Candles & Incense
Church calendar · 2026
15 May Friday
Old Style — 2 MayToday
The 5th week of Pascha. Friday
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
3 of 5 names — the rest are in Georgian only
All the lives for this day — 3Readings
Acts 15:5–34 (§36); Jn 10:17–28 (§37)
For the hierarch: Heb 7:26 – 8:2 (§318); Mt 5:14–19 (§11)
The tone and the day's psalms
4
This week's tone is 4Eight 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 19Psalms 134–142›
- At Matins · kathisma 20Psalms 143–150›
- 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
As the force of a storm carries off a boat without a helmsman, so the desire for fornication carries off a mind that is unguarded and left to carelessness.
— St Maximus the Confessor · #
