Sunday, 14 June 2026

2nd Sunday after Pentecost

63 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Apostles Fast (Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Prophet Elisha

10th c. BC

The disciple and spiritual heir of the Prophet Elijah (July 20), his story can be found in II Kings. Unlike most of the Old Testament prophets, he was granted the gift of working many miracles. He reposed in peace at a great age. The Fathers tell us that he was anointed by Elijah in the year 908 BC and reposed in peace at a great age in 839 BC. He was buried in Samaria. Even after his death, miracles of wonderworking were performed through his relics.

Holy and Glorious Prophet Elisha

The holy Prophet Elisha was a son of the wealthy farmer Shaphat of Abel-meholah, in the territory of Manasseh, and lived in the ninth century before Christ during the reigns of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz and Jehoash, kings of Israel. After the great Prophet Elijah had been instructed on Mount Horeb that Elisha was to succeed him in the prophetic office, he found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen and threw upon him his mantle, in token of the calling. Elisha at once slaughtered the oxen, made of the wood of the plough a sacrifice to the Lord, and followed Elijah, ministering to him as his disciple until the day his master was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. At parting Elijah granted him the request of a double portion of his spirit, and as the mantle fell from the ascending prophet, Elisha took it up, struck the Jordan and crossed dry-shod, while the prophets of Jericho cried out, "The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha." For more than fifty years Elisha was a father and a wonderworker to Israel. He healed the bitter spring of Jericho, multiplied the widow's oil, raised the only son of the Shunammite woman from death, fed a hundred men with twenty loaves, cleansed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy in the Jordan, and made an iron axe-head float upon the water for a poor disciple. He counselled kings, denounced idolatry, and several times confounded the armies of Aram by prayer and prophecy. As the second book of Kings records, the gift of life lingered even in his dead body: a man hastily cast into the prophet's tomb came alive at the touch of his bones. The Church of Christ honours him as the foremost of the prophets after Elijah and as a forerunner of the Saviour, who in his miracles of mercy prefigured the works of the incarnate Word.

Saint Dorotheus of Khilandar

Saint Dorotheus, called "of Hilandar" from the great Serbian monastery on the Holy Mountain in which he lived, was a Serbian monastic of the fourteenth century, a disciple of the school of asceticism that flourished on Athos in the years after the triumph of hesychasm. He entered Hilandar as a young man and was trained in obedience, watchfulness and unceasing prayer under the abbots who succeeded the holy founders Saint Symeon and Saint Sabba of Serbia. About 1356 he was raised to the abbacy of his monastery, and his brethren and the wider Athonite community chose him about the same year as protos, the chief of the Holy Mountain, an office which he held until 1366. In this period he laboured to maintain the order of the Holy Mountain through the troubles of the Serbian and Byzantine dynastic conflicts. After laying down the office of protos, Dorotheus returned with renewed strength to the silent life. With his son Danilo, who had followed him into the monastic state and was afterwards Patriarch of the Serbs (1390 to 1397), he founded in 1382 the monastery of Drenca in central Serbia, dedicated to the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos. In its quiet valley he ended his days, leaving behind him a community in which Athonite hesychasm took root in the Serbian lands. The Church of Serbia and the Holy Mountain reckon him among their venerable fathers and keep his memory on this day with the brethren of Hilandar.

Saint Methodius the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Methodius was born in Syracuse in Sicily in the late eighth century to a wealthy and noble family and was sent as a young man to Constantinople to seek office at court. There he abandoned worldly hopes for the monastic life, made his profession at the monastery of Chenolakkos in Bithynia, and became its abbot. When the second outbreak of iconoclasm under Leo V the Armenian (813 to 820) drove the orthodox confessors from the capital, Methodius was sent to Rome by Saint Nicephorus the Patriarch as his envoy to Pope Paschal I, and lived there as a refugee for some seven years. Returning in 821 with letters from the pope rebuking the iconoclast policy, he was seized by the emperor Michael II, scourged, and shut up in a tomb on the island of Saint Andrew in the Sea of Marmora, where he remained for almost seven years amid the corpses of two robbers, kept alive by an old woman who let bread down to him from above.

