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:

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 helmsmen steer a ship at sea so as not to be dashed against hidden rocks and sunk, so those who are zealous for the life pleasing to God should carefully consider what they ought and ought not to do, what they should accept and what they should shun; and with this, let them count profitable for themselves and accept only what the divine law truly teaches and impresses upon us.