8 February Sunday
Old Style — 26 JanuaryToday
Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Tone 2
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
3 of 6 names — the rest are in Georgian only
All the lives for this day — 6
Readings
At Matins: Mk 16:1–8 (§70)
At the Liturgy: 1 Cor 6:12–20 (§135); Lk 15:11–32 (§79); Rom 13:1–10 (§111); Jn 10:1–9 (§35, from the middle)
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 2Psalms 9–16›
- At Matins · kathisma 3Psalms 17–23›
- At Vespers · kathisma 18Psalms 119–133›
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
He who has cleansed his conscience by obedience to his spiritual father no longer fears death, and awaits it every day like sleep, or rather like life, knowing for certain that when the soul goes out of the body it is the spiritual father, not he, who will be called to account.
— Venerable John of Sinai (author of the Ladder) · #