Brought out a wreck of a man at the change of reign, he was for a time forced into proximity with the iconoclast court of Theophilus, who valued his learning while persecuting his faith. After the death of Theophilus on 20 January 842, his widow the empress Theodora ruled as regent for her infant son Michael III and sought a champion for the restoration of the holy icons. The orthodox bishops elected Methodius patriarch on 4 March 843; on the first Sunday of Lent that year, by his hand, the icons were restored to Hagia Sophia in a great procession from Blachernae which the Church to this day commemorates as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Through his last four years Methodius governed the Church with mildness, declining either to persecute the former iconoclasts or to indulge the demands of those who pressed for harsher punishment. A learned man and a copyist of manuscripts, he composed canons, lives of saints and the rite of reception of repentant heretics. He fell asleep in the Lord on 14 June 847 and is honoured by the Church as a Confessor.

Venerable Niphon of Kausokalybia on Mount Athos

Saint Niphon was born in 1315 in the village of Lukove in the region of Himare, then part of the despotate of Epirus and now in southern Albania, of pious Greek Orthodox parents. As a boy he received from a hieromonk in his village both his early letters and the example of the monastic life, and at the age of ten he was tonsured a rasophore. After several years on the rocky island of Geromerion in the company of Saint Neilos Erichiotes, he came about 1335 to the Holy Mountain. There he placed himself under the obedience of the elder Theognostos at the monastery of Vatopedi, learning the strict ascetic discipline of the Athonite fathers, and afterwards was admitted to the most rigorous form of solitary life under Saint Maximos Kausokalybites, the "hut-burner," whose biography he was later to compose. Niphon spent the rest of his long life as a hesychast in the wilderness of Kausokalybia and in a remote cave near the Lavra of Saint Athanasius. In 1345 he was elected protos of Mount Athos. When the Serbian Tsar Stephen Dusan accused him of Bogomil heresy, Saint Gregory Palamas defended him and his orthodoxy was confirmed; a second false accusation under Patriarch Callistus was likewise overturned. He bore both trials with quiet patience and used his peace of soul to persevere in unceasing prayer of the heart. He received the gifts of foresight and of working miracles, foretold the day of his own departure, and reposed in deep old age on 14 June 1411, having fulfilled ninety-six years. His relics remain among the holy treasures of the Athonite skete that bears his name.

St John Mavropos, Metropolitan of Euchaïta

1100

He is commemorated today on the Slavic Calendar; for his life, see October 5, his commemoration on the Greek Calendar.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 2.10-16

¹⁰But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: ¹¹For there is no respect of persons with God. ¹²For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; ¹³(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. ¹⁴For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: ¹⁵Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) ¹⁶In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 4.18-23

¹⁸And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. ¹⁹And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. ²⁰And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. ²¹And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. ²²And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

²³And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Vespers

Isaiah — Isaiah 43.9-14

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. ¹⁰Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. ¹¹I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. ¹²I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. ¹³Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

¹⁴Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

Vespers

Wisdom of Solomon — Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9

¹But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.

²In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,

³And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.

⁴For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.

⁵And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

⁶As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.

⁷And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.

⁸They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

⁹They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

Vespers

Wisdom of Solomon — Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3

¹⁵But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High.

¹⁶Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them.

¹⁷He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies.

¹⁸He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet.

¹⁹He shall take holiness for an invincible shield.

²⁰His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise.

²¹Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.

²²And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them.

²³Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.

¹Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth.

²Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations.

³For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.

2nd Matins Gospel

Mark — Mark 16.1-8

¹And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. ²And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. ³And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? ⁴And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. ⁵And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. ⁶And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. ⁷But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. ⁸And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.

Epistle

— Saints

Hebrews — Hebrews 11.33-12.2

³³Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. ³⁵Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: ³⁶And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; ³⁸(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. ³⁹And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: ⁴⁰God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Gospel

— Saints

Matthew — Matthew 4.25-5.12

²⁵And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

¹And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: ²And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, ³Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. ⁵Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. ⁶Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. ⁷Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. ⁸Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. ⁹Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. ¹⁰Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. ¹²Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.