Candles & Incense
Church calendar · 2026
5 January Monday
Old Style — 23 DecemberToday
The 32nd week after Pentecost. Tuesday
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
3 of 4 names — the rest are in Georgian only
All the lives for this day — 3Readings
The tone and the day's psalms
5
This week's tone is 5Eight tones — the Octoechos
What is a tone?
A tone is not a psalm number. It is the mode in which that week's resurrection hymns are sung — the whole week's Vespers, Matins and Liturgy are set in one tone.
There are eight tones, and they change each week. The cycle opens with the first tone on Thomas Sunday after Pascha and returns to the first every eight weeks; Bright Week itself has no tone of its own. A new tone begins on Saturday evening, with the new church week.
The Psalter is divided into twenty kathismata and, by the usual rule, is read through once a week. Appointed for this day:
- At Matins · kathisma 4Psalms 24–31›
- At Matins · kathisma 5Psalms 32–36›
- At Vespers · kathisma 6Psalms 37–45›
This is the usual rule. In Great Lent the Psalter is read twice a week, and the kathismata are divided differently.
Word of the day
It is not a place that saves a man, but his own good will. Adam, our first father, fell into sin even in paradise, while righteous Lot kept his godliness even in Sodom.
