Wednesday August 26, 2026 / August 13, 2026
13th Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. Oil Allowed.
Apodosis of the Transfiguration.
Venerable Maximus the Confessor (662).
Uncovering of the relics of St. Maximus of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1547).
St. Tikhon (Tychon), bishop of Voronezh, wonderworker of Zadonsk and All Russia (1783).
New Hieromartyrs John, Ioasph and Constantine priests (1918).
New Hieromartyr Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), bishop of Dmitrov, Nicholas, Jacob priests and Alexis deacon (1937).
New Hieromartyr Basil (1942).
New Hieromartyr Basil (Preobrazhensky) bishop of Kineshma.
Martyr Hippolytus of Rome and 18 martyrs with him, including Martyrs Concordia, Irenaeus, and Abundius (258).
“Minsk” (1500), “Seven Arrows” (1830) and “Of the Passion” (1641) Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Venerable Serid (Seridos), abbot, of Gaza (6th c.).
Empress Irene, tonsured Xenia (12th c.).
St. Eudocia the Empress (460), wife of Theodosius the Younger.
Venerable Radegunde of Poitiers, nun (587) (Gaul).
Venerable Abba Dorotheos of Gaza (Greek).
St. Wigbert, abbot of Hersfeld, English missionary to Germany (738).
The Scripture Readings
John 10:9-16 Matins Gospel
9
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10
The 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.
12
But 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.
13
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
14
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16
And 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.
2 Corinthians 9:12-10:7
12
For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God,
13
while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men,
14
and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.
15
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
1
Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
2
But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
4
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
6
and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
7
Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.
Mark 3:20-27
20
Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
21
But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
22
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”
23
So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?
24
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25
And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26
And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.
27
No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
Hebrews 7:26-8:2 St. Tikhon
26
For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
27
who 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.
28
For 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.
1
Now 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,
2
a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
Matthew 5:14-19 St. Tikhon
14
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
17
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18
For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
19
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.