Friday October 16, 2026 / October 3, 2026
20th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Fast.
Hieromartyr Dionysius (Dennys) the Areopagite, and with him Martyrs Rusticus and Eleutherius (96).
New Hiero-confessor Agathangelus (Preobrazhensky), metropolitan of Yaroslavl (1928).
Finding of the relics (1988) of Venerable Ambrose of Optina (1911).
St. Jerome of Aegina (1966).
Venerable Dionysius, recluse of the Kiev Caves (15th c.).
Venerable John the Chozebite, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (532).
Blessed Hesychius the Silent of Mt. Horeb (6thc.).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Trubchevsk” (1765).
Hieromartyr Dionysius, archbishop of Alexandria and eight martyrs with him (257-8).
St. Leger of Autun (679) (Gaul).
Hieromartyrs Hewald the White and Hewald the Black, at Cologne.
Martyr Theoctistus (Greek).
Martyr Theagenes (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
8
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
16
Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
17
Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.
18
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19
whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame-who set their mind on earthly things.
Luke 6:17-23
17
And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases,
18
as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed.
19
And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.
20
Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.
21
Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.
22
Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
23
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
Acts 17:16-34 Hieromartyr
16
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
17
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
18
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
20
For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.
21
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
23
for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
29
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
30
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31
because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.
32
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
33
So Paul departed from among them.
34
However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Matthew 13:44-54 Hieromartyr
44
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
46
who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind,
48
which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.
49
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just,
50
and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
51
Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
52
Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
53
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there.
54
When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?