17 May Sunday
Old Style — 4 MayToday
The 6th Sunday of Pascha, of the Blind Man. Tone 5
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
5 of 7 names — the rest are in Georgian only
- St Pelagia of Tarsus›
- St Erasmus of Formia›
St Alvianus of Anea›
St Silvanus of Gaza and the 40 martyrs›
St Nicephorus the Solitary›
Readings
At Matins: Jn 20:11–18 (§64)
At the Liturgy: Acts 16:16–34 (§38); Jn 9:1–38 (§34)
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
The desire to acquire often stifles the voice of nature in parents, stirs up quarrels between brothers, fills deserts with murderers, seas with pirates, and cities with slanderers.
— St Basil the Great · #
