Friday August 15, 2025 / August 2, 2025
10th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Translation of the relics (428) of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (428) and Translation of the relics (415) of the Righteous Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and Abibus.
Blessed Basil of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1552).
New Martyr Athanasius (1918).
New Hieromartyr Platon (1937).
Blessed Basil of Kuben Lake (1472).
Hieromartyr Stephen, pope of Rome (257).
Achair Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (21 c.).
St. Marco of Belavinsk (Vologda) (1492).
St. Friardus of Vindumitta (573) (Gaul).
Translation of the relics of Martyrs Maximus (286), Dada, and Quinctilian at Dorostolum in Moesia (Greek).
New Martyr Theodore of the Dardanelles (1690) (Greek).
Martyr Phocas (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
12
For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.
13
For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end
14
(as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15
And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit-
16
to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea.
17
Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No?
18
But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No.
19
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us-by me, Silvanus, and Timothy-was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes.
20
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
23
The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,
24
saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
25
Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.
26
Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.
27
Last of all the woman died also.
28
Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.
29
Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
30
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.
31
But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
32
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33
And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.
Galatians 5:22-6:2 Blessed Basil
22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
24
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
1
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Matthew 11:27-30 Blessed Basil
27
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Acts 6:8-15; 7:1-5, 47-60 Protomartyr
8
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
9
Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
10
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
11
Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
12
And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
13
They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
14
for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
15
And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
1
Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2
And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3
and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’
4
Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5
And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
47
But Solomon built Him a house.
48
However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49
Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
50
Has My hand not made all these things?’
51
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53
who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.
54
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56
and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57
Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58
and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Matthew 21:33-42 Protomartyr
33
Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
34
Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.
35
And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
36
Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
37
Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
38
But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
39
So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
41
They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?