Candles & Incense
Church calendar · 2026
4 March Wednesday
Old Style — 19 FebruaryToday
Sts Maximus, Theodotus, Hesychius and Asclepiodota
The 2nd week of Great Lent. Wednesday
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
4 of 5 names — the rest are in Georgian only
All the lives for this day — 7Readings
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
At the Sixth Hour: Isa 5:16–25
At Vespers: Gen 4:16–26; Prov 5:15–23; 6:1–3
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 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
Give the body as much food as it needs, and if you eat three times a day it will not harm you.
— St Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet · #
