4 February Wednesday
Old Style — 22 JanuaryToday
Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Wednesday
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
2 of 3 names — the rest are in Georgian only
All the lives for this day — 2
Readings
Of the day: Mk 13:24–31 (§61); 2 Tim 1:3–9 (§290, from the middle); Lk 10:1–15 (§50)
The tone and the day's psalms
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 10Psalms 70–76›
- At Matins · kathisma 11Psalms 77–84›
- At Vespers · kathisma 12Psalms 85–90›
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
To ask with humility is more profitable than to act by one’s own will, for the Lord Himself, because of the humility and uprightness of heart of the one who asks, puts into the mouth of the one who answers what should be said.
