to be called Bury Saint Edmunds, where his uncorrupt relics worked many miracles, and he was reckoned for centuries the patron saint of England before being supplanted by Saint George.

Saint Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Proclus was born at Constantinople in the latter half of the fourth century and from his youth was a disciple and reader of Saint John Chrysostom, by whom he was ordained deacon and then presbyter, and from whom he received the love of preaching and the careful study of the Scriptures. Consecrated bishop of Cyzicus by the patriarch Sisinnius about 426, he was unable to take possession of his see on account of opposition there, and remained at Constantinople preaching in the great church. It was Proclus who, on the feast of the Theotokos in 429, delivered in the presence of the patriarch Nestorius his celebrated homily on the holy Virgin, in which he confessed her to be truly Theotokos, the loom upon which the garment of union was wrought, the sacred shrine of the divinity, thereby publicly opposing the new heresy. After the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus he was at last raised to the patriarchal throne in 434. As patriarch he ruled the imperial church for some twelve years with peace and gentleness, brought back from Comana the relics of his master Saint John Chrysostom in 438 amid the rejoicings of the city, instituted the singing of the Trisagion as it is still sung in the Liturgy after a great earthquake, and reposed in peace in 446, leaving many homilies and dogmatic letters which remain among the treasures of the Greek Fathers.

Venerable Gregory the Decapolite

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.

Soon, he was told by revelation that he was to go forth into the world, living without an earthly home, to uphold the Orthodox faith, which was then under attack by the Iconoclasts. He traveled through Ephesus, Constantinople, Corinth, Rome, Sicily, Thessalonica, and Constantinople again, laboring in defense of the Faith and working many miracles. Usually he would stay with poor people who welcomed him into their houses, though it was forbidden by law to receive an Orthodox monk (that is, one who defended the Icons). In his last few years, afflicted by illness, he settled in Constantinople, where he reposed in peace in 832, just before the end of iconoclasm and the restoration of Orthodoxy. Since 1490, his incorrupt relics have dwelt at the Monastery of Bistritsa in Romania, where they continue to be a source of miracles for the many pilgrims who come to venerate them.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Thessalonians — 1 Thessalonians 5.1-8

¹But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you.

¹But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. ²For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. ²For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. ³When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape. ³For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief: ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵for ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness; ⁵Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. ⁷For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. ⁷For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. ⁸But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁸But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 16.1-9

¹And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

¹And he said also unto the disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he was wasting his goods. ²And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. ²And he called him, and said unto him, What is this that I hear of thee? render the account of thy stewardship; for thou canst be no longer steward. ³Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. ³And the steward said within himself, What shall I do, seeing that my lord taketh away the stewardship from me? I have not strength to dig; to beg I am ashamed. ⁴I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. ⁴I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. ⁵So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? ⁵And calling to him each one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? ⁶And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty. ⁶And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. ⁷Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He saith unto him, Take thy bond, and write fourscore. ⁷Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. ⁸And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. ⁸And his lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light. ⁹And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. ⁹And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.