6 October Tuesday
Old Style — 23 SeptemberToday
The Conception of St John the Baptist
The 19th week after Pentecost. Tuesday
Commemoration
Tap a name to open the life
3 of 5 names — the rest are in Georgian only
- The Conception of St John the Baptist›
Sts Xanthippe and Polyxenia›
Sts Andrew, John, Peter and Antoninus›
Readings
Phil 1:8–14 (§236); Lk 3:23 – 4:1 (§11)
For the Forerunner: Gal 4:22–31 (§210, from the middle); Lk 1:5–25 (§2)
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 7Psalms 46–54›
- At Matins · kathisma 8Psalms 55–63›
- At Vespers · kathisma 9Psalms 64–69›
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 intelligent man, who always thinks of being with God and of partaking of Him, never becomes attached to anything earthly, that is, to anything base; his mind is always turned to the heavenly and the eternal, since he knows that the will of God is the cause of everything good and the source of eternal blessedness for man, and that by this highest will of God the salvation of the human race has been established.
